Byline: SCOTT BAUER Associated Press
All Kathy Lazzaro wants to do is watch the Packers.
When she's not watching them at Lambeau Field or traveling to away games, she catches them on TV.
As a member of the Packers Fan Hall of Fame, Lazzaro speaks for a lot of Packer-backers when she complains about not being able to see her favorite team when the games are broadcast on the NFL Network.
She took her concerns all the way to the state Capitol on Thursday, wearing a gold T-shirt with green letters that said 'Stand Up for the Fans.' She wants the NFL Network and major cable companies to reach a deal so the channel can be seen by more Packer fans in the state.
'It shouldn't get to this point,' the 68-year-old Lazzaro said outside a crammed hearing room where a Senate committee was considering a proposal that would force both sides into arbitration.
'Just resolve the issue,' Lazzaro said. 'We live and die for Packer games.'
The Packers are sensitive to fans' concerns about not being able to see all the team's games, said Jason Wied, a Packers vice president who spoke in support of the bill.
Getting a deal is vital for the future of the NFL, Wied said. The Packers, located in the least populous city of any NFL team, are dedicated to attracting new fans through broad access to their games on TV, he said.
'Sports die off when they are not broadly accessible to the fans,' Wied said. 'This is the start of that problem.'
The president of the NFL Network also spoke in favor of the bill. The head of the Big Ten Network and the commissioner of the Big Ten Conference testified but did not take a position.
The NFL Network and the Big Ten Network have not been able to reach deals with some of the country's largest cable operators, including the two biggest in Wisconsin - Time Warner and Charter Communications.
The conflict revolves around money. The networks want to be shown on the less-expensive basic tier, where they'd have more viewers and could charge more for advertising time. Cable companies want to put them on a more expensive special sports tier to increase its subscribers.
The cable industry and the state's largest business group, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, opposed the bill.
The director of the Wisconsin Cable Communications Association, which represents Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications, Comcast Cable, MediaCom and 25 other smaller providers, said the state should not interfere with negotiations in a free market and doing so may be unconstitutional.
'I urge you to not undercut our ability to continue to negotiate with cable programmers such as the NFL and Big Ten networks,' director Tom Moore said.
Moore argued the bill would force cable companies to carry the networks at a price determined by an arbitrator. The result will be higher prices for customers and more NFL and Big Ten games moved from free broadcast channels to costly cable, he said.
CAPTION(S):
ANDY MANIS Associated Press
UW-Madison Athletics Director Barry Alvarez acknowledges lawmakers Thursday
at the state Capitol after testifying in support of a bill that would
establish an arbitration system to bring cable companies and the NFL and Big
Ten networks together to agree on a deal to get the networks' programming onto
cable. The two sides have been at odds over what cable packages the channels
would be included in.
