A simple dictum has hung among the quotations on the office wall of Steve Bornstein, head of the NFL Network, since his days running ESPN in the 1990s: "You can't go to Blockbuster and rent tonight's game." Blockbuster may have faded, but the allure of live sports hasn't. The latest testament to pro football's money-spinning magic is the NFL Network, which is using its lock on 13 Thursday night games to power a $1.1 billion-a-year pay-TV channel that's tearing away viewers from the major broadcast networks on what traditionally had been their best night.
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