One of the nation’s largest cable providers has agreed to carry the NFL Network and NFL Red Zone.
Cablevision and the NFL Network announced Thursday that they have reached agreement on a multi-year deal to put the two channels on Cablevision systems starting on Friday. The deal means that the NFL Network is now on eight of the nine largest cable providers in the country and it also means that a large chunk of the New York City metro area will be brought into the fold for the first time since the network launched.
“Cablevision is one of the top television providers in the country and will offer New York fans football 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” said NFL Media COO Brian Rolapp in the statement. “With the 2012 NFL season approaching, Cablevision subscribers will be able to enjoy our expanded 13-game Thursday Night Football schedule, Sunday NFL GameDay shows, NFL Total Access, Emmy award-winning NFL Films programming and much more. In addition, NFL RedZone features every touchdown from every game on Sunday afternoons.”
It won’t cover all New York football fans. The lone remaining holdout of the top nine companies is Time Warner, which ranks second to Comcast in subscribers and provides cable coverage for much of New York City, including this writer who, like many others in the Apple, lives in a building that doesn’t have access to FIOS or Direct TV. That leaves a rather sizable market still without the NFL’s television properties and there’s no sign of thawing in the frosty relationship between the league and Time Warner.