Week 16 NFL Announcing: Watch These Games While You Still Can

Another day, another story about two big media companies fighting over cable revenue. This is getting beyond ridiculous, and the consumer can’t do a thing about it. Well, we could stop watching TV altogether, but for people like me who grew up in the mold of Martin Tupper, TV has been more than just entertainment since we were kids. TV has been part babysitter, part teacher, part best friend. Leaving it now because of some silly monetary squabbles isn’t going to happen.↵↵So we sit and wait for the latest deal to be brokered, ultimately taking even more money out of our pockets. Reports this week have come down that not only has FOX gone to great lengths in this particular squabble with Time Warner Cable – adding to the list of networks squabbling with the cable giant – but a potential outage starting December 31st will likely impact all customers of Bright House Networks, part of the TWC family, as well. Immediately, for those with Bright House, the fear is that fans won’t be able to watch any of the big bowl games on FOX, including Florida in the Sugar Bowl and Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl. For the purposes of this post, it’s also vital to note that anyone with Time Warner Cable – that’s something like 15 million basic and almost nine million digital subscribers – may not get FOX starting January 1st, which means forget about week 17 of the NFL season. If things aren’t worked out quickly, the playoffs might be in jeopardy as well. ↵

↵↵Now, you can’t actually believe it will get to the point where one of the big four networks won’t be on one of the biggest cable provider’s lineup. Can you? Time Warner has created a website asking subscribers if it should “roll over” or “get tough” in essence propagating their own agenda against the mighty and powerful FOX with a series of PR-spun FAQ’s.↵

↵↵⇥Will our rates go up if you come to an agreement?↵⇥
↵⇥Not necessarily immediately, but programming costs continue to increase every year. And if we meet the demands requested by these networks, they will increase significantly. That is why we are doing everything possible to control programming costs now. ↵⇥↵⇥Why don’t I get to vote when TWC is raising my cable bill? ↵⇥
↵⇥You do get to vote -- by choosing to be our customer or to take your business elsewhere... It is important to note that ALL providers – cable, satellite and the telephone companies – are facing huge price increase demands from TV networks – so switching video providers will not prevent you from facing this issue.↵⇥

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FOX has a website of its own, replete with ‘facts’ about the negotiations with TWC and a giant countdown for “days to save your programming.” Both sides have spun this thing into the ground. So TWC and Bright House Network subscribers who are fans of the NFC, get your football fix this week…while you still can. ↵↵FOX
↵With both Sunday night and Monday night featuring NFC match-ups, FOX has just five games on the schedule this week. With the Giants win on Monday, they are one of the few teams in the NFC still with something to play for, and Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will call their game against the Panthers. Kenny Moose and Goose get Tampa Bay at New Orleans while Thom Brennaman and Brian Billick get Seattle at Green Bay in the other early games. In the late games, Sam Rosen and Tim Ryan get St. Louis at Arizona while Dick Stockton and Charles Davis get Detroit at San Francisco. ↵

↵↵CBS
↵Even with Christmas night’s game featuring two AFC teams, CBS still has eight games this weekend as two AFC squads travel to NFC cities. Eight games? Quick, someone get Don Criqui out of the hyperbaric chamber. ↵

↵↵The late games are two biggest games of the day for CBS with Denver at Philadelphia in the return of Brian Dawkins to the City of Brotherly Love and the Jets at Indy to see if the Colts can remain undefeated. Jim Nantz and Phil Simms will be in Philly while Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf will be in Indianapolis. ↵

↵↵While the top crews call the late games, the most important games, in terms of playoff ramifications for both teams, clearly comes with the early slate. Baltimore travels to Pittsburgh with Dick Enberg and Dan Fouts on the call while Jacksonville is at New England with Kevin Harlan and Solomon Wilcots in the booth and Houston is at Miami with Ian Eagle and Rich Gannon getting that game. Kansas City at Cincinnati, with Gus Johnson and Steve Tasker, has playoff importance for one of the teams (not the team in red). Bill Macatee and Steve Beuerlein will be in the booth as Buffalo and Atlanta play out the string, while Don Criqui and Randy Cross get Oakland at Cleveland in a game nobody should ever care about, but undoubtedly people will be glued to because of some crazy fantasy performance. Book it. ↵

↵↵National Games
↵Friday night will have Thursday Night Football, as the NFL Network obviously only had enough time to make one graphic despite games on three different days of the week this year. Bob Papa and Matt Millen will call San Diego at Tennessee.↵

↵↵Inexplicably, Washington gets back-to-back weeks in prime time, as they host Dallas on Sunday Night Football with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth while Brett Favre leads the Viking circus to Chicago for Monday Night Football with Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski and Jon Gruden.↵

↵↵Map links and announce crew pairings courtesy of The 506.↵

↵↵Two videos today. First, for those of you who read this and said, ‘who in the world is Martin Tupper,’ I present the opening theme to HBO’s original sit-com Dream On. ↵
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↵↵Then, to keep in the holiday spirit…Someday at Christmas. If you’d prefer this version or this version, that’s good too. Happy Holidays everyone. ↵

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