Carry or cancel.

The NFL Network is ratcheting up the pressure on cable companies.

The NFL is “urging TV customers to cancel their service from Comcast, Time Warner Cable and other cable operators” that do not carry the NFL Network and/or do not include the network on basic cable packages.

As a guest on CNBC, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones explained the position of the league.

We are associated with 240 cable companies that our network works great in their business plan and it does expose us to 35 million subscribers. But we want the larger cable companies, for our fans and for the future of the network, to have us on their basic digital cable … They?re trying to tier us. That won?t work. We?re going to have — literally — millions of Cowboy fans, NFL fans, that won?t see our games. They need to cancel the Time Warners, cancel the Comcasts, and go with competing satellites or go with competing telcom product.

The NFL Network, available in 35 million homes, has been in almost constant conflict with the major cable companies since it gained the rights to live NFL telecasts last year. The NFL is looking to be placed on a digital basic tier, with a license fee of 60 to 70 cents. So far, the league has gotten nowhere in its attempts to force cable companies to do as it says.

While the NFL Network continues to fight with cable operators, MLB Network and NBA TV have both made it onto digital basic tiers. MLB Network will be available in 47 million homes when it launches in 2009, after MLB struck a deal with cable companies Comcast, Cox and Time Warner to carry the Extra Innings out-of-market package in exchange for placing the fledgling network on a basic tier. NBA TV will soon be available in 19 million homes, thanks to an agreement between the NBA and Time Warner to move the network to the cable giant’s digital basic tier.

Cowboys owner Jones, in charge of the committee overseeing the NFL Network , finds that the wheeling and dealing cable companies do with sports leagues flies in the face of their primary argument against carrying NFL Network — the idea that subscribers should not pay for channels they do not want.

“If (the cable companies) own the content or they own companies, they?ll put those on that digital tier that allow the people to pay one fee and not be tiered. The issue is if they?ve got a vested interest in it, they?ll put it on there. Now that?s not right.”