New commish talks NFL Network

[klwillis45]

from jsonline.com
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 31, 2007, 1:38 p.m.

Goodell talks tough on cable dispute
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who is about to experience his first Super Bowl as the commissioner, gave an interview over the weekend to Bob Costas, and was asked about the ongoing dispute between the league's NFL Network and cable operators.

You may recall that this became an issue of some importance late last year because the NFL Network had the rights to carry the game between the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings, and that left some viewers out in the cold.

Goodell indicated to Costas that the NFL isn't ready to compromise.

"For 365 days a year, we're producing great quality programming that our fans want to see. The cable operators have said that they don't want the customers to have that ability at the price that we think is fair. So we have a commercial disagreement on that."

Goodell also dismissed the cable industry argument that the network should be on a digital sports tier. In Goodell's view, such tiers are available to a small number of homes at too high of a price. He added, "We think our customers want it, and we've gotten great reaction from them. And we assume that at some point, the consumer is going to win."

You can access the full radio interview by going here.