Tonight is the night that NFL fans the world over treat as Christmas: the NFL Draft. Year after year, hopeful NFL fans tune in to the draft to see which player their chosen team will draft. When the pick is made, network talking heads, sports radio hosts, bloggers, and casual sports fans will issue their opinions on the team's new pick, with some teams declared winners and some declared losers.

One thing is certain: the two big winners will be the NFL Network and ESPN. These two networks are the sole television broadcast outlets for the Draft (aside from NFL.com, where you will be able to watch the NFL Network's coverage), and there are some major changes to the broadcast this year.

Back in December, I wrote about the difficulty that the NFL Network was having in getting off the ground. Last season, the network made 8 games available exclusively on the network hoping that it would spur fans to call their cable operators and demand the network. But it didn't happen.

According (subscription required) to The Wall Street Journal, Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Cablevision are refusing to carry the network. Comcast (NYSE: CMCSA) has pulled the NFL Network from millions of homes and the NFL sued, lost, and is appealing. The league has even set up a nice astroturfish website to make its case to the public.

The NFL has had a difficulty relationship with networks, who feel that they are being gouged. Many industry observers view the NFL Network as an effort to say to ABC, ESPN, FOX, etc. "We don't need you. We can do this ourselves if we want." This may be more about leverage in contract negotiations than actually establishing the NFL Network as a viable station.

Of course, that will plan will backfire wonderfully if they can't get cable operators to carry it.