FCC takes step to probe NFL, other leagues about skyrocketing costs of

FCC takes step to probe NFL, other leagues about skyrocketing costs of

With the value of watching NFL games and other sports activities hovering, the Federal Communications Commission has signaled it could crack down on professional leagues’ offers with streaming providers.

The FCC on Wednesday requested the public for touch upon how the shift from conventional TV broadcasts to streamers brings “benefit or harm” to customers — a possible first step before a more severe probe.

The submitting from the fee’s Media Bureau famous that NFL games aired last 12 months on Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, Netflix, YouTube and 6 other streamers — doubtlessly costing an estimated $1,500 to watch every professional soccer game.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr announced the public be aware on Wednesday. Getty Images

For many years, Americans loved turning on their TV & shortly discovering the game they wished to see.Yet watching your favourite team play isn’t as straightforward these day. Many games are still on broadcast, however an rising quantity are on a variety of different on-line platforms.Today, the… pic.twitter.com/0NkscbH0FB— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) February 25, 2026

“For decades, Americans enjoyed turning on their TV & quickly finding the game they wanted to see. Yet watching your favorite team play isn’t as easy these day,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr wrote in a Wednesday submit on X.

“Many games are still on broadcast, but an increasing number are on a range of different online platforms,” he added.

The FCC’s questions for the public focus each on customers — asking, “How have changes in the marketplace affected viewers’ ability to watch nationally televised live sports?” — and on local TV stations. One of the questions about the latter asks how “fragmentation” helps or hurts stations’ ability to “meet their public interest obligations.”

The fee famous that broadcast stations have closely relied on promoting income from games to assist local news and reporting.

The Post has sought remark from the FCC and the NFL.

The FCC’s new submitting famous that the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 has supplied antitrust aid to leagues to negotiate media rights and allowed professional leagues to pool their particular person groups’ TV rights into large packages.

The Los Angeles Rams score a landing against the Seattle Seahawks in December. Getty Images

However, sports activities media rights charges have “exponentially increased” since Congress handed that laws in the Sixties, the fee acknowledged.

In 1961, for instance, the National Football League entered right into a two-year rights settlement with CBS price $9.8 million – far below its most latest media rights offers valued at more than $10 billion per 12 months, according to the FCC.

Pricey media rights offers have turned the NFL right into a severe money-making enterprise, with almost all of the league’s 32 groups led by billionaires.

The Denver Broncos are owned by Walmart inheritor Rob Walton, who has an estimated web price of $148 billion, while the Kansas City Chiefs are led by the Hunt household, price roughly $24.8 billion, according to estimates from Bloomberg and Forbes.

“Many sporting events that were previously available through free broadcast and traditional pay-TV packages, are now only available through a myriad of stand-alone subscription streaming services,” the FCC said in its discover.

“This shift has led to notable frustration among many consumers and sports fans. Sports fans are increasingly left with a fragmented ecosystem that requires them to subscribe to multiple services to watch their favorite teams.”

The San Francisco 49ers play the Chicago Bears during an NFL soccer game in December. AP

The NFL holds media rights agreements with streamers owned by Disney, Paramount, Fox Corporation, NBCUniversal, NFL Network, Amazon, Google and Netflix – that are anticipated to rake in more than $100 billion in sports activities rights charges, the FCC famous.

Fox Corporation shares frequent possession with The Post’s mum or dad company, News Corp.

The other major skilled sports activities leagues equally maintain a number of media rights offers with various streaming providers price billions of {dollars}.

In some instances, subscription funds are so large that they’ve supplanted income from ticket sales and other types of earnings as the leagues’ largest source of income, the FCC said, citing Sports Business Journal and Sportico.

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