Anyone who reads this beer blog and is an American football fan has undoubtedly already heard about the big game this Thursday, Dallas (10-1) vs. Green Bay (10-1), and the sad situation that most fans will not be able to watch the game because it is being broadcast on the NFL Network which most cable companies have refused to carry and thus is only available on satellite.

You might think this is a no win situation, but the sport bars and pubs across the nation are rejoicing and preparing for their version of Black Friday. Football and beer go together and you can bet that there is a pub nearby with satellite where you can go and watch the game with food and beer specials all night long. Ravenswood, a pub local to me, is having specials on pitchers and it also happens to be all you can eat Beef on a Weck night.

That sounds like a good time to me, and I might just do it, though it is not something I can do regularly, especially on a weeknight. I prefer to watch football in the Barley Room – that’s what I call my family room with the pub table, comfy couches and home theater. Some friends, some beer, some snacks, and a close football game is a sure fire great time; an atmospheric condition worth making the time for. But why do I have to leave my home to watch this game?

The NFL has been very vocal about how the big cable companies, with their ever increasing rates, are playing hard ball because they want to charge their customers for the NFL Network channel while the NFL insists that fans should not have to pay more and that it must be included in the regular line up. That confirms what we have known all along, the NFL is watching out for us and cable companies are run by greedy people who continue to add channels we don’t want, claim a higher level of service, and increase our rates.

Not so fast my friend!

Reality is that the NFL is throwing its weight around and is making a money grab by charging the cable companies a premium price to carry the channel (similar to what HBO would charge) but requiring the cable companies to carry the channel in the standard tier. Would they do that to just to make some extra cash? Possibly… but really it is to make a boat load of money from sponsors in advertisements for the increased potential viewing audience. I’ve know this for some time now, but most people I talk to have no idea and are only familiar with the NFL’s spin on the issue, not the cable companies’ spin. I suggest reading this well written article by Aaron Barnhart as it explains the situation quite clearly.

Now, from a consumer’s point of view, I bet most of us would not mind paying for the NFL Network if we could buy all of our channels that way. In other words, we only pay for the channels we want, and we don’t pay for the ones we don’t want. Call it, channels a-la-cart. But that’s not how the cable companies do it because no one would pay for half the channels out there and then they couldn’t charge as much as they do for their included “free” services, not to mention the loss of advertising.

Pubs may win, but we, the consumers, lose. We end up paying in every which way… we pay more for our beer (because we have to go to the bar to watch TV), we pay more for cable, and we pay the price for having to deal with this bullshit.