Comcast reaches deal with NFL Network

For football fans, this will be remembered as the Four Seasons detente.

National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell and Comcast Corp. chief executive officer Brian L. Roberts reached a broad compromise in their long-running and bitter dispute over the NFL Network in a negotiating session at the posh Philadelphia hotel about two weeks ago, Roberts said in an interview.

There was little drama - and no dinner - during the six hours of talks that included other top officials at the two organizations, which have feuded just about every place but on the playing field in recent years.

The fruits of the Four Seasons discussions were announced today, showing that both sides compromised on key, seemingly intractable, points.

As part of a new carriage deal with the football league, Comcast has agreed to carry the NFL Network on its general-interest "Digital Classic" tier of service, expanding the NFL Network's viewership to almost 11 million homes from two million homes on the Comcast system. This will happen by Aug. 1.

Comcast has been carrying the NFL Network on an extra-cost sports tier, which it said was the proper place for the narrow-themed football channel.

To smooth the changes, the NFL Network substantially cut what it charges for the NFL Network, Comcast said. The network had charged 75 to 80 cents per subscriber. Those per-subscriber fees were reduced to 40 to 50 cents. The money is not paid directly by consumers but rather by Comcast.

The NFL also is giving Comcast rights to the RedZone, an NFL channel in development. The new channel will flip around the league's games on a Sunday to show football teams as they advance within their opponents' 20-yard line.

The RedZone gives Comcast advertising leverage against DirecTV's popular Sunday Ticket, which shows out-of-market football games and has drained hundreds of thousands of customers from cable services.

"We will be able to advertise 'Watch every touchdown live,' " Roberts said, noting that it should appeal to fantasy-league players. Comcast is primarily an urban cable system in about 20 markets with NFL teams.

In an afternoon conference call with the media to show the new era of good feelings, Roberts and Goodell said that Comcast would not place a surcharge on customers for the NFL Network. The network will be part of the overall bill for that level of service.

"We are obviously thrilled to be in partnership" with Comcast, Goodell said. "We don't like to be fighting."

Said Roberts: "There is no doubt in my mind, we have turned a new page."

Indeed, a month ago Roberts testified in Washington in a complaint brought by the NFL at the Federal Communications Commission over the football channel.

The NFL contended that Comcast had discriminated against the NFL Network by placing the channel on the sports tier, which fewer people watch. The league said Comcast was retaliating against the NFL because the league would not sell live NFL games to the Comcast-owned Versus sports channel. "We obviously had a disagreement, but I think it was in good faith," Goodell said of the dispute in the conference call.

Comcast contended it moved the NFL Network to a sports tier because the NFL had jacked up the per-subscriber costs. Comcast had to protect its consumers from out-of-control sports programming costs, the company said.

Testifying opposite Roberts at the FCC was Paul Tagliabue, the former NFL commissioner. Some testimony focused on whether Roberts threatened him in a phone conversation with retaliation for not selling live NFL games to Comcast.

An FCC law judge was expected to make a decision in the NFL Network complaint this summer. But FCC Chief Administrative Law Judge Richard L. Sippel dismissed the complaint today after hearing news of the NFL-Comcast deal.

The NFL also is expected to drop a lawsuit against Comcast in New York state court.

Contact staff writer Bob Fernandez at 215-854-5897 or bob.fernandez@phillynews.com.