The lingering dispute between FOX and Dish Network resulted in Thursday night’s Rams-Seahawks game being blacked out not only by FOX but also by NFL Network on Dish. In turn, NFL Network ultimately blacked out the game not only on Dish but everywhere else.
John Ourand of Sports Business Journal reports that NFL Network’s agreement with Dish Network prevents NFLN from showing different programming to Dish than it shows to other distributors. So with FOX exercising its right to direct NFLN to omit Rams-Seahawks from Dish, NFLN had to omit Rams-Seahawks from outlets like Comcast and DirecTV.
With FOX available, it likely wasn’t a problem for most subscribers. Unless, however, someone decided to record the game on NFLN and watch it later.
Regardless, customers once again get caught in the middle of a dispute between a couple of billion-dollar companies that can’t find a way to work out their differences so that the people spending their money on these products get what they’ve paid for.