Vermont Legislators Ask NFL to Widen Market

Sens. Leahy and Sanders, Rep. Welch: Make Vermont Part of Patriots’ Home Market

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/17/2007 12:30:00 PM

New England legislators are getting increasingly nervous about the prospect of some constituents not being able to see the New England Patriots at New York Giants National Football League game Dec. 29.

The Patriots beat the Jets Sunday, leaving open the likelihood -- they play the one-win Miami Dolphins next week -- that the Dec. 29 game will be for an undefeated regular season, the first in more than three decades and only the second ever.

Sen. John Kerry and Rep. Ed Markey, both Massachusetts Democrats, have called on the NFL and the top two cable operators, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, to find a way to make the game -- which is on the NFL's cable network, NFL Network -- available to more viewers. Currently, Time Warner does not carry the channel, and Comcast carries it on a sports tier.

The latest legislators are Vermont Sens. Patrick Leahy (D) and Bernie Sanders (D) and Rep. Peter Welch (D).

In a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, they suggested that Vermont Patriots fans should be considered a part of the local market and that the NFL's definition is "unduly narrow."

While the game is on cable, it also available on broadcast in New York and Boston. The D.C. trio, concerned that most of their constituents fall outside of that home-market designation, asked the commissioner to "recognize the value that NFL-team loyalty in Vermont adds to the Patriots, the Giants and the NFL by ensuring that this potentially historic final game of the season is available over the air in Vermont.”

They pointed out that when the NFL testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in November 2006, it touted its free broadcast games, saying, "A policy that relies on pay television may alienate the fans who have made the NFL so successful.”

The so-called sports-siphoning issue was a hot one a decade or so ago when sports began its migration to cable, but it has since cooled off, with nary a word from Washington when the iconic Monday Night Football franchise migrated to cable.

Goodell committed to meeting with Kerry this week, but NFL Network has made it clear that it is not interested in a one-game fix to its carriage issues with the major cable operators.