Sports Broadcasting: Critical for Local Broadcasting

For years, local TV stations have benefited from NFL contracts with broadcast networks.  Broadcasting local NFL football has been a cornerstone for many stations.  Revenue obtained has helped fund local news and provided a unique platform for local and national advertisers. 

Today, this system is being challenged.  The NFL increasingly has licensed games to streaming services that bypass local stations.  Consumers are discovering that they may have to subscribe to several streaming services to access NFL games.  The problems have caught the attention of Congress.  There is a growing interest in revising the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which granted an antitrust exemption, and allowed the NFL to sell rights for games to the networks as a package.

 A recent article in TV NewsCheck by Adam Wiener titled "An NFL Antitrust Debate May Determine Local Broadcasting’s Future" discusses the importance of this new sports rights debate:

The growing scrutiny of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 could become the most consequential fight for broadcast television in a generation. If broadcasters do not engage forcefully in the discussion now unfolding around sports rights and antitrust policy, the long-term economics of local television could be fundamentally reshaped.

At stake is far more than where NFL games appear on Sunday afternoons. What is really being debated is whether the economic ecosystem that has sustained local television for more than half a century will continue to exist in the streaming era.

This article correctly identifies a major issue affecting local stations in today’s world.  It is well worth reading. 

You can access the article in TV NewsCheck here.