NAB's LeGeyt Urges Congress to Limit NFL’s Antitrust Exemption
Curtis LeGeyt said the league’s streaming deals have raised costs for fans and shifted games away from free broadcast television.
- A House Committee held a hearing to examine the Sports Broadcasting Act, questioning whether the 1961 law still benefits consumers or primarily aids sports organizations like the National Football League.
- Passed in 1961, the Sports Broadcasting Act granted the National Football League a limited antitrust exemption to pool broadcast rights, ensuring fans received broad, public access to games through local television.
- Broadcasters CEO Curtis LeGeyt and Jim Hallers testified that shifting sports rights to streaming platforms like Amazon Prime, Netflix, YouTube, and Apple creates confusion and increases costs for small businesses.
- FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez expressed concern that shifting sports programming to streaming paywalls hurts fans and reduces revenue for local broadcasters who depend on that funding for journalism.
- Any meaningful update to the Sports Broadcasting Act will ultimately require legislative action from Congress, Gomez noted, while the Committee evaluates whether the law still serves the public interest.
19 Articles
19 Articles
Nadler goes out of his way to rip Trump’s Knicks game appearance during Sports Broadcasting Act hearing
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! President Donald Trump took some heat during Wednesday’s examination of the Sports Broadcasting Act. Representatives ripped the National Football League for broadcasting games exclusively to streaming services, costing some fans nearly $1,000 to watch their favorite teams. However, one Democratic rep felt it necessary to take an unrelated swipe at Trump after he attended Game 3 of the NBA Finals. CLICK…
The NFL’s Subscription Maze May Have Finally Met Its Match
During a hearing on the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 (SBA) Wednesday afternoon, Congress spoke out on the NFL’s antitrust exemption, arguing that the league is exploiting the law to make fans pay absurd prices across multiple streaming platforms to watch their favorite teams suit up.The hearing followed a Monday press release from the House Judiciary Committee, accusing the NFL of veering away from the original intent of the law created 65 years ago. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), chair of the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, voiced his concerns.“Sixty five years later, however, it is fair for this body to ask whether the professional sports leagues have kept up their end of the bargain,” Fitzgerald stated. “In my opinion, they have not, and sports fans are paying the price because of it.”To watch every game in 2026, it costs nearly $800 across nine different streaming services. Originally, the NFL benefited from making as much money in media as possible for “revenue-sharing arrangements” to keep competitive balance alive, but the league is not in the same financial position now as it was in 1961. Both Fox Corp. and Fitzgerald argue that the SBA was never intended to allow the NFL to distribute the media rights across numerous platforms for its own benefit. “The Sports Broadcasting Act was designed to facilitate the distribution of games through free over-the-air television,” he explained. “It was not intended to provide a perpetual shield for leagues to coordinate the sale of media rights across every new technology and distribution platform that emerges.”The question that arises is whether or not fans really benefit from the SBA, given how watching sports has drastically changed over the years. Congress will now have to make a decision on whether they are going to revise the antitrust exemption, leave it as is, or ban it altogether.
Nadler goes out of his way to rip Trump's Knicks game appearance during Sports Broadcasting Act hearing
Rep. Jerry Nadler seemingly blamed President Donald Trump for the New York Knicks' NBA Finals Game 3 loss during a congressional hearing focused on the Sports Broadcasting Act.
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