House Judiciary Committee requests briefings from NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB commissioners on broadcast blackouts

After decades of the four biggest professional leagues in the United States receiving a broadcasting antitrust exemption, the House Judiciary Committee might be looking to alter that law. The committee has formally requested briefings with the commissioners of four of the U.S.’s main professional leagues, with the intention of discussing broadcasting markets and blackout exemptions.

In a statement released Monday, the Judiciary Committee included the letters sent to each of the four commissioners: Adam Silver (NBA), Roger Goodell (NFL), Gary Bettman (NHL) and Rob Manfred (MLB). Per the statement, the committee plans to meet with the commissioners to discuss the Sports Broadcasting Act (SBA), a law that gives sports leagues an antitrust exemption for broadcasting games on network television.

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The SBA, which was passed in 1961, was originally intended to help the NFL organize its broadcast rights as a collective, streamlining the process. The act also includes a “blackout” exemption, which allows leagues to prevent broadcasting certain games within certain areas of the country when that area’s team is playing a home game at the same time.

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But now, per the statement, the House is looking into “the sufficiency of existing law” in terms of the current broadcast landscape.

“The current state of the sports broadcasting market has changed considerably since the 1960s. The majority of sports viewership now occurs outside of traditional network broadcasting,” the committee writes in the statement. “As a result, most of the distribution agreements that a sports league enters into are subject to antitrust challenges, while a narrow subset are not, creating legal uncertainty, distorting the market and effectively expanding the blind spot for potential antitrust violations.”

In the commissioners’ letters, the committee is more clear about the potential future of the law: “Recent antitrust cases have raised important questions about whether the SBA should be modified or repealed as a result.”

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The request was made by two Republican representatives: Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the House Judiciary Committee Chairman and Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.), the chairman of the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust. Two Democratic representatives, Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) were also named in the letters; both are ranking members of the Judiciary Committee.

In the letters, the committee requests that each commissioner speak on their league’s “participation in the sports broadcasting market and related matters.” Silver, Goodell, Bettman and Manfred are asked to arrange for the briefing before Aug. 25.

What’s the current state of the sports broadcast landscape in the U.S.?

With the committee hinting that the SBA could be changed, it raises questions about the future of the sports broadcasting landscape. But as the committee points out in the letters: “In the 64 years since the SBA was first enacted, the sports broadcasting market has changed considerably.”

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All four of the leagues involved operate with similar models when it comes to broadcasting, where specific markets and channels negotiate rights to individual teams. Streaming services are also in play, whether on services directly connected to broadcast giants (Peacock, Paramount+, etc.) or standalone, such as Netflix’s recent push into the live sports market.

Outside of that, the leagues have internal streaming services through which fans can pay to watch all of the league’s games, outside of blackouts: NFL+, NBA League Pass, MLB.tv. (The NHL does not have that same equivalent, but out-of-market games are available to ESPN+ subscribers.)

The NFL sent shockwaves through that landscape last week, following reports of a deal that would send the NFL’s media assets, including RedZone, to ESPN. The deal, which will give the league as much as 10% equity in ESPN, erases some of the lines that used to exist between the leagues and their broadcast partners.

The fact that the committee is calling these commissioners 10 days after that deal was reported does not feel like coincidence, though much of the House’s concern seems focused on the rise of streaming and the excess of options for consumers.

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Sports broadcasting rules are something Congress has been focused on in the past: In a Senate hearing in May on the transition from broadcast television to streaming, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said the NFL has “tiptoed up to” the limits of the SBA.

Notably, the committee did not call on the commissioners of MLS, the WNBA or the NWSL, three of the other major U.S. sports leagues. It is unclear why the House did not involve those leagues, though they do have smaller viewership than the other four.