FanHouse

When the NFL decided to put the Week 17 Giants-Patriots game on CBS and NBC, instead of exclusively on NFL Network, almost everyone was happy -- the fans who wanted to see the game but didn't have NFL Network, the executives at CBS and NBC, the members of Congress who were pressuring the league.

However, the cable companies that already carried NFL Network and had been paying the league for the right to offer the channel to their subscribers in large part because of that game, don't feel so good about it.

Sports Business Journal reports (via PFT) that those cable companies want some of that money back, and the NFL is saying no. The cable companies say they ought to get 12.5% of the money they spent back because they lost 12.5% of the exclusive games they were going to show. The NFL isn't willing to do that.

That means that in addition to all the problems the NFL is having with the cable companies that don't carry NFL Network, now it's having problems with the cable companies that do carry NFL Network. As successful as the league is on so many fronts, at this point just about everything related to cable TV is a thorn in the league's side.