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FCC Rejects Blackout Rules
Today the Federal Communications Commission eliminated its sport blackout rules, which prevented cable and satellite television providers from showing sporting events that were blacked out on a local station. It's common practice in the NFL to black out football games locally if the stadium didn't sell enough tickets. The ruling now removes government protections for the NFL's policies (the NFL can continue to black out local broadcasts). The FCC's decision is based on "significant changes" to the industry over the 40 years since the rules were adopted. Television has replaced ticket sales as the primary source of revenue, and the NFL is incredibly popular. They also don't think there's any chance the NFL will move its games to pay-per-view.
The Packers had games blocked out? You've got to be kidding, every one of the home games was on the Milwaukee station. The average wait for season tickets is 30 years: http://www.packers.com/fan-zon... See bottom of page. I think a playoff game might not have sold out due to some refund policy, but that was an aberration. The 3 biggest religions in Wisconsin are Lutheran, Catholic, and the Green Bay Packers and I'm pretty sure I have them reversed.