Fighting for Digital Rights - who really hurts?

A friend of mine sadly came into my apartment last Thursday evening after realizing he wasn't going to be able to see the Cowboys/Packers game on TV (unless he travelled on over to a bar).
A bar, not being his normal Thursday night scene, was not much of an option for him so he sat at the computer, watching the box scores.

The NFL and cable companies have been fighting over the cost/stipulations to air the NFL Networks' Thursday night games. The NFL Network wants to keep the games free to the fans, but is charging the Cable companies and amount they are not willing to pay for, resulting in less than half the normal NFL audience having access to this game.

Apparently, the NFL is pushing online viewing as a viable alternative (which I don't necessarily disagree with) but I would rather use that as a supplement rather than an alternative option. Although it would be nice to skip the commercials, you can't quite have the same viewing experience on a small part of the computer screen as you would on the flat screen, HD TV (not that I have one, but I can wish right?) Plus, forget a viewing party, the computer would be for you and you alone. I think that they add quite a few great features to the online element, but would still rather it be an "extra" instead of an "only".

So my question is...who is this TV rights feud really hurting? My answer would be the fans, who just plain love the game.