• by Wayne Friedman , April 10, 2009

NFL Network has solved some of its legal distribution problems -- agreeing to an out-of-court settlement with Dish Network.

The disagreement, and the subsequent lawsuit by the NFL Network, stemmed from a decision by the channel to simulcast a highly touted Dec. 28, 2007 game between the New England Patriots and New York Giants.

Threatening regulatory overtures and marketplace concerns forced the then-thinly distributed NFL to air the game not just on its NFL Network cable channel, but also on broadcast networks CBS and NBC, two of the league's TV network partners.

In response, Dish Network felt this lessened its investment in the cable network, and in early 2008 it removed the NFL Network from the big programming package it sells to consumers, putting it on its more limited distributed programming package.

As a result, the NFL Network lost 4 million subscribers. NFL Network currently has about 42 million subscribers.

In 2006, Dish and the NFL Network amended their original deal when the network began airing live regular-season games. The network moved to the more widely distributed Dish programming package, called America's Top 100. It was then that Dish began to pay higher subscriber fees to the network.

While many settlement details were not disclosed, one victory for Dish was released -- the satellite distributor is keeping the NFL on its more limited 'America's Top 200' programming package.

The NFL Network still has some continuing legal problems with Comcast Corp., the biggest cable operator in the country. The MSO continues to run the NFL network on Comcast's sports tier programming package -- giving the network less access to cable consumers and thus limiting its ability to sell to national advertisers. Consumers need to pay an extra monthly fee for the sports tier.

Recently, Dish satellite competitor DirecTV struck a four-year extension with the NFL for the league's "Sunday Ticket" programming package, in which viewers can see out-of-market games.