At a time when seemingly every corner of the federal government is talking about the accessibility of sports broadcasts, one Senator is planning to formally introduce legislation to address the matter.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) will reportedly introduce the “For the Fans” Act, a bill designed to ensure professional sporting events across numerous leagues are shown for free within local markets, decreasing the cost of watching live sports for consumers.
The planned legislation was first reported by Andrew Marchand in The Athletic.
Crucially, the bill is designed to work in conjunction with the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, the federal legislation granting antitrust exemptions to major North American professional sports leagues which allows the pooling of media rights at the league level. Under the “For the Fans” Act, leagues would retain their antitrust exemptions but ensure games are made available for free in a team’s local market, either through an over-the-air broadcast or a free, ad-supported streaming service.
The model would be similar to what the NFL already has in place, where games airing exclusively on paid streaming services are made available on local broadcast networks within a team’s market. However, Sen. Baldwin would like to expand on that practice, claiming the NFL’s definition of a “local market” is too limited. Last season, for instance, the Green Bay Packers played the Chicago Bears in a playoff game on Amazon’s Prime Video. That game was made available to Wisconsinites residing in the Green Bay and Milwaukee areas, but not the state’s other five media markets.
“For many fans in Wisconsin, the only place to watch the game was on Amazon Prime, so families were forced to pay Jeff Bezos just to watch the game,” Baldwin told The Athletic. Her legislation would have the FCC “weigh in on the parameters” of which markets are truly “local” for a given team, even if those markets cross state lines.
The bill would also address frustrating blackout rules for fans that purchase games through out-of-market subscriptions like NFL Sunday Ticket or MLB.tv. Baldwin’s legislation would ensure that any fans paying for these packages would have access to every game on the schedule, whether it is “exclusive” to a national broadcaster or not.
“It is leveling the playing field for fans,” Baldwin told The Athletic. “Sports leagues and teams of all sizes will continue to be able to make money from advertising and media rights. We just want to have some basic ground rules to bring down costs for fans.”
If implemented, the legislation would apply to the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, WNBA, MLS, NWSL, and other pro sports leagues.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.