One of the most intense power struggles in the media industry comes into sharp focus tonight locally when a large segment of the Pittsburgh viewing audience will not be able to watch one of the premier NFL games of the season.

The full impact of this confrontation of behemoths -- the NFL vs. the nation's major cable providers -- will be felt more acutely Dec. 20 when the Steelers' game against the St. Louis Rams will be unavailable on basic cable in some counties in Western Pennsylvania.

This situation is sure to outrage members of the Steelers Nation, who believe watching football for free is their birthright.

When the NFL awarded an eight-game package, seen Thursday and Saturday, to the NFL Network beginning with the 2006 season, it opened up several problems in the television industry. The NFL expected that its network would be on the basic cable package, therefore available to most viewers. The major cable providers balked, went to court and won.

The problem is this: The NFL wanted a hefty payment, almost a dollar per customer, on the basic cable. The cable providers believed viewers should have a choice and only those who wanted it should pay for it.

In explaining the Comcast position, executive vice president David Cohen said, "Comcast offers the NFL Network to all of its interested customers today. The fact is that the vast majority of our customers have elected not to receive the NFL Network."

That's why in most places the NFL Network is on a premium tier. In Pittsburgh, for example, it is available on Comcast's Sports and Entertainment Package. Some Comcast customers in the South Hills, formerly with Adelphia, also receive the NFL Network, but that arrangement likely will end next year.

Which means not many viewers will see the game tonight between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers, both 10-1. It's the game of the year in the NFC but can be seen only by a relatively tiny portion of the cable audience.

The game is available to subscribers of DirecTV and the Dish Network.

More viewers will be able to watch the Steelers-Rams in December, but enough will be shut out to cause outrage in the hinterlands.

By agreement, the NFL Network allows local network affiliates to bid for its games and show them in their Designated Market Area. KDKA was the successful bidder for this game. The problem is that not all the Steelers Nation is in the Pittsburgh Designated Market Area, which, in Pennsylvania, includes the following counties:

Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Clarion, Fayette, Forest, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Venango, Washington and Westmoreland.

Notably missing from that list are Bedford and Somerset counties, which are thick with Steelers fans. Those counties are excluded because they are in the Johnstown-Altoona Designated Market Area. That's true, even though they are closer to Pittsburgh than Forest or Venango counties.

Cable providers in Somerset and Bedford counties will carry normal CBS programming on KDKA while the Steelers-Rams game is in progress.

KDKA general manager Chris Pike wanted it made clear the decision to black out some counties was not his station's.

"Our agreement covers only the Pittsburgh Designated Market Area," he said.

Armstrong Cable, the No. 2 provider in Western Pennsylvania, came to an agreement with the NFL Network in 2005. When the network began showing regular-season games, it requested a significant financial upgrade from Armstrong, estimated by one industry insider as being almost 400 percent.

Armstrong chose not to accept that rate, which would have been passed along to its customers.

The NFL has an ally in Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin, who was attempting to pass a proposal that would allow the NFL Network to invoke compulsory arbitration, which would likely result in Comcast and Time Warner having to take the network. But apparently lacking support within the commission, Martin this week postponed indefinitely a public meeting on the matter.

The postponement came just a few days after Sen. Arlen Specter said the NFL does not need the help of the FCC. Specter spoke of there being a "higher cost to the consumer," if the FCC ruled in favor of the NFL.

He also hinted broadly at an NFL monopoly, saying of the league, "wields tremendous power," and "I am hard-pressed to think of a commercial enterprise that similarly dominates the market that it serves."

Specter might be a hero to consumers for his position, and should be, but football fans missing upcoming games might not view his stance in such a light.