The NFL has found itself in the crosshairs of the federal government in recent months amid a not-so-subtle pressure campaign from Fox Corporation founder Rupert Murdoch.
The league, which recently began an effort to renegotiate its media rights deals several years early with the hopes of securing billions of dollars in fee increases from its broadcast partners, is now the subject of investigations from the FCC and DOJ. Both agencies are examining, reportedly at the behest of Fox, a company that is particularly vulnerable to a potential rights increase, whether the NFL is running afoul of 1960s-era legislation granting the league a limited antitrust exemption to pool its team’s broadcast rights together to sell in consolidated packages to networks.
That legislation, the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, was the subject of a congressional hearing on Wednesday, where witnesses and elected officials alike teed off on what they almost unanimously viewed as anti-consumer practices by the NFL regarding the fragmentation of game inventory onto streaming services, and the lack of single-team out-of-market subscription options.
Now, it appears as if Congress is prepared to introduce legislation to address the issue.
According to a report by Puck sports correspondent John Ourand, “sources on all sides expect some sort of legislation to be introduced within the next few weeks” to address the Sports Broadcasting Act. It is unclear exactly what this legislation will aim to change regarding how professional sports leagues can sell broadcast rights.
The news comes in the weeks following the introduction of another bill aimed at making professional sporting events more accessible within local markets. In April, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced a bill that would require all professional sports leagues to provide a free option to viewers within a team’s state for every game.
By the sounds of things, the upcoming legislation could be aimed towards a more fundamental change to how the Sports Broadcasting Act is applied. One possibility would be a guarantee that a certain number of games remain allocated to free, over-the-air broadcast networks. That’s clearly what Murdoch and Fox are angling for, and was a topic of discussion throughout the hearing on Wednesday.
Any legislation, of course, would likely take quite some time before making it to a floor vote. (Look no further than the various legislation aimed to address the issues facing college sports.)
Regardless, there is true bipartisan support on this issue. Making sporting events accessible to the masses is a popular policy position, no matter what party you represent. That means this could be one of the rare issues where there is alignment in Congress, which creates a credible possibility for a bill to eventually pass.
That’d be a ways off, but it’ll be in the background of any new deals the NFL is looking to strike in the coming years.
