For fans of the NFL, finding where you can watch your favorite team has become quite the puzzle. Traditional television stations have been joined by cable/satellite channels and now multiple streaming-only platforms. Now, it appears the federal government is going to get involved with that confusing mix of options, and whether fans are being forced to pay too much in subscriptions in order to watch games.
Multiple outlets, including CBS and the Wall Street Journal, are reporting Thursday that the National Football League is being investigated for practices that harm consumers for licensing games to multiple platforms.
That includes paid streaming platforms, paid cable networks, and others, sources told CBS News.
US Sen. Mike Lee (R- Utah), chair of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, went on record saying, "I'm glad they're tackling this."
Lee went on to reference a 1961 bill where Congress enacted the Sports Broadcasting Act, granting limited antitrust immunity to allow professional football teams to collectively license the "sponsored telecasts" of their games to national broadcast networks.
Courts have recognized that 'sponsored telecasting' refers to broadcasts financed through advertising and made available free to the public.
"The modern distribution environment differs substantially from the conditions that precipitated this exemption," Lee explains. "Instead of a small number of free broadcast networks, the NFL now licenses games simultaneously to subscription streaming platforms, premium cable networks, and technology companies operating under different business models."
The NFL, and other sports leagues like MLB and the NBA, have new agreements with multiple streaming platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Peacock and Paramount Plus, all of them requiring payment to access the content.
That includes very prominent games. There have been weekly Thursday Night Football on Prime Video, a Black Friday game on Prime Video, two Christmas Day games on Netflix, plus select international games, and even a Wildcard playoff game only available on Peacock.
The NFL does grant television stations rights to broadcast those streaming-only games on local TV. That's been the case for decades, even when NFL games were exclusively on cable networks like ESPN.
"To the extent collectively licensed game packages are placed behind subscription paywalls, these arrangements may no longer align with the statutory concept of sponsored telecasting or the consumer-access rationale underlying the antitrust exemption," adds Sen. Lee.
Lee says that as chair of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, "I urged the DOJ to examine the Sports Broadcasting Act and its applicability to current media landscape."
The investigation is reportedly for practices that harm consumers for licensing games to multiple platforms
The investigation is reportedly for practices that harm consumers for licensing games to multiple platforms
