By Matthew Digiacomo

Meadville TRIBUNE

Dave Stone has two good reasons to be hoppin’ mad that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Thursday night game against the St. Louis Rams won’t be shown on Armstrong.

First, he’s a Steelers fan, and the game now has playoff implications thanks to the slumping team’s two-game losing streak.

Second, he owns Mickey’s Central Fire Station Restaurant and Lounge in downtown Meadville, and he hoped the game would draw customers in on what would normally be a fairly slow night.

“I think it’s terrible,” he said.

Stone noted that he had an NFL television package the last two years that would have allowed him to show the game, but he opted not to get it this year. His decision was based on the Cleveland Browns’ poor play last season and that the Steelers’ games were usually televised.

“(The NFL) is doing exactly what it wants,” he said. “How do you sell a product — supply and demand. This year I decided against the NFL Ticket. Next year, you bet I am going to get it. So what did they do? They just forced me into spending more money. They are making all sorts of money.”

That may be true, but it provides little solace to those fans who had no idea they would be left Steeler-less until Armstrong’s announcement on Tuesday.

It’s a double rub for some of the cable system’s subscribers. Not only has the game been blacked out by the NFL outside of Pittsburgh on KDKA-TV, which Armstrong carries, it also will not be on the version of NFL Network that is available as a premium service through Armstrong.

“Whenever we get a request, a valid request, to blackout a game, we black it out,” said David Wittman, vice president of cable marketing at Armstrong, who said the company was officially notified of the blackout within the past couple days. “This year (NFL officials) made it very clear they want that game blacked out outside the Pittsburgh market.”

Crawford County is not part of the Pittsburgh Designated Market Area.

That market includes Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Clarion, Fayette, Forest, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Venango, Washington and Westmoreland counties. When KDKA successfully made its bid to broadcast the game, it was only for those counties. Crawford, Erie and Mercer counties are technically not part of any primary market. All three are considered secondary markets. The NFL divides these secondary markets up to the closest team. For Crawford County, that would be Pittsburgh. Erie County is designated a secondary market for the Buffalo Bills. Mercer is also a secondary Pittsburgh market.

The NFL Network, which is controlled by the National Football League, and Armstrong are at odds over why the blackout is in place.

“(The NFL) has no say in how the markets are mapped out,” said Seth Palansky, communications director for the NFL Network. “That is regulated by the (Federal Communi-cations Commission) and Nielsen Media Research. We have agreed to honor them on behalf of the local stations.”

Palansky said the NFL Network doesn’t have any power to allow KDKA to broadcast the game outside of the Pittsburgh market. He again pointed to FCC regulations and the Designated Market Areas created by Nielsen. Armstrong’s Whittman disagrees with that argument.

“The FCC (and Nielsen) boundaries are not what determine it,” said Wittman. “It is what the NFL writes into its agreement. As part of the agreement with KDKA, they do not want this game shown outside the Pittsburgh market.”

And that, perhaps, could be backlash from the NFL against Armstrong, the No. 2 cable TV provider in western Pennsylv-ania, for not buying into its full NFL Network package.

Armstrong came to an agreement to carry the NFL Network in 2005. When the network began carrying regular-season games, it requested a fee above and beyond what Armstrong was paying to carry the network. Armstrong chose not to pay the fee because it would have to be passed along to customers. As a result, the version of NFL Network that Armstrong offers as part of its premium package doesn’t include live games like this Thursday’s Steelers contest. While no one has said exactly what the increase was, a published report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette estimated it to be almost a 400 percent increase in cost.

How all this will work out for future Steelers games is uncertain. What is certain is that Stone, who says he will catch the game somewhere, will have a lot of company on the road Thursday night.



Matthew Digiacomo can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at mdigiacomo@meadvilletribune.com.