Fans ask FCC to stop blackouts of sports games

A group representing sports fans is asking the Federal Communications Commission to help prevent games from being blacked out during retransmission disputes between broadcasters and TV providers.

SportsFans.org, a nonprofit that aims to give fans a voice on issues such as public subsidies for stadiums, filed comments with the Commission on Thursday asking the agency to do something to prevent fans from missing games. The group pointed to several recent incidents such as the dispute between FOX and Cablevision that caused millions of New York area cable subscribers to miss the first two games of the 2010 World Series. “Sports fans have become a political football in retransmission consent disputes,” the group's filing states. “Fans who are vital to the success of sports and who have contributed through multiple public and private expenditures are treated like fumbled pigskins.” The group wants the FCC to waive the blackout, network nonduplication and syndicated exclusivity rules that prevent two channels from broadcasting the same live sporting event whenever a broadcast signal is taken down due to a retransmission dispute so fans won't miss any games.