• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, November 10, 2011

An NFL executive said the league’s tap dance with Time Warner Cable on a carriage deal for the NFL Network is progressing, but an agreement is unlikely by the end of the year. That means TWC customers will have to wait at least until next season.

Brian Rolapp, COO of NFL Media, said he remains hopeful for 2011, “but I don’t think it’s looking really good, which is unfortunate because it’s not for lack of trying.”

The league and TWC have had conversations for about seven years, but haven’t come to terms for either the NFL Network or the newer Red Zone channel, which was launched, in part, because cable operators wanted to better compete with DirecTV’s “Sunday Ticket.”

Rolapp said TWC’s slow pace comes as operators carrying the two networks are enthusiastic. “The affiliates we have are ecstatic, and they’re not only paying the freight, but they’re renewing contracts,” he said Thursday at a Sports Business Journal event.

He also cited DirecTV’s use of “Sunday Ticket” as evidence that NFL programming can bring subscriber growth. The satellite operator has been adding homes, while cable operators have been losing them.

On the matter of whether the NFL will add more games on Thursdays and sell a rights package to another network, Rolapp said the league hasn’t made any decisions. He indicated one factor that might need to be solved first -- whether the NFL will expand to an 18-game schedule. Still, the NFL has prospered with a scarcity of product, so the league may not want to tamper with the status quo.

Rolapp was joined on a panel by Michael Mulvihill, a senior vice president at Fox Sports, who said Fox would be “a very interested party” in a Thursday package for one of the company’s cable networks. One caveat: if another programmer acquired rights, which could diminish the value of Fox’s Sunday games, that could play affect the company’s next round of negotiations with the NFL.