U.S. Senators from both parties on Thursday warned the NFL to "get rid of" its four-decade-old TV blackout rule or "risk congressional action to restrict the league's lucrative antitrust exemption," according to Matthew Daly of the AP. They said that the rule "is unfair to fans who have helped the league reap billions of dollars in revenue from broadcast rights to games that are among the most-watched programs on TV." U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and other lawmakers at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing said that the rule has "long outlived its usefulness." Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said, "These rules only serve to benefit sports leagues and their member teams at the expense of the hardworking fans who support them so loyally through their money, time and passion." NFL lawyer Gerard Waldron said that without the "certainty of paid attendance provided by a blackout rule, NFL games are likely to migrate from free broadcast TV to pay TV such as cable and satellite" (AP, 12/4). Waldron said the "owners committee is studying" the issue of TV blackouts. In N.Y., Josh Kosman notes Waldron "took time to assure Blumenthal that the blackout rule was not affecting his constituents at all." Waldron: “Senator with respect to your constituents they have seen every Giants game this year, last year ... all the way back to the early 1990s.” Waldron: “If you look at the Knicks games, all those Knicks games are on cable television. They have to pay $80 a month to get their Knicks games, to get their Rangers games and nearly all their Yankees games" (N.Y. POST, 12/5).
POLICY STILL WORKING? Blumenthal said that Thursday's hearing "was really a fact-finding mission." CABLEFAX DAILY noted Waldron was "grilled on everything from the league's TV blackout policy ... to the Redskins' name." Waldron argued that the current blackout policy "is working, with ratings and attendance doing well, no blacked out games this year and only 2 blacked out last year." He added that the NFL "did begin discussions on potentially eliminating sports blackouts following an FCC ruling against them but offered no status update." Meanwhile, Waldron gave "no info on whether the league might take action" on the Redskins name (
CABLEFAX DAILY, 12/5).
