The FCC should change the sports blackout rule to sunset automatically...
The FCC should change the sports blackout rule to sunset automatically in two years. That’s unless leagues show the ban should remain on multichannel video programming distributors showing games not sold out that also are contractually kept off broadcast TV,…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
a group aligned with some MVPDs said. The proposal’s from the Sports Fans Coalition, which had asked the agency to start a rulemaking on ending the 1970’s era requirement that leagues including the NFL want kept (CD March 1 p3). “Unless the professional sports leagues and their allies in the media industry prove on the record that the rule still is necessary to serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity,” it should be junked in two years, the coalition said in a Thursday filing (http://xrl.us/bniavs). After the NFL made a “major” change to the rule to allow some teams to let games be broadcast when stadiums aren’t sold out, some franchises “opted out of the revised policy, leaving in place the current problematic blackout practice in some of the hardest-hit markets,” the filing in docket 12-3 said. “With a two-year time frame, the Commission may take into account any effects of the NFL’s new blackout policy. If the new policy fails after two years to curtail blackouts in the hardest-hit markets, the Commission can decide at that time whether the Sports Blackout Rule should remain in place.” Given 94 percent of NFL games were televised “locally last season, blackouts are near historic lows,” a league spokesman said. “While impacting very few games, the blackout rule is very important in supporting NFL stadiums and the ability of NFL clubs to sell tickets; keeping our games attractive as television programming with large crowds; and ensuring that we can continue to keep our games on free TV."