The Federal Communications Commission has ordered Time Warner Cable (TWC) to resume carrying National Football League (NFL) games, subject to expedited review. Time Warner discontinued the NFL Network on August 1, threatening cable viewers access to preseason games up and down the east coast on the eve of the season.

"It appears that Time Warner discontinued the NFL Network with essentially no warning to customers, thus not giving them sufficient time to obtain alternative MVPD [Multi-Channel Video Program Distribution] service so that they could continue to watch the NFL Network without interruption," the FCC ruled yesterday. "Such action by Time Warner was particularly harmful to customers given the time of year."

This latest skirmish over Time Warner's acquisition of some Adelphia cable assets exposes the tension between cable systems operators and content providers over pricing and carrying rules.

Time Warner Cable and Comcast acquired all of Adelphia Communications Corporation's assets in July. As part of a series of cable system swaps between the two companies, Time Warner took control of assets supplying millions of mid-Atlantic subscribers.

No sooner did the deal conclude than Time Warner discontinued carrying NFL Network, a cable channel featuring in-depth coverage of the NFL, including over 50 pre-season games.

The FCC says that Time Warner’s move jeopardized pre-season viewing by millions of Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. area fans, as well as viewers in Buffalo, Cleveland and Dallas.

"With NFL training camps now underway and the NFL’s pre-season schedule commencing on August 11, 2006, now is a time when many football fans have a particular desire to view the NFL Network’s programming, which will include numerous pre-season games and extensive coverage of NFL training camps," the Commission noted. "Therefore, each day that Time Warner customers go without the NFL Network significantly and irreparably harms many of them."

NFL Network lawyers also say that the cancellation would injure their company in the long-term, since sports TV viewing habits are decided early in the season. They charged in an August 1 petition that Time Warner failed to give subscribers the required thirty day notice for a discontinuance of service.

In yesterday's ruling, the FCC ordered Time Warner to resume carriage of NFL Networks immediately and to respond to the NFL petition by August 15. This is probably the beginning of a long series of negotiations between the two firms. The FCC noted in their finding that "it does not appear that Time Warner objects in principle to carrying the NFL Network. Rather, Time Warner merely wishes to carry it on different terms than agreed to by the previous owner."

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