The Dallas Cowboys and the undefeated New Orleans Saints will go head to head on Saturday night, but it will only be seen on the NFL Network.

Dallas Cowboys
On Saturday night, Time Warner Cable customers will be kept in the dark when the Dallas Cowboys take on the undefeated New Orleans Saints, and Alex Muzquiz, for one, is not happy.

“It’s corporate greed, pal,” said Muzquiz, a Cowboys fan and Time Warner customer. “If I thought someone could do it better, I’d leave (Time Warner) in a heartbeat.”

Time Warner, the largest cable provider in the area, with more than 317,000 customers, according to a 2007 industry estimate, is one of a dwindling number of cable systems that have not agreed to pay for the games and other programming the NFL Network provides.

As a result, Saturday’s Cowboys game in New Orleans and a game on Christmas night between the San Diego Chargers and Tennessee Titans will not be carried on Time Warner.

“I’ve been told clearly by our programming group — no last-minute deals. It’s not going to happen,” said Time Warner Cable regional spokesman Jon Gary Herrera.

Herrera, a Cowboys fan himself, agrees the eight regular-season games the network has picked up each year since 2006 are very popular with fans. For viewers in Texas and beyond, Cowboys games have been among the most popular.

But Herrera said the two sides disagree on the value of the programming the network provides the rest of the year.

“There’s a big difference in the amount of money they believe the programming is worth and what we believe it’s worth,” he said.

So while Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable system, inked a deal with the NFL in May, Time Warner Cable, the second-largest provider, remains out of the fold.

NFL Network officials recognized that distinction Thursday and said it was disappointed no agreement could be reached. The network said Time Warner was “unwilling to reach an agreement to carry the NFL Network on terms that are fair and reasonable and consistent with other distributors.”

The game will still be available in the area on other providers, including satellite television services, AT&T’s U-verse, Grande Communications and GVTC Communications.

San Marcos-based Grande announced it had extended its deal with the network through 2013, and other area cable operations believe their affiliation with the network has won them customers.

Mike Jude of Frost & Sullivan’s media analyst service, Stratecast, said the impasse could end within a year.

Both sides are losing the longer the disagreement drags on, he said. But Time Warner could face more long-term losses as alternative programming sources grow, Jude said.

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