This is what I'm thinking:

With less than three weeks before the Buffalo Bills have a Thursday night game on

The NFL Network, it doesn't look like the league and Time Warner Cable are in any hurry to

strike a deal.

That won't affect Bills fans for the Dec. 3 game in Toronto with the New York Jets. Channel

7 will carry that game if it is sold out 72 hours in advance.

It will be surprising if Rogers Communications officials in Toronto don't make a sellout

happen. It would be embarrassing and damaging to Toronto's efforts to get an NFL team if a

nationally televised game was blacked out in Western New York.

TWC's negotiations with The NFL Network is a national TWC issue, not a local one. If a deal

isn't made, TWC subscribers will miss the NFL Network's entire schedule of games, which kicked

off with San Francisco's 10-6 victory over Chicago on Thursday.

According to a trade publication, Sports Business Daily, the NFL Network is now in about 53

million homes, which sounds like a lot but isn't in the same league as ESPN and TBS. The NFL

Network does have distribution deals with four of the top five cable TV companies, with TWC

the lone holdout.

The Los Angeles Times speculated that one way to increase subscriber pressure on TWC would

be to add games on The NFL Network in future TV contracts. The Times also quoted NFL Network

President and CEO Steve Bornstein as saying "we don't rule anything out."

Of course, TWC subscriber pressure is minimized because the NFL Network games involving

local teams make it on local affiliates. If the Bills-Jets game sold out in advance and wasn't

carried on Channel 7, surely there would be protests from local fans who don't get the

satellite providers or FiOS.

Former Detroit Lions executive Matt Millen has replaced Cris Collinsworth as The NFL

Network analyst alongside Bob Papa. I caught the second quarter of the Bears-49ers game, when

Millen set an unofficial record for the use of the phrase "well done" after players made good

catches, good blocks or good tackles.

Millen, who also works for ESPN, rarely allows for any dead air. He occasionally said

something interesting about the strengths and flaws of players such as San Francisco

quarterback Alex Smith. But he seems to think he has to make a remark about every player who

makes a play. He isn't expected to be as sharp as Collinsworth, who has replaced John Madden

on NBC's Sunday Night Football. But Millen would be wise to talk less to give his occasional

insights more power.

Rich Gannon, fresh from his Houston game comments about the importance of Terrell

Owens practicing on the Friday before games, will work the Bills-Tennessee game Sunday

alongside Ian Eagle on CBS. It will be interesting to hear what Gannon has to say about the

practices that Owens has missed this week.

I caught about the first 10 minutes of Fox's two-hour pregame show Sunday from

Afghanistan and saw several Bills angles. Trainer Bud Carpenter, owner Ralph Wilson, receiver

Josh Reed and the late Bob Kalsu were all featured or talked about. Carpenter was briefly

interviewed about being a Russian linguist in the Air Force and Reed talked about his brother

in the Army.

If you're going to wake up with Niagara University basketball on ESPN at 8 a.m.

Tuesday against Drexel, be advised you'll hear Jon Sciambi do play-by-play and LaPhonso Ellis

as the analyst. I haven't heard Sciambi, but when a network does a marathon of games one

shouldn't expect to know every announcer.

Thanks to the University at Buffalo's televised win over Texas-El Paso early this

season, local fans should be able to find the CBS College Sports Network today when it has a

good game. TCU, which is ranked No. 4, plays No. 16 Utah at 7:30 tonight on the channel.

Finally, TWC's latest bill comes with the news that NBA TV will be available on the

digital basic tier and on an HD channel effective Dec. 31. A Time Warner channel is part owner

of NBA TV, which has been on a different tier. Locally, TWC carries the channel of every major

sport — baseball, hockey and basketball — except for the more costly and more

demanding NFL Network.