[NFL!] FCC ELIMINATES SPORTS BLACKOUT RULES
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FCC ELIMINATES SPORTS BLACKOUT RULES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: press release]
The Federal Communications Commission repealed its sports blackout rules,
which prohibited cable and satellite operators from airing any sports event
that had been blacked out on a local broadcast station. The action removes
FCC protection of the NFL’s current private blackout policy, which requires
local broadcast stations to black out a game if a team does not sell a
certain percentage of tickets to the game at least 72 hours prior to the
game. The Order finds that the FCC’s sports blackout rules are no longer
justified in light of the significant changes in the sports industry since
these rules were first adopted nearly forty years ago. At that time, ticket
sales were the primary source of revenue for the NFL and most NFL games
failed to sell out. Today, television revenues have replaced ticket sales as
the NFL’s main source of revenue, and blackouts of NFL games are
increasingly rare. The NFL is the most profitable sports league in the
country, with $6 billion in television revenue per year, and only two games
were blacked out last season. The Order also finds that the NFL -- whose
current contracts with the broadcast networks extend through 2022 -- is
unlikely to move its games from free, over-the-air broadcast television to
satellite and cable pay TV as a result of elimination of the sports blackout
rules. The Order therefore concludes that the sports blackout rules are no
longer needed to ensure that sports programming is widely available to
television viewers. Today’s action may not eliminate all sports blackouts,
because the NFL may choose to continue its private blackout policy. However,
the NFL will no longer be entitled to the protection of the FCC’s sports
blackout rules. Instead, the NFL must rely on the same avenues available to
other entities that wish to protect their distribution rights in the private
marketplace.
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