SmashMouth

The Federal Communications Commission voted 5-0 to eliminate its sports blackout rules Tuesday, but the NFL said that it doesn't plan to change the way its broadcasts are handled.

"NFL teams have made significant efforts in recent years to minimize blackouts," the NFL responded in a statement Tuesday. "The NFL is the only sports league that televises every one of its games on free, over-the-air television. The FCC's decision will not change that commitment for the foreseeable future."

The FCC says the rule was outdated and unnecessary. It was established in 1976 to prevent cable and satellite operators from airing sports events that were blacked out on local TV and to boost ticket sales.



FCC votes to drop sports blackouts; NFL says it won't change - ESPN

saintsfan1976

"outdated" and "un-neccesary".

How ironic....

Mardigras9

So the FCC eliminated the rule and the NFL said whatever. What is the point of the FCC again?

Beastmode

Only people this relates to are those with antennas (rabbit ears). The article is poorly written but that is what the FCC is saying from my understanding.

I think what the NFL did was change the coverage maps if the game is not sold out...hard to understand what RG means by it won't alter their current situation. The FCC just unanimously voted that local games can't be blacked out if broadcasted over the air. It will have an effect if the NFL wants to pushback on local populations for not filling up the stadiums by broadcasting another game.

It will likely wind up back in court. The NFL could argue that the ratings are very low for blackout games so that's why they air another one and it also looks bad on the NFL airing a game in a virtually empty stadium. This rule is basically about 30 years late and a waste of time and money. If the Saint are 2-12 nobody is going to watch that game except somebody who has pictures of every Drew Brees magazine add on their wall with bible versus from Revelations tattooed as eyebrows.