Comcast and NFL Media have ended a months-long dispute that kept NFL Network from subscribers of Xfinity TV over the summer.
In a short statement on Monday, a Comcast spokesperson confirmed NFL Network and NFL RedZone were once again available to Xfinity TV customers, with the deal coming just a few weeks before the start of the National Football League’s (NFL) regular season.
“We’re pleased to have reached an agreement with the Walt Disney Company to bring NFL Network to our customers in time for the start of the preseason games and to offer NFL RedZone Channel at the beginning of the regular season,” the spokesperson said.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. It also wasn’t clear if NFL Network will become available in lower-priced Xfinity TV packages, as NFL Media — now part of Disney’s ESPN — wanted, according to some reports. Reached by e-mail, Comcast said there are no programming changes for the time being.
In addition to those distribution terms, the dispute also centered around fees that Comcast must pay to offer the two NFL channels on Xfinity TV. Typically, Comcast avoids engaging in carriage disputes, especially with sports broadcasters, opting to pass programming-related fees on to consumers. Comcast once had some of the highest sports and broadcasting-related fees in the pay TV industry; months ago, Comcast retooled some of its pay TV packages to incorporate those fees into everyday pricing, though their packages are still more-expensive than comparable offerings from some streaming services.
ESPN is widely known to be the most-expensive channel for a pay TV platform like Comcast to carry, charging the highest per-subscriber fees of any other network in the industry. NFL Network’s per-subscriber fee is considerably lower.
During the dispute, both sides played the blame game, arguing that the blackout was the end result of the other’s unwillingness to compromise and reach a fair deal.
Disney said it made numerous “good-faith” proposals to keep NFL Network and NFL RedZone on Xfinity TV, but Comcast “declined and took them down.” Comcast said Disney wanted “double the fees for the same content” after acquiring the two channels through its broader purchase of NFL Media.
ESPN offers its own bundle that pairs ESPN Unlimited with NFL Plus, which includes NFL Network and can include NFL RedZone. ESPN’s app also unlocks NFL Network for cable and satellite subscribers who have the channel in their package.
