Cablevision to NFL Network: Let's Do Both
December 22 2006 - 12:33PM
PR Newswire (US)
BETHPAGE, N.Y., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cablevision sent
the following letter to the NFL Network today: December 22, 2006
Mr. Steve Bornstein President & CEO NFL Network 10950
Washington Boulevard, Suite 100 Culver City, CA 90232 VIA FACSIMILE
Dear Steve: In an effort to bring this matter to conclusion and to
provide important and necessary clarity to Cablevision customers
and Rutgers fans, we have a solution. The NFL Network wants to
offer a one-week "freeview," Cablevision wants to offer the Rutgers
game to 100 percent of our customers; in the spirit of the season,
let's do both. In the absence of an agreement between the NFL and a
broadcast television outlet, which is still our first choice and
something we hope you will pursue, we are happy to carry the entire
one-week NFL Network preview on our digital basic service. The
preview will begin, as you have outlined, at 6 a.m. on Sunday,
December 24 and end at 8 p.m. on Saturday, December 30. In addition
to committing to carrying the "freeview," Cablevision would like to
carry the Texas Bowl, featuring Rutgers University, on the
Cablevision Guide Channel -- Channel 14 in most areas -- which is
included in our Broadcast Basic level of service and reaches 100
percent of our customers. Carriage on Broadcast Basic would
commence at the start of Texas Bowl pre-game coverage on December
28, and end at the conclusion of post-game coverage and analysis.
While we will accept the NFL Network's offer to "freeview" its
programming in front of our digital basic customers, we also
believe strongly that 100 percent of our New York-area customers
should have the ability to watch the Rutgers game, as they would in
the case of a Jets or Giants game. We hope you will agree with us
that this solution is the best possible outcome for Cablevision's
3.1 million households, which has been our mutual objective all
along. We hope and believe that this fair and reasonable approach
will be acceptable to you and will bring this matter to resolution.
We look forward to hearing from you and finalizing this agreement
today. Sincerely, Tom Rutledge Chief Operating Officer Cablevision
Systems Corp. DATASOURCE: Cablevision Systems Corp. CONTACT: Jim
Maiella of Cablevision Systems Corp., +1-516-803-3947 Web site:
http://www.cablevision.com/
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