A group of House Republican is demanding testimony from heads of major sports leagues on sports broadcasting markets and “Blackout”, citing concerns about mistrust violations.
In an announcement on Monday, the Deputy Committee on the House Judicry Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and the administrative state, regulatory reforms, and the president of the antitrust said on Scott Fitzzorald (R-Wis), that they had written to the Commissioners of NHL, MLB and NFL, “to talk to their dominance and media rights talks.
MPs wrote, “The current status of the Sports Broadcasting Market has changed a lot since the 1960s. Most of the sports viewerships are outside the traditional network broadcast.” “As a result, most distribution agreements that enters a sports league are subject to antitrust challenges, while not a narrow most, creates legal uncertainty, distorting the market, and” potentially expanding blind space for antitrust violations. ,
The committee mentioned that the Congress passed the Sports Broadcasting Act (SBA) in 1961 to allow professional sports leagues to coordinate their broadcasting decisions in an attempt to help protect small teams and leagues.
According to the current SBA, the sports leagues are allowed to “blackout discounts” to prevent sports to prevent sports to prevent the game within the area of the club’s house.
Since more broadcasting networks remove resources in streaming and from linear television, sports media rights remain the largest driver of audience shares and advertising revenue for media companies.
Several traditional broadcasting outlets meanwhile have seen major streamers such as Netflix, Amazon and Apple, which disrupt the market with a multi-Arab-dollar deals with Pro Sports League.
