Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing consisted of a panel of leaders in both the sports and business worlds fielded questions about the power of consumers to subscribe to television they want to see.

With the exception of Dr. Mark Cooper, Director of Research for the Consumer Federation of America, each panel member agreed that market competition to date has been successful. George Bodenheimer, President of ESPN Inc., discussed his belief that consumers today have many choices to pick from regarding televised sports events and news shows, and that his company has succeeded because they simply provide the best packages for each.

Roger Goodell, Commissioner of the National Football League (NFL), argued that despite the monumental success pro-football has had in America, the league’s recently developed NFL Network has been met with unnecessary “discrimination” from both viewers and powerful media companies. Unfortunately for Goodell, as Glenn Britt, President and CEO of Time Warner Cable, explained, market competition today has succeeded and been mostly successful in supplying sports fans across America with television that they want to see. This is unlikely to change any time soon despite the Commissioner’s hopes for reform.