allowed Comcast to move the network from its second-most distributed tier to the company's sports tier. At that time, a court date had not been set. Four judges at the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, ruled the language "concerning additional programming package was ambiguous and that neither party has established that its interpretation of the relevant contracts is a matter of law." Comcast's deal with the NFL Network was set to expire on April 30, 2009. According to messages sent out to Comcast, Midco, and some Cable Systems customers with or without set-top boxes, NFL Network might be removed from some customers' channel lineups. The message said: "In spite of our efforts to continue carrying NFL Network/NFL Network HD, the NFL may terminate our rights. As a result these networks may be removed from lineups as soon as 5/1." On April 10, 2009, it was confirmed that Comcast would remove the channel on that date due to failing to reach a carriage agreement. However, on April 30, 2009, NFL Network announced that it would continue to be carried on Comcast in the interim while both sides tried to reach an agreemenet on a new contract. On July 30, 2009, NFL Network was made available to lower-tiered Comcast digital cable subscribers. NFL Network later filed a discrimination case against Comcast with the Federal Communications Commission, claiming that since Comcast does not charge an extra fee for the sports channels it owns, Versus and Golf Channel, it considered Comcast's move to charge extra for NFL Network unfair. On October 10, 2008, the FCC ruled as follows: Comcast trial The trial before an administrative law judge (as ordered above) began on April 14, 2009. On April 17, 2009, Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts testified that the provider was willing to move the channel from the Sports Entertainment Package to a lower-priced base package if the subscriber fee was reduced to 25¢ per month (at that time, NFL Network was charging 75¢ per month). He claimed that overall, Comcast saved $50 million a year in license fees by leaving the channel on its Sports Package, which in turn led to savings for its customers. On April 30, 2009, NFL Network Total Access correspondent Lindsey Soto reported Comcast would continue to carry the network after its contract expired at midnight as negotiations proceeded. On May 19, 2009, the NFL and