Sports BIZ Brief
PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) - Not all aspects of the popular National Football League are thriving. NFL Films laid off 21 of its 283 employees last week, including some who had been with the company for decades, according to a report philly.com. The directive came from the league, which owns NFL Films.
NFL Films president Steve Sabol, who founded the Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based company with his father, Ed, in the mid-1960s, delivered the news to the employees. "It was very difficult," Sabol said. "One of the most difficult things I've ever had to do. These people were like family." Sabol acknowledged that HBO's recent decision not to renew the long-running series, "Inside the NFL," was a big reason for the layoffs. The program, which featured Films-produced highlights of each week's games, generated about $5 million in revenue for the league. "Films is facing economic challenges just like any other media company, including the newspaper industry," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. "Ongoing technological changes also forced us to re-evaluate the way we operate to remain competitive. "To address these issues, NFL Films has had to look for ways to better structure its organization, which resulted in the termination of 21 people."
According to the report, one NFL general manager said the continuing struggles of the NFL Network also played a role in the layoffs. The league is currently battling with the nation's two top cable operators - Comcast and Time Warner - over the cost and placement of the four-year-old network on their cable systems. Comcast has placed it on a sports tier, which means subscribers have to pay extra for it. The network is not available on Time Warner. "The network is making money, but not nearly as much as the owners want," the unnamed GM said. "And that's primarily because of this standoff with Comcast and Time Warner. The subscription number (for the NFL Network) is nowhere near what they expected at this point." McCarthy said the NFL Network's issues had nothing to do with the layoffs.
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