Super Bowl Update

As I told you late last month, Time Warner Cable finally cut a deal with the NFL to carry NFL Network and NFL RedZone.

Now I can tell you where to find 'em.

In our part of the world, TWC customers can find NFL Network on channel 1346.  RedZone - which costs extra - is on channel 1347.

Insight customers (Insight is owned by TWC) can find the network on channel 547 (926 in HD), with RedZone on 548.

Time Warner Cable serves the following communities in the Tri-State:

• SOUTHEASTERN ILLINOIS - Shawneetown, Equality, Ridgway and Junction
• SOUTHWESTERN INDIANA - Newburgh, Chandler, Rockport, Reo, Hatfield and southern Spencer Co.
• WESTERN KENTUCKY - Beaver Dam, Centertown, Hartford, McHenry, Rockport, Dixon, Clay, Wheatcroft, Livermore, Calhoun, Madisonville, Earlington, Hanson, White Plains, Mortons Gap, Sebree,  Morganfield, Waverly, Uniontown, Owensboro, Daviess Co. and part of Henderson Co.

UPDATE, 10:20 a.m.:  Customers of the former Insight Communications (now part of Time Warner Cable) will be able to find NFL Network on Ch. 547 in SD and Ch. 926 in HD.  NFL RedZone, which costs an additional $35, can be found on Ch. 548 in SD and 919 in HD.  Time Warner Cable channel positions for the rest of the Tri-State are not yet known.

PREVIOUSLY: The NFL and Time Warner Cable, the country's second-largest cable provider, have officially announced a new long-term deal for carriage of NFL Network and the NFL RedZone channel.

NFL Network and NFL RedZone will debut in Time Warner Cable homes beginning Sunday, with full launch before Thursday, Sept. 27.

"We're delighted to have reached an agreement for NFL Network and NFL RedZone that provides a good value to our customers," said Melinda Witmer, Executive Vice President and Chief Video and Content Officer for Time Warner Cable. "The additional games this year and the proven appeal of NFL RedZone will certainly prove to be a draw for our customers. We look forward to a long and productive relationship with the NFL."

"We are excited to work with Time Warner Cable to bring fans football 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," said NFL Network President and CEO Steve Bornstein. "Time Warner Cable subscribers will be able to enjoy our weekly Thursday Night Football schedule, our award-winning Sunday NFL GameDay shows, NFL Total Access, NFL Films programming and much more. In addition, the NFL RedZone channel is a truly exciting way to enhance your Sunday football viewing experience each and every week."

For Time Warner Cable subscribers, NFL Network will be available on the Digital Basic and Sports Pass tiers, and NFL RedZone will be available to Sports Pass customers.

NFL Network is the home of Thursday Night Football -- 13 prime-time NFL regular-season games from September through December -- and is the destination for all that happens around the sport of football. NFL Network airs seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and provides viewers with more than 2,500 hours per year of original programming, including: NFL Total Access, NFL GameDay, the new four-hour NFL AM weekday morning show, Top 10, Playbook, NFL Replay, NFL Classic Games plus the Emmy award-winning Sound FX and America's Game.

NFL Network also features every NFL preseason game, the Senior Bowl, plus more coverage of the NFL Draft, Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremony, NFL Scouting Combine and Super Bowl than anyone else.

NFL RedZone, produced by NFL Network, whips around every NFL game on Sunday afternoons, delivering the touchdowns and most exciting moments as they happen and in high definition. When a team goes inside the 20-yard line, fans see the crucial plays live. The channel keeps fans up-to-date in real time, switching from game to game with live look-ins, highlights and a chance to see every important play. For more information on NFL RedZone, visit www.nfl.com/redzonetv.

Time Warner Cable and Insight Communications (which TWC bought recently) serve the following Tri-State communities:

Time Warner Cable is expected to announce at any time that it has reached a deal with the National Football League to add the NFL Network to its channel lineup.

TWC is the last of the major cable companies to hold out on NFL Network; Cablevision, which is based in New York, finally added the channel in August.

For some Tri-Staters, including Owensboro, other Western Kentucky communities and Newburgh and Rockport, Ind., the addition of NFL Network is the first time they'll have seen it since 2006, when TWC purchased the remains of the bankrupt Adelphia Communications.  For others - those who are customers of the former Insight Communications or in areas of Western Kentucky purchased from NewWave Communications - the "NFL Network drought" has been far shorter.

Terms of the new deal have not been made public, although SNL Kagan, which has studied cable networks and what they charge, estimates that NFL Network costs cable companies 95 cents per subscriber per month.

More details to come as they become available.

UPDATE, 10:20 p.m.:  The following area stations will carry at least some of the Colts' preseason games.  A tip o' the hat to Jeremy Pendley for finding this information for JDTVB and his generosity in sharing it with us:

• Local 7 WTVW (Evansville)
• WAWV-ABC (Terre Haute)
• WMYO-My58 (Louisville)

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PREVIOUSLY: Three of the Indianapolis Colts' preseason games will be televised this year, beginning with the Aug. 12 game between the Colts and the St. Louis Rams.

NFL Network (which is now, unfortunately, no longer available to a large number of cable customers in our neck of the woods) will broadcast the Colts/Rams game (which, as I told you yesterday, will also be carried on Local 7 WTVW, KFVS 12.2/WQWQ and KTVI-Fox 2, but from the Rams' side of the coin) as well as the team's third preseason game against the Washington Redskins on Saturday, Aug. 25 at 3 p.m. CT.

NBC will televise the second game at Pittsburgh against the Steelers on Sunday Night Football on Aug. 19 at 7 p.m. CT.

The Colts' fourth and final preseason game, against the Cincinnati Bengals at home, will not be televised.

All preseason games will be carried on the radio by the Vectren Radio Network, and you can find a list of those stations on JDTVB's Sports page in the Colts section.

If you're an Insight customer (which, as you know, is now part of Time Warner Cable) and you enjoy watching NFL Network, get your fill this weekend, Monday and Tuesday, because it won't be available to you starting Wednesday.

Since Time Warner Cable's recent purchase of Insight, which was finalized earlier this year, it's been a question of when, not if, the cable giant would take the network away from its customers.  The company decided to allow Insight's contract with the NFL to run its course, and that contract ends Tuesday night.

NFL RedZone will also be removed from the lineup along with NFL Network.

TWC is the largest pay-TV provider in the country that does not allow its customers access to NFL Network, and the company's refusal to cut a deal sticks in the craw of the NFL. "We are disappointed that Time Warner Cable has taken away NFL Network and NFL RedZone from the many Insight customers who have enjoyed both channels for many years," the network said in a statement. "There are no current negotiations with Time Warner Cable, which remains the only TV provider among the top eight in the country which refuses to offer its customers NFL Network."

For its part, TWC says the cost is just too great for no more than customers get from the network. "We regret that some of our customers will be disappointed to no longer receive those channels, but the terms being demanded now for the NFL Network are out of line for a network willing to guarantee just a handful of live games," TWC spokesman Mike Hogan told Cincinnati.com's John Kiesewetter.

Of course, NFL Network will televise 13 games this season - which, by my count, is more than a "handful."  And Insight viewers won't see any of them, nor the other programming the network offers.

And don't expect your bill to go down, either: "Customers do not pay for channels on an individual basis — they pay for a package of channels plus the technology and service required to deliver those channels," Hogan explained. "So we do not typically offer a credit for channels that have been blacked out."

What do you think about this move?  Leave me a comment or email me.