Google Fiber to Carry NFL Network/RedZone

Google Fiber, the search giant's fiber-delivered broadband service test-bed in Kansas City, has struck a multiyear deal to carry NFL Networks and its RedZone look-in scoring channel (every touchdown from every Sunday afternoon game), the latter as an a la carte offering.

NFL Network pointed out that it marks the second competing provider in a Time Warner Cable market to add the network, after Cincinnati Bell added it to its fiber optic system there Aug. 16.

TWC and Bright House Network, for which the nation's No. 2 cable operator conducts programming negotiations,are the only major distributors that don't carry the network.

How many Google Fiber subs the NFL channels will count is unclear. Registration to Google Fiber ends on Sept. 9, with installation to KC homes presumably kicking off as early Sept. 10, the same day the services will become available on the Google service.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.