FCC wants to eliminate sports blackout rules
The Federal Communications Commission wants to eliminate its almost 40-year-old sports blackout rules, which serve primarily to prevent NFL games being televised in markets where the home team failed to sell out the stadium.
In a notice of proposed rule-making released today, the FCC said the sports marketplace has “changed dramatically” and that the “economic rationale underlying the sports blackout rules may no longer be valid.”
Adapted in 1975, the blackout rules were designed to prevent pay-TV distributors, including cable and satellite operators, from circumventing agreements between sports leagues and television-rights holders regarding the blacking-out of games that were not sold out.
For example, if a San Diego Chargers didn’t sell out a few days before kickoff and thus the broadcaster with the rights to show the game couldn’t, the FCC’s rule prohibits a pay-TV distributor from importing the signal of the game from elsewhere and showing it there.
At the time the rule was introduced, NFL teams’ primary source of revenue was from ticket sales, and there were concerns that if games that were not sold out were shown on television, it could encourage fans to stay home.
Now the bulk of revenues for the teams comes from TV and merchandise. Also, blackouts have become a thing of the past.