| 10 September 2009
The money grubbing, penny pinching and pound foolish NFL, being assaulted on all sides thanks to their archaic, asinine, shot-sighted and outright imbecilic TV blackout policy, have thrown long suffering fans a dirt encrusted, moldy crumb.
Via PFT:
All blacked out games will be available in the local markets on a tape-delayed basis, via NFL.com.
The free "re-broadcasts" (as the league is calling them) will be accessible at midnight on the day of the game, and they will remain available for 72 hours.
The re-broadcasts will not be available during the Monday Night Football broadcast.
The owner's puppet NFL commissioner Roger Goodell issued a press release, which heartily pats a league richer than Scrooge McDuck, Hank Scorpio and Tony Stark combined, on its back:
"We understand that the economy is limiting some families and corporations from buying as many game tickets as they had previously," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in a release. "These free re-broadcasts on NFL.com will allow our fans that can't get to a blacked-out game an opportunity to see the entire game."
Some opportunity. I'd much rather watch the sure to be blacked out Lions' home opener sitting at my desk, with the game pixelating and buffering...buffering...buffering on my 22" monitor, or hunched in front of my 15" laptop screen, instead of being sprawled out on the comfy couch in front of my big TV.
A crumb, indeed.
The NFL continues to put the screw to the fans, all to appease zillionaire team owners and bazillionaire TV networks.
At the Freep, Nick Cotsonika is blunt:
At least the league has relented a little bit, but only to a point.
The NFL is directing traffic to its Web site, first of all, and some fans who can’t afford tickets might not be able to afford a computer and high-speed Internet access, too. Most everyone has access to network television.
Second, are fans really going to start watching a game at midnight? The games will stay up on NFL.com for 72 hours. But really, who’s going to sit in front of their PC with a beer on Tuesday afternoon to watch a game that’s two days old?
I'm lucky enough to have a decent computer setup, and speedy broadband internet, allowing me to watch the Lions on NFL.com. (Of course, there are plenty of ways to catch the game live on the web, if you have the right software, can tolerate iffy quality, and know where to look. How else could I manage to live blog all 16 losses?)
But there are plenty of fans out there who don't have the funds (me a few years ago), the expertise (my mom's husband), access to broadband (my best friend, who lives in the boonies and can't get cable or DSL), the time (starting at Sunday midnight? Working folk have better things to do, like SLEEP), or inclination (casual fans, those who claim to be "Lions free") to watch on the league website.
If the NHL, NBA, and MLB can make untold billions without blacking out ANY home games (though giving networks exclusive rights to certain day parts--Saturday afternoon FOX baseball being one of the most egregious to fans--is also pretty damn evil), the NFL, the king of all things pro sports, can do the same.
But it's all about the cash, and the No Fun League mistakenky believes they can make more greenbacks with their moronic broadcast policies. Customer goodwill be damned.
The question remains, how much money is enough? There is no such question in the eyes of the NFL. They'll squeeze us all 'til we spew Washingtons out of every orifice.
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