I'm wondering if the NFL is pressing the issue of a IPTV based NFL ST since it didn't happen on a large enough scale to talk about. I'm assuming (perhaps wrongly) that it was DIRECTV's responsibility to set this up. I would imagine they're having some serious arguments about what "customers that cannot receive DIRECTV satellite service" means with respect to the IPTV product.
NFL ST being widely available via IPTV would doubtless do some serious damage to the DIRECTV subscriber numbers if some of the many "I'm just here for NFL ST" claims are true. Coax cutting could become the new national pastime if you could go with a cheaper service (or services) and get your NFL fix via broadband.
As for the ruckus that Sports Illustrated is trying to drum up, it sounds like somebody's diapers need changing. They can't even get Pat Doyle's title right (he is the CFO, not the CEO) and Doyle's hinting at dropping seems more like a standard negotiation posturing exercise than a preview of what is to come. Absence (or ignorance) of evidence of negotiations should not be presented as overwhelming evidence that negotiations probably won't happen.
NFL ST being widely available via IPTV would doubtless do some serious damage to the DIRECTV subscriber numbers if some of the many "I'm just here for NFL ST" claims are true. Coax cutting could become the new national pastime if you could go with a cheaper service (or services) and get your NFL fix via broadband.
As for the ruckus that Sports Illustrated is trying to drum up, it sounds like somebody's diapers need changing. They can't even get Pat Doyle's title right (he is the CFO, not the CEO) and Doyle's hinting at dropping seems more like a standard negotiation posturing exercise than a preview of what is to come. Absence (or ignorance) of evidence of negotiations should not be presented as overwhelming evidence that negotiations probably won't happen.