NFL to add regular-season games to network

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. National Football League’s
namesake cable network said it would begin broadcasting
Thursday and Saturday games in November.

The weekend announcement comes after NFL Network walked
away from discussions to sell the rights to top U.S. cable
operator Comcast Corp. in a deal that would have netted about
$300 million to $400 million per year, according to a source
familiar with the talks.

The NFL Network’s decision is part of a broad initiative
for professional sports teams to create their own cable
channels. A plan to add regular-season games could boost
viewership.

The NFL launched a digital cable channel distributed on
Comcast, the top U.S. cable operator, and other operators that
features the ability to call up archived games and news
coverage.

On Monday, one analyst viewed the decision positively for
both Comcast and Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN cable sports network.

Comcast, which aimed to add the NFL games in its own cable
sports network OLN, will escape raising its programming
expenses, and ESPN will face a less formidable competitor than
Comcast, Sanford C. Bernstain analyst Craig Moffett said in a
research note.

“The implication that Comcast did not ‘chase’ the contract
can be taken as a sign of fiscal restraint,” Moffett wrote.

The NFL Network, launched in 2003, is owned by the league’s
32 teams, according to its Web site.