Staff Blog
Good News, Philly (maybe)
When the NFL announced that it would be taking eight national games and showing them live only through their subscription-only NFL network fans across the nation raised quite a stink. (tangent: this was moronic. Not only does the NFL network cost something like $5 a month (in a package with NBA TV, the soccer channel and like 6 other stations no one watches) but there are plenty of places to watch a ballgame. Every sports bar in every city has it, as do at least a couple of your buddies. If you’re not innovative enough to find a television that can play NFL TV you can probably live with missing the 8 of 512 regular season games a year.)
Fortunately, the NFL always seems to cave under pressure and never actually seems to be keep the games off free TV in the markets that care about them. It happened last year for the Pats/Giants game 17 showdown, and it’s happening again Thursday:
The Eagles’ Thanksgiving night game at home against the Arizona Cardinals will be carried on several Pennsylvania cable systems, as well as over the airwaves in Philadelphia.
[snip]
The Eagles’ game will be the fourth in this year’s eight-game package of the NFL Network to be carried in secondary markets. Normally, games on the pay-per-view service would be blacked out outside the market where the game is played.
Congrats, most of Pennsylvania and some of New Jersey; you get the watch the Eagles suck with the rest of us Thursday night.
the only “news” in this story would be for the game NOT to be shown on a local Philly station. In my lifetime, every Eagles game on cable has been shown on Channel 6, and this is no different. the Pats-Giants game last year was different because in that one, the entire country stepped in to broadcast the game, not just the local stations in those cities. All cable and NFL network games are always shown on regular tv in the local markets.
It’s Monday Night Football tonight, then three games on Thanksgiving Day/Evening. Tonight’s game features the Packers, who are tied with everyone else in the NFC North for first place, and the Saints, are behind everyone in the NFC South, but not by much.
@ Junior, it’s not just the Philly market, the games are also being shown in secondary markets, hence the caving.