The NFL Network is filing a complaint with the FCC against the cable television company Comcast in the latest legal wrangling between the two cable bigwigs.The NFL Network recently announced that they had served Comcast with the required ten day notice of its intent to file a complaint. NFL Network is accusing Comcast (the nation’s largest cable operator) of discriminatory and anticompetitive treatment in violation of the Cable Act of 1992.

Both sides have been fighting over Comcast’s decision to put NFL Network on a premium sports tier that customers must pay extra to get. NFL Network sued Comcast in October 2006 over the move.

A judge first ruled in Comcast’s favor. But, in February of 2007, an appeals court reversed the ruling and sent the case back to the lower court, saying the language in the contracts between NFL Network and Comcast was too “ambiguous” to rule in favor of either one.

Comcast also filed a suit against NFL Network in December 2008, alleging that league officials’ attempts to persuade customers to leave Comcast violated their contract.

NFL Network will contend in its Federal Communications Committee complaint that Comcast is engaging in discriminatory and anticompetitive conduct because it includes less known sports channels it owns, Versus and Golf Channel, on a basic tier.

“Comcast has taken NFL Network away from millions of fans and placed it on a costly sports tier,” NFL Network president and CEO Steve Bornstein said.

Sena Fitzmaurice, Comcast’s senior director for corporate communications and government affairs, said in a statement, “Comcast makes the NFL Network available to all of our customers on a tier of service that the NFL agreed to by contract. The NFL has immense power in the marketplace, yet it keeps running to the federal and state governments to try to force changes in the deal it freely accepted in negotiations with Comcast. The agreement we have to carry the NFL Network is pro-consumer. It allows us to place this expensive channel on a tier of service for those who wish to pay for it, not on a tier where everyone must pay for it.”

NFL Network’s lack of availability has become an especially contentious issue because of the eight live regular-season games a year it started airing in 2006. Members of Congress got involved in December ‘08 when it appeared that a lot of fans would not be able to watch the historic game between the New York Giants and undefeated New England Patriots.

At the last minute, the NFL decided to simulcast the game on CBS and NBC.

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