Author Topic: FCC moves to end sports blackouts  (Read 742 times)

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Offline flowers

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FCC moves to end sports blackouts
« on: December 19, 2013, 12:58:20 am »
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/12/18/fcc-moves-to-end-sports-blackouts/?tid=up_next

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The Federal Communications Commission moved Wednesday to eliminate sports blackouts on television that have frustrated fans over the years by preventing many of them from watching their local teams.

The league that has been most impacted by blackouts is the NFL. It has a rule, written decades ago, when watching the games on television wasn’t as big as going to the stadium. Currently, if an NFL team does not sell out its game by Thursday, the local broadcast of its weekend game would be blacked out. The game could still be seen in other parts of the country. (The Redskins haven’t faced this situation in years since their games almost always sell out).

Blackouts also show up in other sports, too. In baseball or hockey, the rules are more complicated. Generally blackouts are used to protect local stations that have bought the rights to broadcast games for local teams. So if a local network such as MASN owns the rights to show the Nationals, the team’s games cannot appear on ESPN, MLB Network or other cable channels in regions where viewers get MASN’s broadcasts.

There’s an exception to this, however. When the right to broadcast a baseball game is bought exclusively by a national network – think Fox’s "Game of the Week" on Saturday or ESPN’s "Sunday Night Baseball" – those games cannot air anywhere else, including on increasingly popular apps that show sports live on smartphone or tablets.

In its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC says the blackout rules might be outdated -- especially given the financial success of the major sports leagues. Notably, the agency asked Congress if it has the authority to change the rules on its own.

"The sports industry has changed dramatically in the last 40 years ... and the Petitioners argue that the economic rationale underlying the sports blackout rules may no longer be valid," the FCC says.


Offline NavyCanDo

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Re: FCC moves to end sports blackouts
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2013, 01:12:27 am »
The amount of advertising money lost because of blackouts is astronomical.
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Offline Atomic Cow

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Re: FCC moves to end sports blackouts
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2013, 01:29:21 am »
This was all about trying to keep the stadiums filled.

Most people who want to watch it on TV cannot or will not go to the game regardless of whether or not the game is on TV.  Either they cannot afford it, or do not want to deal with all the hassle of getting there and then getting out.
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Offline sinkspur

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Re: FCC moves to end sports blackouts
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2013, 01:31:05 am »
Does anybody know anybody who decided to buy a ticket to an NFL game because the game was blacked out?

I don't.  I certainly never did. 

On the other hand, the NFL is a private business and should be allowed to make its own rules.
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Offline NavyCanDo

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Re: FCC moves to end sports blackouts
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2013, 05:32:30 am »
This was all about trying to keep the stadiums filled.


No problem filling stadiums here in Seattle. If people want to know why so many Hawks fans are showing up at road games, its partly because buying plane tickets, a motel, and a couple of unfilled seats at a visitors stadium is cheaper than trying to score a couple of tickets at Centaury Link.
A nation that turns away from prayer will ultimately find itself in desperate need of it. :Jonathan Cahn