The FCC sports blackout rule -- round two

Sens John McCain (R-AZ) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) emphasize that the key to ending private, contractual blackouts is to place conditions on sports league antitrust exemptions.

In Blumenthal’s summary of the legislation, it rightfully notes (as does the Federal Communications Commission itself) that the FCC sports blackout rule is not really the one that most annoys fans. Rather it is the private contracts made between leagues and telecasters that prevent locals from watching a game that not enough fans actually attend. The solution the senators provide is to condition the leagues’ antitrust exemptions upon limiting or removing these total blackout provisions from their private contracts. What are the antitrust exemptions mentioned by the Senators? There are two (1) the Sports Broadcast Act (the “SBA”) and (2) the judicially created MLB antitrust exemption. The thought is that if the leagues are forced to either provide local games (at least on the Internet) or face losing the benefits of the SBA they’ll choose the former. The problem for local fans is that the senators are likely wrong -- the empirical evidence shows that the SBA is just not that important to the leagues.