Millions of football fans across the country are dealing with a frustrating summer blackout as the dispute over the NFL Network on Xfinity continues into June.
The popular sports channel stopped airing for Comcast Xfinity cable subscribers at the end of April. This happened when the contract between the companies expired, and no new agreement was reached.
Now, more than a month later, over 11 million paying customers still see a blank screen and an error message instead of their usual football news and analysis.
What has caused the NFL Network channel dispute?
The dispute got more complicated after a big change behind the scenes. ESPN, owned by The Walt Disney Company, recently took over the NFL Network. This was part of a major business deal that gave the NFL a 10 percent stake in ESPN.
Because of this new partnership, Comcast is now negotiating with Disney and ESPN executives instead of dealing directly with the football league.
When Xfinity customers try to watch the channel, they see a message saying the contract with the channel’s owner has ended. That is why the screen is blank.
The ongoing dispute between these large media companies has left regular viewers caught in the middle.
What are the two companies saying?
Comcast told its customers that it wants a fair price to make sure viewers get good value, especially as the way people watch sports keeps changing.
Comcast says Disney and ESPN have not offered a deal that makes financial sense for regular cable subscribers. The company says it wants to bring the channel back, but only if it can keep monthly bills from going up too much.
Disney gives a different version, The company says it offered a temporary contract extension to keep the channel on for viewers while both sides kept negotiating.
Disney says Comcast turned down that offer and chose to take the channel off the air, which hurt viewers.
Fans usually do not complain much during May and June since it is the offseason. But this long delay is starting to worry people as team practices begin and the regular season approaches.
What the blackout means for football fans
For football fans, the real concern is the hidden impact of this contract dispute. The blackout does not just remove offseason studio talk shows.
It also removes the popular NFL RedZone channel from Xfinity lineups. If the dispute continues into August and September, millions of households could lose their favorite way to watch live, commercial-free Sunday football.
For dedicated fans who pay high monthly fees for sports packages, starting the regular season without RedZone is a big disappointment.
Xfinity customers who want football news have to wait for the companies to settle their dispute or look for other TV services to avoid missing games this fall.