Sports Fan Coalition: FCC Needs to Throw Flag on Sports Blackouts

The Sports Fan Coalition, joined by Public Knowledge, Media Access Project and others, filed comments in support of its petition to the FCC to scrap its sports blackout rule, which they say is outmoded and fan-unfriendly.

The coalition and its supporters argued that the rule has been rendered obsolete by the changes in the economics of sports and technology. "In the name of maintaining the availability of sports, the Commission ironically perpetuates the practice of restricting the availability of games on various video platforms through the Sports Blackout Rule," they argued. They see the problem as two-fold. The NFL, the main target of the petition, blacks out the local market TV broadcasts of home games that are not sold out 72 hours before kickoff and the FCC's blackout rule prevents cable or satellite operators from filling in that TV void.