American football’s NFL “will strongly oppose” a proposal by US regulators to scrap the so-called ‘blackout’ rule that blocks sports events from being shown live on television in their local market if they fail to meet a specified level of ticket sales.
The US Federal Communications Commission, the country’s media regulator, made its outline proposal last month. Earlier this year, the FCC asked for comments on a petition filed by five groups that said the rule “supports blatantly anti-fan, anti-consumer behaviour.” On Wednesday, the agency released a notice of its proposal to eliminate the rule, and there will now be a 60-day period for the public to submit comments regarding the proposal.
“We are on pace for a historic low number of blackouts,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told the Bloomberg Business Week magazine. “The blackout rule is very important in supporting NFL stadiums and the ability of NFL clubs to sell tickets and keeping our games attractive as television programming with large crowds.”
The FCC, which claims that professional American football is the sport most affected by the blackout rule, said: “We recognise that elimination of our sports blackout rules alone might not end sports blackouts, but it would leave sports carriage issues to private solutions negotiated by the interest parties in light of current market conditions and eliminate unnecessary regulation.”
The rule was created nearly 40 years ago to safeguard attendances during the growth of television coverage. Under current NFL policy, broadcasts of home games in a team’s home territory are not shown if the game has not sold out 72 hours in advance.