Dec 29th: Giants vs. Patriots will be on NBC & CBS

[Skaggs]

The NFL Network placed a full page ad on the back of the sports section in today's Albany Times Union:

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[adam]

That ad is the worst propaganda I have seen in a long time. The NFL says it is doing us a favor by letting us see the game. If they hadn't created a network and taken 8 games off the national schedule to create an artificial demand for the network, this wouldn't even be a problem. The NFL Network benefits no one but the NFL.

[Skaggs]

This afternoon, Albany Time Warner Cable sent out their own email notice for the Giants-Patriots game:

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I wonder why WNYT (NBC) got their logo on the graphic, but not WRGB (CBS)??

[Skaggs]

This article was published on the front page of today's Albany Times Union:

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Showdown gets historic TV treatment

By MARK McGUIRE Senior writer
First published: Saturday, December 29, 2007

Never has an NFL game that meant so little meant so much.

The New England Patriots and New York Giants meet Saturday at Giants Stadium in a regular season finale that means nothing in terms of the playoffs: Both teams are locked into their seedings.

So, of course, the game, scheduled to start at 8:15 p.m., will be on three channels: CBS, NBC and the NFL Network -- an unprecedented triple-cast.

The NFL originally slated the game to only be on the NFL Network -- available to only 40 percent of viewers because of a dispute with cable carriers like Time Warner.

But with the Patriots going for a slew of team and personal records -- including the first-ever 16-0 regular season -- pressure mounted on the NFL to make the game more widely available. The result is this week's agreement to simulcast the game on broadcast TV.

So records could fall. Fans in the Capital Region and elsewhere who don't get the NFL Network can see the game. The NFL gets exposure for its network, and cable companies can say the league caved to pressure. Everybody wins, right?

Everybody except sports bars that pay extra for the NFL Network and were counting on large crowds for Saturday's game.

"We were expecting a huge night, very big," said Mike Arduini, owner of the Across the Street Pub in Guilderland. "I'm disappointed. ... It's Saturday night. Hopefully, we'll do business."