Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The New England Patriots' Dec. 29 bid for the National Football League's first undefeated season in 35 years will be blacked out for millions of television viewers because of the league's dispute with cable operators.

About 43 million cable subscribers get the NFL Network, league spokesman Seth Palansky said today in an interview. About 65 million U.S. households subscribe to cable, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, a trade group.

The NFL Network, which will carry the Patriots' game against the New York Giants, is locked in a dispute with operators including Time Warner Cable Inc. that are resisting the league's contract terms. New England beat the Miami Dolphins 28-7 yesterday for the team's 15th straight win, leaving them one shy of completing the first unbeaten season since 1972.

``There's still time. This is an easy deal to work out,'' Palansky said. ``Wednesday-Thursday we'll have a better idea of which cable operators will take up the offer.''

Time Warner Cable advanced 77 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $27.35 at 1:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have dropped 34 percent this year. U.S. stock markets closed early today for the Christmas holiday.

Broadcast stations in New York, the largest U.S. television market, and Boston, No. 7, will carry the Dec. 29 game, so all cable customers in those markets will be able to watch. The Giants clinched a spot in the playoffs with yesterday's 38-21 win over the Buffalo Bills.

Offer Rejected

``Does the rest of the country care? Not as much as they do in Boston,'' Rick Gentile, a former CBS Sports executive, said in an interview. ``Certainly interest would be higher if this were a determiner of playoffs.''

Time Warner Cable, the second-largest U.S. cable operator after Comcast Corp., last week rebuffed an offer by the NFL to let arbitrators decide the pricing dispute.

The sides haven't spoken since a Dec. 20 exchange of letters, said Palansky and Maureen Huff, a spokeswoman for New York-based Time Warner Cable. If unresolved, the dispute will leave Time Warner viewers outside New York and Boston unable to see the game.

``We continue to hope they will consider putting the game on broadcast,'' Huff said today in an interview.

Time Warner, with 13 million subscribers, is refusing to carry the NFL Network as part of its regular cable packages, saying the channel will increase costs for all subscribers, not just sports fans.

Cable Agreements

The NFL Network wants to be in basic-cable packages to reach the largest audience and secure more revenue. Time Warner wants to place it in a sports package, or tier, whose audience would include only customers willing to pay extra.

The NFL Network has carriage agreements with more than 200 cable systems including Philadelphia-based Comcast and Cox Communications, the No. 3 operator, Palansky said.

Comcast last year moved the NFL Network from a basic tier to a sports tier that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said reaches fewer than 1 million customers.

Palansky said the NFL Network also doesn't have an agreement with No. 4 operator Charter Communications Inc., which has 5 million subscribing households, or Cablevision Systems Corp., the fifth-largest operator.

Charter shares fell 4 cents to $1.26 at 1 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. They have declined 59 percent this year. Cablevision rose 17 cents to $24.33.

Satellite TV

DirecTV Group Inc., the largest U.S. satellite TV service, will show the game to customers nationwide. ``All the sports bars may be the happiest in this situation,'' Palansky said. EchoStar Communications Corp., the second largest, isn't airing the game.

Most other NFL games appear on either Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN, General Electric Co.'s NBC, News Corp.'s Fox or CBS Corp., bringing the NFL $3.7 billion in annual revenue. The NFL reserves eight games each year for the NFL Network.

About 85 percent of the nation's 113 million TV households subscribe to pay television, according to Nielsen Co., cable industry data and satellite TV company subscriber statistics.

The Dolphins were the last undefeated NFL team, winning all 14 of their regular season games in 1972 and three post-season games to go 17-0.

To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 24, 2007 14:26 EST