Suddenlink FYI

Pressure from fans and elected officials have combined to persuade the NFL Network to allow CBS and NBC to simulcast the New England Patriots’ attempt Saturday night to go undefeated in a 16-game regular season. More here.

This decision means every household that receives a CBS or NBC television station — either over-the-air or via cable — will be able to watch the game.

In addition to being televised on the NFL Network, the Texas Bowl between TCU and the University of Houston on Friday, Dec. 28, will also air on KDFI-TV. Although Suddenlink does not carry the NFL Network, it does carry KDFI-TV in several outlying communities in the Dallas/Ft. Worth TV market. Those communities include but are not limited to the following.

Suddenlink Channel 7: Honey Grove, Krum, Paris, Pilot Point, Anna, Melissa, Prosper, Aubrey, Little Elm, and Sanger

Suddenlink Channel 9: Terrell, Seagoville, Royse City, Forney, and Balch Springs

Suddenlink Channel 12: Athens, Sulphur Springs, and Winnsboro

Suddenlink Channel 14: Gainesville and Whitesboro

Suddenlink Channel 16: Mineral Wells

Suddenlink Channel 18: Lowry Crossing and Lucas

If viewers served by Suddenlink do not see their cities listed here, they can confirm if and where KDFI-TV is carried on their channel lineup by going to our Web site and entering their zip code.

Check here for more information on the NFL Network.

The overwhelming majority of Suddenlink customers in Oklahoma will be able to watch the Dec. 31 Insight Bowl, in which Oklahoma State University will battle Indiana University. In addition to being televised on the NFL Network, the game will be televised on KSBI-TV out of Oklahoma City. Suddenlink carries KSBI-TV on its line up in Stillwater and various other Oklahoma communities on the following channels:

Suddenlink Channel 2: Healdton

Suddenlink Channel 3: Muskogee

Suddenlink Channel 7: Stillwater

Suddenlink Channel 8: Seminole, Weatherford

Suddenlink Channel 11: Purcell

Suddenlink Channel 12: Alva

Suddenlink Channel 15: Lindsey

Suddenlink Channel 16: Enid

Suddenlink Channel 22: Chickasha, Pauls Valley, Perry

Suddenlink Channel 24: Crescent

Suddenlink customers who do not see their cities listed here can check to confirm if and where KSBI-TV is carried on their cable lineup by visiting our Web site and entering their zip code.

Check here for more information on the NFL Network.

Not the same as watching a complete game on your TV set, but if you don’t otherwise have access to pro football games carried on the NFL Network, here are a couple options to consider.

Watch “in-game action, highlights, studio analysis, and more” through NFL.com/Live.

Search for free Internet radio feeds.

Check here for more information on the NFL Network.

In a letter to the NFL, two U.S. Senators have suggested it might be time for Congress to reconsider the NFL’s antitrust exemption, given the league’s decision to put pro games on its own channel, the NFL Network. Or, in the Senators’ own words, as excerpted by the Associated Press:

“Now that the NFL is adopting strategies to limit distribution of game programming to their own networks … Congress may need to reexamine the need and desirability of their continued exemption from the Nation’s antitrust laws.”

Check here for more information on the NFL Network.

In all the hulabaloo about the NFL Nework and cable companies, it’s often forgetten that fans who live in the TV markets of competing professional teams can still watch those games on local broadcast TV stations, subject to standard network blackout rules. For instance, the Dec. 22 contest between the Cowboys and the Panthers will be televised on KDFI-TV, according to information posted on the home page of that station’s Web site as of Dec. 14.

Suddenlink Communications does not carry the NFL Network, but it does carry KDFI in various communities in the larger Dallas/Fort Worth television market, including but not limited to the following Texas towns …

On Suddenlink Channel 7: Honey Grove, Krum, Paris, Pilot Point, Anna, Melissa, Prosper, Aubrey, Little Elm, and Sanger

On Suddenlink Channel 9: Terrell, Seagoville, Royse City, Forney, and Balch Springs

On Suddenlink Channel 12: Athens, Sulphur Springs, and Winnsboro

On Suddenlink Channel 14: Gainesville and Whitesboro

On Suddenlink Channel 16: Mineral Wells

On Suddenlink Channel 18: Lowry Crossing and Lucas

Note: Fans served by Suddenlink who do not see their cities listed here can check to confirm if and where KDFI is carried on their Suddenlink lineup by visiting our Web site and entering their zip code.

Check here for more information on the NFL Network.

In addition to offering the NFL its own, stand-alone channel, we asked them if they’d give us a deal like the one they granted Cox Communications in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Once again, the NFL said, “No,” indicating that the Cox deal was “not available anymore.”

Huh?

The NFL made a big announcement about the Cox deal in early November, with Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones on hand. A mere three weeks later, Suddenlink made its request. Is the NFL making up the rules as they go along?

And why are they giving fans in certain areas of the country preferential treatment? Don’t NFL fans in markets outside Oklahoma City and Tulsa deserve the same treatment?

Check here for more information on the NFL Network.

In Suddenlink’s ongoing efforts to make the NFL Network available to our customers, we sent a series of offers to the NFL on Wednesday, Nov. 21.

Those offers included one that would give the NFL Network its own channel, widely available to Suddenlink’s customers who want it. We told the NFL they could make this channel available for free or set whatever price they wanted for it and keep all revenues from it, including all advertising revenues. Under that option, Suddenlink would have made no money.

On Nov. 27, the NFL contacted us to decline this offer and all others, reiterating that they would accept nothing less than the same $100 million ransom they demanded more than a year ago.

Suddenlink remains ready to work out a deal with the NFL Network at any time. We are also today asking the citizens and leaders of the communities we serve to contact the NFL and ask them to accept Suddenlink’s generous offer of a channel devoted to the NFL Network, widely available to customers who want it.

To reach the NFL, call: 212-450-2000.

To reach the NFL Network, call: 310-840-4635.

Check here for more information on the NFL Network.

Steve Czaban, host of “The First Team on Fox,” Fox Sports Radio

Tom Giovanetti, president of the Institute for Policy Innovation, a free-market public policy organization based in Dallas

Dale Hansen, prominent Dallas sportscaster, WFAA-TV

Michael Hiestand, sports TV columnist, USA Today

Editorial Board, USA Today

Check here for more information on the NFL Network.