At the end of April, NFL Network went dark on Comcast Xfinity cable. It’s now June, and the channel remains unavailable to Xfinity subscribers.
Viewers who turn the channel to NFL Network are greeted with a message saying, “This channel is unavailable. Our contract with the owner of this channel has ended. As a result, the channel is currently unavailable through Xfinity.”
ESPN now controls NFL Network, and Xfinity says ESPN and Disney have not proposed a deal that makes sense.
“Comcast pays programmers to bring customers the entertainment, information, and sports they want,” Xfinity says on its website. “Comcast works to negotiate fair terms to ensure the greatest value for customers given all the ways content can be accessed today. So far, Disney/ESPN has not proposed a deal that Comcast believes is fair for its customers. Comcast continues to work towards making this programming available again with fair pricing, terms, and conditions for customers.”
For its part, Disney says it proposed keeping NFL Network available while the two sides negotiated, but Comcast took it down.
In May and June, not many people watch NFL Network, and there hasn’t been a lot of clamoring to bring it back. But if the dispute extends into the regular season, when it would also deprive Xfinity customers of NFL RedZone Channel, it’s going to be a major disappointment for football fans.
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