Will 'Inside The NFL' land on the NFL's own channel?
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This may not be a news item that would appeal to very many people, nor do I imagine it has appeared on many people's radar. I still find this in an awkward way to be pretty great news. HBO is ditching Inside The NFL after hosting the talk program for the better part of past three decades. That's the bad part, HBO isn't interested in the show anymore, for whatever reason, but HBO didn't own it to begin with.I'll get to that in a minute, but first, the sound bite:
More than 30 years after it began its run on HBO, "Inside the NFL" is leaving the field after Wednesday night's show.
"It has been a terrific franchise," HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg said. "But the television landscape has changed quite a bit over the last 30 years, and we have to recognize the realities of the business."
If you're a football fan and have never seen this show, you've been missing out, and me right along there with you -- and that's the crux of the problem, and oddly, why this is such great news. Not that many people subscribe to HBO compared to the carriage of other cable networks, and since the NFL owns the show, they aren't just going to let it die that easily.
And this couldn't come at a better time, even if there aren't any other larger cable nets interested in picking up the show, the NFL has its own -- the NFL Network. It's really a perfect fit for that channel and I'm actually a little surprised they haven't made that move right off the bat, rather than looking for another partner. It's a solid show for football fans, and would certainly help grow the NFL Network, something the NFL really wants to do.
Sounds like a win/win scenario to me -- HBO can drop a show it obviously doesn't want anymore, and fans who want the show won't have to pay extra for a single channel just to get it.
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