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NFL Fights To Save TV Blackout Rule Despite $9 Billion Revenue
An anonymous reader writes with word of new movement on an old front: namely, the rule that makes it hard for sports fans to see coverage of local teams. The 39-year-old blackout rule basically "prevents games from being televised locally when tickets remain unsold." The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in response to a 2011 petition by consumers, has decided to consider abolishing this rule. The National Football League (NFL) has of course objected, claiming that the rule allows it to keep airing their games on free TV. If that were to change and they would have to move to cable, they argue, the "result would represent a substantial loss of consumer welfare." In their petition to the FCC, consumers point out that the NFL charges "exorbitant prices for tickets" which results in lower attendance. The blackout rule, they claim, therefore punishes fans by preventing them from watching the game if the NFL can't sell enough stadium tickets. NFL yearly profits reportedly number in the billions. Even if the FCC supports the petition, however, sports leagues can and probably will privately negotiate blackouts to boost their revenue.
"NFL charges exorbitant prices for tickets" ...
" punishes fans by preventing them from watching the game if the NFL can't sell enough stadium tickets"
"NFL yearly profits reportedly number in the billions.".
Sounds like the obvious answer is "Then don't watch it."
But I can see this article isn't about rationality, but about "I want to watch it" and "I want it to be free" and "I want it available under my terms".
Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
FCC should pull the rule to let supply and demand work it out.
Keep the Classic Slashdot.
That's the main problem you have there. At home, on the screen, you simply and plainly get the better experience. Now, I'm no expert on sports, but it doesn't take an avid watcher to notice the immediate advantage of sitting at home over going to the game.
1. Cheap drink & snacks. No need to explain. You understand it even if you don't care about sports, you have the same deal with movies.
2. Better view. Even if you have a front row seat right at the 50 yards sideline, you can't compete with a dozen cameras showing the game from every possible angle. You get an overview to see how the play unfolded, you get a closeup of the catch, hell, even the referees don't have that kind of luxury overview you get on TV.
3. No hassle getting to or from the game.
4. If the game stinks, just flip over to some movie and keep flipping back now and then to see whether it improves.
5. And of course you can do something while watching your game on TV. Personally I can't really concentrate on watching something if it's fractured like football or, worse, baseball, where moments of action are interrupted by long times of boredom for too long without getting incredibly bored.
So, tell me again, why the fuck should I go to the stadium, pay a fortune for a ticket where I'll then sit next to Bob who had onions for lunch, somewhere about a mile from the field where the players look like they are sprites of a badly done C64 game?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If one were to, you know, look at FCC's Rules on Sports Blackouts, you'd notice that basically the only blackouts the FCC requires involving sports involve exclusive broadcast rights on broadcast TV requiring blackouts on cable/satellite (and even then:
)
The short and long of it is that (1) the NFL has cornered the market on getting local governments to back stadium construction through loans and tax breaks and (2) cornered the market on exclusive broadcasting rights to effectively ban local broadcasts to allow ridiculous ticket prices for anyone local to actually watch the game--this latter part, btw, is likely what the local government wants anyways as it removes a lot of the plebs and grants a higher tax revenue when the tax breaks end (or are reduced).
Going and whining to the FCC as if they're responsible entirely misses the point except in so far as the FCC may have some sort of obligation to demand that public broadcasts be used to allow local people to watch games they're effectively subsidizing in multiple ways (tax breaks for the stadium and broadcast rights for the tv stations). Yet, I think that too much of a stretch, personally, given that it's quite clear that the FCC's job is not to be some sort of universal enforcer on tv broadcasters. This, like the issue with Verizon's throttling, are issues the FTC should be taken to task to deal with as clearly the real issue in both cases are ones of fair trade.
I happen to agree with you. We're downright illogical about our sports, but given the number of government built stadiums out there that sports teams normally get dedicated access to for next to nothing, it's not out of line to expect some concessions.
I don't read AC A human right
this and the fact that the NFL is a registered non-profit organization. if they make $9b and block the broke local fans to try and shake out more money from those who help pay for the venue then i say to hell with that
I might never stop laughing.
If I don't get the games on terms I want, then I'll go do something else, watch movies on Netflix or play video games and your advertisers can go pound sand. What a bunch of arrogant, self-entitled bastards. Fuck you and the corporate jet you rode into town on.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Boycott them. But them when we are talking about religion and sports people tend to be irracional about it.
Local team games are always broadcast OTA when they are on NFL Network or ESPN. IIRC it's a FCC rule that they have to do it.
Of course that has little to do with the public funding of private enterprises that are wildly profitable and make millions of dollars. I enjoy watching football, but there are many better things to spend public money on. Roads, bridges, schools, universities, libraries, etc. are all for more generally useful than a stadium that stays vacant the majority of the year.
America has been consistently electing politicians who promise to cut taxes. And they have been dutifully cutting the taxes for the richest people (and corporations which are people). But corporations are special citizens who can claim a non-profit status and exempt themselves from taxation. It is very expensive to create a new people-citizen. But corporate citizen is just a 25$ filing fee, no nine month waiting period, no active cooperation between two different people required. Corporation-people don't go to jail. They can be killed when it is suitable without any penalty. But corporation-people can be enslaved by other corporation-people and people-people. Corporation-people can have religious beliefs when it is profitable to have them. But they don't have religious responsibilities .
Don't blame the politicians. Blame ourselves, collectively.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Lao Tzu, who seems to have a line for every human inanity compressed into his 81 little poems, said (in my translation):
"There is no greater disaster, no blinder ignorance
than not knowing when you have enough."
Development is programmable; Discovery is not programmable. (Fuller)
Why is the NFL permitted to operate as non-profit when it controls so much of the experience and generates so much revenue?
That alone should get this rule changed.
And as others have pointed out, tax payers build the stadiums for these teams, so we should be able to watch them.
BTW - I am not a sports fan. I watch the super bowl only, and even then, I channel surf.
Who cares about this stuff anyway?
NFL is a non-profit organization. It does not make any profit. [...] IRS will not get a dime.
As I understand it, the NFL's not-profit goes straight back to the teams. The IRS sees the NFL's not-profit when each team pays income tax on its own profit.
When my cableco hit me for a $5 per month "sports programming fee", or $60.00 per year, my response was to snip the cable cord-don't miss cable, with endless reality and infomercials, at all. Sports is the only thing they really have left, isn't it ?
I live in the SanFrancisco area, home to two teams (niners and raiders)... and the blackout rules are killing me...
*There's two primary time slots on Sundays when the majority of teams play (not including the Sunday night game).
*The NFL will never schedule both teams to play at the same time.
*If the game isn't sold out, it's not televised.
*The NFL will not allow another game to be shown on TV if a local game is blacked out.
If I lived in Nebraska, I would have the option of watching four games (2 early games and 2 later games). However, I've had more than enough Sunday's whereby both the niners and the raiders didn't sell enough tickets and thus BOTH slots were blacked out.
I'm not going to watch a game at the Oakland Colesium and having visited the new Levis Stadium, I won't be going there either (transportation is a disaster). They'd get my advertising dollars by watching them on TV tho.