Comcast Getting Reimbursed for Shortened Hockey Season, And You Aren’t

The Flyers were pretty miserable this year, so maybe it’s not such a big deal that a lockout truncated almost half the season. That said, it would have been nice to get back the cash you paid to (not) watch the team on TV. After all, the cable providers did.

Television distributors are being financially compensated for missed NHL games in this season shortened by labor problems, but hockey fans and other pay-TV subscribers won’t see any of it. Neither the NHL nor TV distributors disclosed the financials in what the parties are describing as rebates, citing confidentiality agreements.

Comcast claims this is fair because A. It’s “industry practice” to “not pass those rebates on to subscribers” and B. “During the NHL lockout, we continued to provide customers with sports programming on TV and across multiple platforms.” You mean Sixers games? Yeah, those were awesome! [Inquirer]