Ask and you shall receive. Just as I was posting the Comcast/ESPNU news, I learned that the NFL and Comcast have also reached an agreement. And get this....it was announced via Twitter....

The details have yet to be released, but as I mentioned in previous posts, the deal is expected to include both on demand content as well as the "Red Zone Channel". This is obviously a great day for all the parties involved, and certainly for NFL fans.

NFL V.P. of corporate communications, Brian McCarthy (Twitter)

This has been a while in the making, but ESPNU and Comcast have finally reached an agreement to bring the network onto to the masses. The channel will not only be added to the channel, but you also won't need the sports package to get it. And there's more! As a Comcast subscriber, you'll even be able to access ESPN360 for free, right before the start of the Football season. Here's a little letter that the folks at ESPNU sent out this morning, detailing the move....

Dear Colleague ~

We are thrilled to share that ESPN has secured two new significant distribution agreements for ESPNU with Comcast and DIRECTV. Comcast will launch ESPNU in a majority of its cable systems in time for the start of the college football season on its Digital Classic level of service. ESPNU will widen its distribution to DIRECTV's CHOICE™ programming package beginning July 1. Through both agreements, ESPNU will now be available to more than 46 million college sports fans across the country. Attached are the press releases with more details about each deal. Please feel free to share with your respective constituencies.

In addition, Comcast will also make ESPN360.com, ESPN’s broadband network, available to its high-speed Internet customers for no additional charge through Comcast.net, which reaches 17 million unique users per month, also in time for this year’s college football season.

We would like to thank you and the entire sports information community for supporting ESPNU since its launch on 03-04-05. You have been instrumental in helping us educate college sports fans about the brand. We look forward to its continued growth and serving our audience with compelling content from your conference 365 days a year.

Sincerely,
The ESPN Communications College Sports Team

Now that's some good news to start the day. I've been begging for ESPNU for years, and the two sides have finally figured out a good deal for both parties. Now if Comcast and the NFL Network could follow suit, everything will be peachy.

(Thanks to reader JR for the tip)

I have no idea how this happened, or when it happened, but apparently Comcast and the NFL Network have struck a deal! Via Fang's Bites....

STATEMENT FROM COMCAST & NFL NETWORK SPOKESPERSONS:

“Comcast and the NFL are engaged in productive discussions toward a new agreement for NFL Network carriage on Comcast. NFL Network will continue to be carried on Comcast systems past tonight’s scheduled expiration of the current contract while both sides continue these productive discussions. We are both working to find a solution that works for NFL fans and Comcast’s customers.”

Wow. That could quite possibly be the biggest turnaround during a negotiation that I've ever seen. The two hated each other for months, and at the last minute they came together to keep the channel on the cable company. I'm certainly not complaining though.

BREAKING NEWS: NFL Network Will Remain on Comcast Systems ... For Now (Fang's Bites)

So it doesn't appear as if this whole mess is getting solved within a day (or ever), so you might want to watch the last day of NFL Network on Comcast. Comcast has even been running a banner across the screen stating that fact, and the Philly Inquirer has even more quotes from this blame game....

Football fans who subscribe to Comcast Corp.'s extra-cost sports package seem likely to lose one of their favorite viewing choices at 11:59 tonight - the 24-hour NFL Network.

The two organizations, which have battled publicly and in court, have not reached a new carriage agreement, and the old one expires.

Comcast has asked the National Football League to continue the carriage under terms of the current contract. The NFL has refused and would like Comcast to place the channel on a general-interest tier that does not require viewers to pay the extra $7 a month. About two million people get Comcast's sports package.

"Comcast wants to carry NFL Network, and we have offered to carry it under the terms of our current affiliation agreement while the litigation that the NFL brought against Comcast continues, but the NFL has not accepted our offer," Comcast's Sena Fitzmaurice said in a statement. "We believe our proposed extension is in the best interest of our customers and NFL fans so that they can continue to have the same access to the network that they now enjoy."

The NFL, according to officials and court documents, says it believes Comcast moved the network to a sports package to punish the NFL for not allowing Comcast to carry the eight live NFL games on its Versus sports channel and not allowing Comcast to negotiate for out-of-market NFL games. DirecTV, the satellite provider, exclusively carries the Sunday Ticket of out-of-market NFL games.

"As of right now, the NFL Network will no longer be available at midnight [Thursday] to Comcast," NFL Network spokesman Dennis Johnson said. "We are open to negotiating with Comcast at any time so that fans can watch the NFL Network on a wide level of service at no extra cost."

While, I'd certainly like to be able to watch the Thursday Night Football games this year, and the extra Thanksgiving game, I have to be honest here. I rarely watch the NFL Network, outside of the Combine and the Draft, and there are plenty of other channels within the Sports package (including about 8 Fox Sports, the MLB Network and NBATV). Why this is such an issue is beyond me, but I guess you have to take a stand at some point.

Oh and there is a plus to all of this. Comcast sent a letter out about the dropping of the network, and offered me either a Free Internet Speed Upgrade for 12 months, or 6 Free Movie Coupons. So I've got that going for me.....which is nice.

Comcast viewers could lose NFL Network tonight (Philadelphia Inquirer)

The hatred between the NFL Network and Comcast is certainly not a secret, and the two company's bigwigs took an interesting angle in the battle recently. Last week, NFL Network's Steve Bornstein decided to submit an op-ed to the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the newspaper included it in their paper (and online). Well yesterday, Comcast VP David Cohen decided to rebut the NFL Network with one of his own. Here's a brief snippet from both pieces....

NFL Network: "Based on fan interest, NFL Network should be broadly available to cable subscribers. Comcast, however, wants to continue to limit access to the network by charging consumers extra for it. Comcast collects this extra charge to provide NFL Network as part of its sports package.

We strongly disagree with this policy. But Comcast refuses to reach a new agreement with NFL Network that would make it available to a larger number of subscribers without the extra monthly fee.

Comcast discriminates against networks such as ours because we are independent. Do you know why you get the Golf Channel and Versus as part of your basic cable service? It's because both are owned by Comcast, which makes the company's channels broadly available."

Comcast: "Comcast currently makes NFL Network available on the dedicated sports and entertainment tier. We view this as the best and fairest way to provide NFL Network's expensive programming, because viewers who want to watch the channel can do so, while those who prefer not to aren't forced to cover the network's high costs.

NFL Network provides only eight live, regular-season, out-of-market games a year. The vast majority of the network's programming is filler such as training-camp coverage and draft analysis, which may interest the super-fan, but not most cable customers. And yet the network wants to charge higher fees than virtually any other national cable network.

Since the NFL doesn't like the terms of the contract it signed, it has repeatedly asked the courts and government authorities to require that the terms be changed. Contrary to the NFL's recent claims, though, the Federal Communications Commission has made no final determinations as to whether the NFL's claims of discrimination by Comcast are valid or bogus."

Well that's nice, isn't it? One is claiming discrimination, and the other is claiming they are dedicated to the fans. Look, we all know that this relationship is going to end on May 8th, and there's nothing either party can do to change that. Let's just let bygones be bygones, and leave the trash talking out of it.

Comcast is locking football viewers out (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Tommy Lasorda is pretty much the authority when it comes to USA and Dodger Baseball. That's the reason so many networks want him on for interviews these days. Oh that, and the fact that he's borderline senile. Here is Tommy on Comcast Sportsnet in Chicago, not hearing the questions and basically sleeping through the entire interview. Via Bugs and Cranks....

Too funny. It's entirely possible that he was looking into the sun, but with the WBC games being so late, he could just be lacking a good bit of sleep.

TV Interview Interrupts Tommy Lasorda’s Nap Time (Bugs and Cranks)

I've been discussing the merits and downfalls of the MLB Network vs. the NFL Network for a few days now, so this damning news couldn't come at a better time. Sports Business Journal is reporting that the NFL-N could lose approximately 2 million or more viewers, if a deal isn't struck with Comcast by April for the upcoming season (and you thought it was hard to find before?)....

NFL Network is facing the loss of 2 million more subscribers next month when its carriage contract with Comcast ends.

With its deadline coming by the end of April, some of the NFL’s top executives have stepped up their negotiating efforts to convince Comcast to cut a deal that would put the channel on its digital basic tier.

Currently, Comcast carries the channel on its sports tier. The NFL has said that it would not cut a new deal that would keep the channel on Comcast’s sports tier.

If Comcast drops the network, that would mean that only one of the top nine MSOs — Cox Communications — would have a deal with NFL Network. The Cox deal is up in 2011.

At the end of last month, Comcast sources said that some of the NFL’s top executives, including Goodell, New England Patriots owner and NFL broadcast committee chairman Robert Kraft and Dallas Cowboys owner and NFL Network committee chairman Jerry Jones, visited the operator’s Philadelphia offices to try to complete a last-ditch deal.

By all accounts, the talks did not progress far, and some Comcast insiders expect that the operator will not work out a deal, which means it would drop the channel next month from its digital sports tier, which has about 2 million subscribers.

Roger Goodell said that the total viewership last season was at around 35 million, but I really don't see how that's possible. This is just another blow for the NFL Network, as far as PR goes, and while I understand the need to try and force Comcast's hand for more viewers, the NFL really isn't in a position to bargain with the cable giant at the moment.

NFL Network steps up carriage talks (Sports Business Journal - $)

Well there aren't a lot of people around today (sitemeter tells me so....I hit refresh every 5 seconds), but those not here will miss out on this sweet announcer news. FOX Baseball might have a new team, TBS may get a HOFer, and ESPN has a new anchor.

FOX is in discussion with Eric Karros, Mark Grace, and Joe Girardi to place them as the #2 team behind Buck and McCarver.

Fox Sports has targeted Mark Grace and Eric Karros, along with the previously reported Joe Girardi, as potential analysts for its MLB coverage, sources have told NYP TV Sports.

This has to be the biggest collection of slightly above average MLB players in one place. Grace and Girardi could be okay, but I can't stand Karros. Luckily I'm on the East Coast and the only games FOX shows here are Yankees-RedSox ones. And we all know that Buck wouldn't pass up and opportunity to perpetuate that craptastic rivalry.











The HOFer in question is Cal Ripken. TBS is going after him hard, and with good reason. I've seen/heard Cal on local O's broadcasts and he's ten thousand times better than Jim Palmer.
_________________________

Kenny Mayne recently got an extension and will be back on SportsCenter soon. The newest anchor though is Krystal Sage Steele from Mid-Atlantic Comcast. She's most famous for getting into an on-air "verbal fight" with Ravens' Coach Brian Billick, but she's also very good at what she does.

Not to get all racial on you, but ESPN has finally made themselves look good after months of bad press. Hiring a female is one thing, but a black female is an especially good move for them from a PR standpoint. This isn't to take anything away from Sage though.....I like her (and you don't hear that from me that often).

(P.S.- The picture is from Comcast, which might explain the useless dots and arrows next to it)

Fox Building Its Bench (NYPost Online)