anti-trust exemption challenge?
from a article in Yahoo sports:
A terse exchange of letters from at least three U.S. senators and between NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the head of Time Warner Cable could lead to an ugly fight over the league’s plan to put games on its in-house program, The NFL Network.
In short, if the NFL doesn’t find a way to have the potentially historic New England-New York Giants season finale Dec. 29 seen across the country instead of being made available only to those who pay, at least two senators said they plan to challenge the league’s anti-trust exemption, the lifeblood of the league’s ability to operate.
well,finally is all i have to say,this has been happening to me ever since the nfc broadcasts went to FOX network,i have wriiten and called and made my stance known and nothing untill now,now that the same kinda thing is effecting the mass’s by not having a particular channel need’d to view thier hometeams game. ill bet they listen up to the fed’s huh? 
I sympathize with you wozz but I’m just conservative enough to say the free market reigns.
The reason I can say this is I bought Direct TV just for the football coverage. The NFL Network gives me my fix daily. I doubt see the league budging on this one - but then again I’m starting Chris Cooley over Dallas Clark in my fantasy league championship - so wadda I know…
i am in no way a legal analyst,and i will be honest and admit that i wouldnt know what antitust exemption is/means,but it sounds to me like @ some point,long ago,the nfl caught some kinda break with this exemption,for what reasons they were granted the exemption i havent a clue,but i would imagine there was somthin in fine print about somthin or another and now these senators wanna challenge it,seems to be same thing goin on in MLB too,and i agree with ya on the free market,but i dont think the leauge can buck this one,they are gonna have to prove to the feds that they still deserve this exemption,or as it was put “the lifeblood of the league’s ability to operate.” i get off on the nfl network and i receive it on dish,its included in the basic,but im thinkin maybe the league is “bite’n the hand” thats fed them and made them what they are today,and that is the telivision package,and its the marketing money thats generated by Joe Blow ,who although he dosent attend the games himself,he is still a rabid fan and has been watching the Packers games since he was 6 and he’s just gotta have the Ray Nitschke jersey and the hat,and he wants oh so bad for his grandaughter to have the team dress etc.etc,without television coverage,john madden and howard cossel arent anywhere near as famous and mama dosent happen to slide by the tv and say" hey,i think that joe montanas butt sho is fine",so she gets a joe montana hat an toothbrush,dig? if it want for free broadcasts for the last 50 yrs,the nfl would have stood for" not for long", 
It means that they are not subject to anti-trust laws.
It means that they can operate legally as a monopoly, more-or-less.
Market socieities generally frown on anti-competitive behavior, but pro sports has been given an exemption b/c it’s seen as being in the best interest of the public - but only as long as the owners don’t misuse their power, as they are in this case.
Leahy and Specter are not really serious, they’re just sending a message - don’t use your power too much, or we will intervene. There is a court decision involving pro baseball that I think makes any legislation problematic - although I wouldn’t rely on my scanty knowledge of this stuff.
The NFL will take care of the problem soon enough - there’s a lot of money at stake.
There’s really something interesting about the whole idea - such a big money maker, not subject to normal market operations.
Doesn’t seem to bother libertarian football fans very much.
Selective application of political-economic principles.
Wish they’d tell our local cable company that we really do want the Big Ten network.
Send mean letters to Comcast for me, please.
At the risk of being an arse, uh, where the heck was Farve and Green Bay last sunday? They definatly didn’t show up for the game!
Anybody got a spare Quarterback the Panthers could borrow, preferably under the age of 40! LOL
i dont know if they thought they could mail that one in or what,but whatever it was they was thinkin the bears pulled down the packers pants and spanked them a good one 
The NFL ‘gave in’ sort of speak. Glad everyone gets to see the Giants/Pats game Saturday.
yes they did,so maybe them senators know how to strike some fear into em,good i say,
God thing those senators are working on the things that matter - what was it someone said about “bread and circuses”?
Oh, yeah, Juvenal, in his Satires:
Quote:
… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man,
the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time
handed out military command, high civil office, legions - everything, now
restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things:
bread and circuses
so now this opens up a can o worms for the league,they are saying “ok we understand that its important for folks to recieve this game via broadcast tv”,well,wasnt it as important to dallas/green bay fans too a month ago,the same thing happend,but nothing was done about it,whats the diff tween the 2?they are really startin to look silly,and as Dezi would say" you gots allotta splainin to do"
Well let’s see Wozz, New York, Boston, Winston-Salem NC, now who would give a rats arse about Winston, LOL
Not sure if government gittin’ involved is a good thing, several years ago when I used a 10’ sat dish, and was able to subscribe to Primetime 24, which was NBC, CBS, FOX and ABC, the senate and house got behind a consumer law to help protect folks like myself and wrote a bill that in fact got me cut off from watching Prime thru the satelite. I was instructed that I would have to put up an antenna to recieve local broadcasts if the station was 70 miles or less from my home. Now this is bullshick in the extreme when I wanted to pay for the stations (which is my right) but couldn’t because of the local networks. And when the NFL is playing on CBS and I get to watch a stupid local parade from downtown Greensboro instead of the game, I became overly irate to say the least.
Just another episode of our government at work! Thanks Senators and Congressmen! YBOD! (You bunch o’ dickheads)
Oops, sorry for the rant.
them 10 ft dish’s were sumthin,i still have mine set up but everything has gone digital now,there is a few things on but not much,i dont want to afford a new digital reciever just yet,so i go with the dishnetwork.iwent through the same thing with the primetime 24,but i was alowed to because i couldnt get itlocaly,i had to cry over the phone,but i got it,now m y stink is the local fox stations,which there is maybe 5 in wisconsin,and i cant get a one of them with my local rig,which ihave a signal booster for,but no go,but i can get stations from the same citys where the fox stations are,which tells me there’s sumthin up,why can i get them and no fox at all,???
You could go with the side car ($40) and use your analog reciever to move the dish, the sidecar will descramble the digital signals. Trouble being you’ll probably need C and Ku bands to get all stations, there was a ton of free ones still up there with the digital sidecar. My problem is my dish was up-rooted by winds last year and destroyed, not going thru putting up another one either.
I feel your pain with Fox, samr thing here with being so far away, and even with a digital reciever on my tv, the signal comes in and out, cloudy days seem to be better, on sunny days, forget it.