Networks to Carry Pats Game in HD

When CBS and NBC carry The NFL Networks’ coverage of the potentially historic New England Patriots-New York Giants football game this weekend, the two broadcast networks will carry The NFL Networks’ hi-def feed, according to Seth Palansky, spokesman for The NFL Network.

Earlier this week, The NFL Network reached an agreement with the two broadcast networks to allow them to carry the game, in which the Pats will attempt to be the first NFL team to finish its regular season undefeated since the Miami Dolphins in 1972.

Before the agreement was announced, the game, to be played on Saturday night, Dec. 29, was only going to be shown exclusively on The NFL Network, as well as local broadcast stations in the New York City and Boston areas. The NFL Network is available as a premium sports channel on 240 cable systems, DirecTV, Dish, Verizon’s FiOS TV and AT&T’s U-verse pay TV systems. The NFL Network and cable systems are locked in a battle to force cable operators to carry the sports channel on basic cable tiers, but cable systems are balking, claiming that to do so would increase basic cable rates.

The event will be the first three-network simulcast in NFL history. The only other time an NFL game was simulcast was in Super Bowl I in 1967, when the Kansas City Chiefs and the Green Bay Packers game was broadcast on NBC and CBS.