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NFL: Patriots-Giants game to be aired in US-wide simulcast

The New England Patriots-New York Giants game, which was to be broadcast tomorrow night to less than half the US by the NFL Network, will be available to fans throughout the nation under an agreement on Wednesday between the NBC and CBS to simulcast it.

The 15-0 Patriots are attempting to become the first NFL team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to go undefeated throughout the entire regular season. Miami went on to win the Super Bowl and finish 17-0 that season.

The decision to have NBC and CBS give the NFL Network the exposure it has so far lacked came in the face of mounting congressional pressure, a threat to examine the antitrust exemption the league has to negotiate its TV contracts.

"I think the pressure was one thing and that had an impact," said Pat Bowlen, the owner of the Denver Broncos. "But you look at the significance of the game, of New England possibly going undefeated, and we wanted it to be seen by the whole country."

Representative Joseph Courtney praised the decision by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to expand the game's availability. Without the simulcasts, tens of thousands of fans in Connecticut -- which has loyalties divided between the Patriot and Giants -- would not have seen the game.

"It was the right pressure point for Congress to step in and say to the NFL, `You're a protected industry and you have to look out for the best interests of the fans,'" he said.

The NFL Network is available to 43 million cable and satellite subscribers, but it is not carried by major cable operators like Time Warner, Cablevision and Charter. Comcast carries the network only on its digital sports tier, which requires an extra fee.

NBC and CBS will use the NFL Network's game production, featuring the announcers Cris Collinsworth and Bryant Gumbel. They will not pay an extra-rights fee -- together the networks pay the league a combined average yearly fee of US$1.2 billion -- and will divide revenues from selling 18 30-second commercials with local stations.

The simulcast will mark the first time since Super Bowl I in 1967 that the same NFL game will be carried by more than one network. In that instance, when Green Bay beat Kansas City, each network produced its own coverage of the game.
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