Arlen Specter Gives Sloppy Kiss To David Cohen

At a hearing yesterday run by Sen. Arlen Specter, the focus was supposed to be on Comcast (and other cable companies) and its decision to not sell its sports networks — the various Comcast SportsNet affiliates — to satellite dish companies. (This makes sense for Comcast, since they’re a cable company, but isn’t quite as good for your average fan in Philadelphia, Baltimore/Washington, Chicago, Sacramento or L.A.)

Instead, Specter decided to bash the NFL instead, for selling its “Sunday Ticket” package only to DirecTV, threatening to get rid of the NFL’s antitrust exemption — which would allow teams to negotiate their own TV deals, among other things. Yeah, what I really want is the “Eagles Television Network” — which does a God-awful job on preseason games — doing the regular season, too.

Specter also cited the move of the Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis, which happened in 1982. (Glad you got on that one right away, Mr. Senator.) Of course, while proposing legislation that would strip the NFL of its antitrust exemption, Specter said he would “consider” legislation that would force Comcast to sell their sports networks to satellite TV companies.

The problem here is, of course, both companies. The NFL received its antitrust exemption with the assumption the games would be free for all to watch and Comcast shouldn’t be able to have a monopoly on its sports programming. But with politicians in charge of fixing it, well… don’t expect anything to happen anytime soon.

Specter says NFL abuses cable viewers [Inquirer]