By India McCarty
The House Judiciary Committee is investigating several professional sports leagues to look into whether or not they should still get antitrust exemptions for broadcast TV blackouts.
“Because of ‘rapid technological advances in the television, internet, and broadcasting industries,’ delivering content to consumers is now easier and less expensive than ever before,” the letter, written by Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), reads. “Despite these technological improvements, it is sometimes more difficult and more expensive for some fans to watch their teams during the season.”
The letter pointed out that many fans “may need to sign up for multiple streaming platforms and purchase an over-the-air antenna to watch every game at home,” and even then, each league still has its own blackout restrictions, meaning there will always be certain games that fans can’t watch at home.
“The majority of sports viewership now occurs outside of traditional network broadcasting,” Jordan and Fitzgerald wrote. “As a result, most of the distribution agreements that a sports league enters into are subject to antitrust challenges, while a narrow subset are not, creating legal uncertainty, distorting the market, and ‘effectively expanding the blind spot for potential antitrust violations.’”
Why’s it so hard to watch the Cleveland Indians sometimes?
It’s time for major sports leagues to rethink local “blackout” rules in the digital age. https://t.co/eXUi8yEdKk
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) August 11, 2025
These antitrust exemptions could be violating the Sports Broadcasting Act (SBA) that was passed in 1961. Sports leagues were allowed a “blackout exemption,” according to the current text of the SBA, that would keep games from being broadcast “within the home territory of a member club of the league on a day when such club is playing a game at home.”
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The letter was sent to the heads of the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League.
This isn’t the first time this topic has been broached with professional sports leagues. In May, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing to discuss the move from broadcasting to streaming in the world of sports.
“One growing concern is that the NFL has used its special exemption in the SBA to the frustration of college and high school football schedulers,” Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said at the hearing. “The NFL has tiptoed up to this rule, now putting a game on streaming on Black Friday afternoon, which used to be a slot reserved for prominent college football rivalries, including in some years, Texas and Texas A&M. There are millions of sports fans who like being able to follow high school, college, and professional football without having to choose amongst them. And it’s partly why Congress wrote the SBA in the manner it did.”
Streaming has changed so much in the world of entertainment. These recent conversations government officials have started about broadcasting versus streaming in sports are the first step in re-regulating an industry that has gone through some major updates.
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