The FCC just sacked the sports blackout rule
Federal regulators have ended a longstanding rule that prevents certain sports games from being shown on TV.
In a bipartisan vote Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission unanimously agreed to do away with the sports blackout rule, a much-criticized 40-year-old ban on local broadcasts designed to force sports fans to their local stadiums rather than allowing them to watch poorly attended games from home.
Under the blackout rule, games that failed to sell out could not be shown on free, over-the-air television. For decades, it also meant that cable companies and satellite TV providers were effectively forbidden from showing those games in the same market, as well.
Now the FCC has signaled that it will no longer be backing the blackout rule, which the commission says mainly benefits team owners and sports leagues, such as the NFL, by driving ticket sales.
"For 40 years, these teams have hidden behind a rule of the FCC," said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. "No more. Everyone needs to be aware who allows blackouts to exist, and it is not the Federal Communications Commission."
The rule was initially put in place in 1975 amid concerns of flagging attendance at sports games. At the time, said the FCC, almost 60 percent of NFL games were blacked out on broadcast TV because not enough fans showed up at the stadium. Today, that figure stands at less than one percent, and professional football is so popular on TV that programming contracts contribute "a substantial majority of the NFL's revenues nowadays," said FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai.
The NFL has warned that ending the blackout rule would hurt consumers by encouraging leagues to move their programming exclusively to pay TV. But Pai pushed back against those claims Tuesday, saying teams can't afford not to air their games on broadcast TV.
"By moving games to pay TV," said Pai, "the NFL would be cutting off its nose to spite its face."
The cable industry welcomed the 5-0 vote.
"We commend the commission’s unanimous decision to eliminate the antiquated sports blackout rule," said the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. "As the video marketplace continues to evolve and offers consumers more competition and a growing variety of new services, we encourage the FCC to continue its examination of outdated rules that no longer make sense."
While the NFL can still write blackouts into its programming contracts despite the FCC's vote, the message from the agency Tuesday was clear: If you choose that path, you'll be the only ones bearing the brunt of consumer ire, particularly among low-income Americans and the disabled, who can't make it or have a harder time getting to the games.
