NFL TV blackouts may end after 40 years as FCC votes on rule
WASHINGTON - After almost 40 years, regulators plan to decide if it's finally time to kill sports-blackout rules that keep National Football League games off television when teams fail to sell out their stadiums.
The Federal Communications Commission will vote Sept. 30 on doing away with the rules, which FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said on Tuesday "have to go." The FCC is "blowing the whistle on this anti-fan practice," he said in a newspaper op-ed in USA Today.
The NFL wants to keep the blackout option, having said it's needed to encourage stadium ticket sales. Ending a rule supported by the NFL would continue a difficult patch for the most popular U.S. sports league, which faces criticism it should have been tougher in disciplining Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for a domestic violence incident in February.
After initially banning Rice for two games, the NFL enhanced policies against domestic violence, then indefinitely suspended him when a video emerged this week showing him punching his then-fiancee in the face.
League contracts can prevent local TV stations from showing games lacking sellouts, and the U.S. rules keep cable providers and satellite broadcasters from showing those games in the local markets.
Brian McCarthy, an NFL spokesman, said Wheeler's position is at odds with almost 20,000 fans who have petitioned the agency to uphold the rule through the "Protect Football on Free TV" campaign. Led by Hall of Fame receiver Lynn Swann, the campaign supports the blackout rules as a defense against games migrating from free broadcasts to pay-TV.
"Fans know and appreciate that the NFL is unique among major professional sports leagues in making available every game - both regular season and playoffs - on free, over-the-air television," Swann said.
Games blacked out in a home market can be viewed in the visiting team's market.
Ending the rules, crafted almost 40 years ago to promote live attendance when ticket sales were the main source of revenue, needs support from a majority of the FCC's five commissioners.
The votes appear to be present: Wheeler leads a three- member Democratic majority, including a commissioner who earlier proposed ending the rules, and the commission has two Republicans including Ajit Pai, who on Aug. 12 spoke in favor of eliminating the rule.
"I don't believe the government should intervene in the marketplace and help sports leagues enforce their blackout policies," Pai said.
Broadcasters told the FCC the rules keep cable and satellite providers from using "loopholes" to circumvent league contracts with broadcasters. Without rules to keep control, leagues might move games to pay-TV, the National Association of Broadcasters said in a filing. Members of the Washington-based trade group include Comcast's NBC, News Corp.'s Fox, Walt Disney's ABC and CBS Corp.'s CBS.
Other politicians, including five U.S. senators, have called for an end to the rules, saying it's not fair to deny games to taxpayers who help fund NFL stadiums.
Two NFL games were kept off air in local markets during the 2013 regular season, the NFL said in a news release.
The Buffalo Bills in a news release said an Aug. 28 pre- season game against the Detroit Lions would be blacked out because it wasn't sold out.
Wheeler said the rule "remains a real concern for fans." Three playoff games last year didn't have sellout crowds 72 hours before kickoff, and fans could view games only because local businesses bought tickets, he said.