Selling the NFL Network should be one of the easiest jobs on the planet -- sort of like controlling the exclusive iced water franchise for Death Valley.

So, maybe the NFL is just trying to make its sales executives sweat out every penny of their commissions, because it's definitely making the distribution of the NFL Network a lot more difficult than it should be.

You see, the NFL is demanding that the only way a cable, satellite and teleco Pay TV provider can offer the NFL Network to its customers is if they make it part of one of the basic analog or digital packages, instead of including it in a speciality sports tier that could be selected for an additional fee by interested subscribers.

There's no question that the NFL Network's strategy, if successful, would maximize the NFL Network viewer numbers and ratings. But achieving that objective would punish consumers who have no desire to watch more (or any) NFL games or NFL Network programming, because the cost of providing it (roughly around 60 cents per month) would be passed along to every subscriber receiving the basic package where it's included.

Mind you, I don't really blame the NFL Network for its strategy. It has the right to sell its product however it sees fit, and if Pay TV providers believe those terms are good for business, they'll presumably have no problem in signing on. But, in fact, that isn't the way this has played out, and cable systems in particular have resisted the NFL's terms.

So now, heading into the second season of the NFL Network, the NFL has decided that what it can't achieve through negotiation will be sought via government intervention.

As reported by Multichannel News earlier this week:

The National Football League, which rakes in $3.7 billion a year in TV revenue alone, is accusing the cable industry of favoring channels it owns and discriminating against unaffiliated channels such as the NFL Network through less favorable economic terms and channel positioning.

"[Cable operators] commonly disadvantage independent services by forcing them to accept inferior compensation or channel placement -- or both, -- the NFL Network told the Federal Communications Commission in a Sept. 11 filing related to cable system carriage of independently owned program networks.

I don't doubt that cable or satellite networks that own programming would be tempted to give their own programming preferential treatment. But I seriously doubt government regulation is the best way to prevent this practice, if in fact it's even necessary. But even if we assume a case for that sort of federal regulation can be made, it's hard to see how the NFL can claim it deserves that protection.

After all, there's already plenty of NFL football coverage and games available to basic cable subscribers. If there's really a problem with viewers not being able to see key NFL games that are only available via the NFL Network, that has more to do with the NFL's decision to start up its own network and assign part of its regular season schedule to it, before it had secured sufficient nationwide carriage of its channel.

That's not cable TV's problem or fault, and it's most definitely not something the government should be getting involved with.

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