Insight Adds NFL Network Games

Hey, Insight cable customers, are you ready for some football?
In a late-night deal reached Tuesday night, Insight Communications has picked up the NFL Network games, starting with the Bengals-Ravens game at 8 p.m. Thursday. Insight’s digital-level customers will see the game on Channel 547, in addition to the simulcast on WLWT-TV (Channel 5).
So when will Time Warner ever pick it up? Or ESPNU?
Insight, which has 81,000 Northern Kentucky customers, had balked at paying a surcharge for weekly games when it added the 24-hour channel earlier this year. (Insight was one of the first cable operators to pick up the NFL Network.)
The Insight deal covers all of its systems in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The NFL Network premiered its eight-week schedule of Thursday and Saturday night games on Thanksgiving.
Insight is the only area cable system to provide the NFL Network games. (It also has ESPNU too) The NFL Network also is available on satellite dishes.
The NFL doesn't have any agreements with Time Warner Cable, the nation’s second-largest cable operator which serves Cincinnati and most of southwest Ohio. Time Warner also has refused to add ESPNU, the college sports channel which has exclusive rights to the UC-XU Crosstown Shootout on Dec. 13. Which means most of us won’t see it.
When will Time Warner wake up and get with it?

This Just In

Hey, this just in: Time Warner spokesman Karen Baxter has offered this explanation of the NFL Network situation:
"Time Warner Cable wants to make the NFL Network available to all of its customers, sports fans and non-sports fans alike. We believe the best way to do this is to offer the NFL Network as part of a sports package, similar to the way the Network has been offered to many Adelphia (Digital Plus Tier) and Comcast customers. This is the fairest approach for our customers, gauranteeing sports fans access to this higher-priced, targeted programming, while not requiring all of our customers to pay for it. The NFL Network insists all of our customers pay for the Network, regardless of their interest in its programming. While its programming may be compelling to some customers. the NFL Network belongs in a sports package based on the targeted nature of its programming, the limited number of live professional games, and its expensive price tag...
"We strive to control the spiraling costs of expensive programming networks, particularly those of high-priced niche networks. The NFL Network plans to introduce eight live games on its network and wants a per customer increase of 250%. That's just not acceptable.
"We understand how important this is for many of our customers. Many of us at Time Warner Cable are big football fans too, and we want to make the NFL Network available as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the NFL has refused our offer to bring their Network to our customers."
--Karen Baxter, Public Affairs Director, Time Warner Cable

Burning question
So if you ran Time Warner here, what would you do with the NFL Network? Make it a basic digital channel for everyone? Insist on it being an extra-pay sports tier? And what would you do about ESPNU? And what other channels would you pick up?