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.

Comments

Going Cable!

[Anonymous Coward]

I sincerely hope that they go cable only like the NFL threatened to do. The only thing that can stop the NFL and the misplaced US hero worship is their own greed.

Re:Going Cable!

[tiberus]

Is it a question of worth watching or of worth watching in a stadium for $XXX? I'll never understand why someone pays that kind of money to sit in bad seats in the cold, wet etc. when they should be able to watch it from home. It's hard to fathom that ticket sales are worth more than TV rights any more. IMHO, all blackouts do is punish the fans who weren't going to buy a ticket anyway.

Re:Going Cable!

[David_Hart]

Is it a question of worth watching or of worth watching in a stadium for $XXX? I'll never understand why someone pays that kind of money to sit in bad seats in the cold, wet etc. when they should be able to watch it from home. It's hard to fathom that ticket sales are worth more than TV rights any more. IMHO, all blackouts do is punish the fans who weren't going to buy a ticket anyway.

People spend $$$ because it's a social event for most people who enjoy sports. Getting there early, setting up the BBQ, handing out with existing or new friends, talking about the sport team, etc... On top of that, it's a much more engaging when you are actually experiencing the event. Much like a live concert is a completely different experience than listening to it on Palladium.

Re:Going Cable!

[Morpeth]

I live in a city with a good team with a decent fan base -- BUT we usually hear on the local news about the looming blackout threat most weekends.

Personally, I'm like 'Fine, whatever... no better way to lose MORE fans than by preventing your local supporters from seeing the game'.

Plus, maybe I'm a cheapo, but I consider the tickets, parking, food, etc. just too d-mn expensive to make it worth seeing it live. If they made the games more affordable for a family, maybe they'd have better luck filling seats.

[As an aside, I'm a bit disillusioned with the NFL these days, especially protecting some crapastic people like Rice & Peterson among others, so I don't really care if the NFL struggles or not]

Re:Going Cable!

[cayenne8]

Although, I must say, I enjoy all that tailgating and community get together MUCH with college football games here in the south, than I do for Pro games.

Better looking and younger chicks at the college game day celebrations!! That and you don't have to go through something resembling TSA airport security like you do with the NFL these days more and more.

Re:Going Cable!

[rjune]

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.

Slashdot news for Nerds

[Anon-Admin]

Wait, Why is there a story about football on a site that is news for nerds? Move it to the News for Jocks site.... Wait, can they read?

Re:Slashdot news for Nerds

[khellendros1984]

Because it's primarily a story about modernizing FCC regulations, not primarily a story about sports themselves. I doubt that a sports site would be as interested in the legal aspects of the change; they'd be more interested in the practical effects (i.e. that they get to watch more sports). Discussing legal ramifications of a regulatory change seems pretty nerdy to me.

So nothing happened?

[mwn3d]

The NFL can still black games out. I guess they'll just have to negotiate the rules with the cable networks? If that's how it goes then games will still get blacked out all the time because the networks won't give up the NFL over that rule. Maybe I'm reading this wrong.

Re:So nothing happened?

[Jason Levine]

I guess this means that the NFL can still blackout the games but they can't say "Don't be mad at us! The big, bad government made us do it." In other words, they can blackout games but they will be the ones in the fans scream at.

Re:Goes to show

[Anonymous Coward]

when will the government learn that the best thing they can do is butt out, and the worst thing they can do is try to regulate something they only dimly understand?

If they didn't regulate anything, you'd be eating toxic food, driving cars which burst into flames, and using products which are outright dangerous.

Only a moron would believe that without regulations corporations wouldn't just screw consumers every chance they get.

But, hey, I hear you can probably buy some cheap baby formula from China which has melamine in it ... I'm sure it will only make you a little sick.

The 'free market' doesn't exist, and doesn't solve problems like this.

You're an idiot, who only dimly understands the world around you.

What about baseball?

[93 Escort Wagon]

Major League Baseball has one of the most draconian and bizarre blackout policies even conceived - and it's not mentioned in that document at all. So I am wondering how a ruling about the NFL's policies is being interpreted as "FCC rejects blackout rules".

Oh, and MLB also has an exemption from the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Re:Online Sports Network

[smooth wombat]

This is why soccer (European football) is so much better to watch. No commercials. The game plays until the time runs out.

Instead of a 1 hour game of football (American), it runs to well over twice that amount, not including the pre and post pontifications.

Here's the way pro football works. Flip the coin to decide who kicks off. Go to commercial. Come back from commercial and have kick off. Four seconds elapse then play is ended. Go to commercial.

Have first three plays of game. Go to commercial. Punt ball away or get second series. Rinse and repeat.

Blackouts are from the idiots guide to marketting.

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

Okay, our team is unpopular, how we going to fix this?

I know boss, lets prevent people from watching the games.

But won't that mean we'll have less fans in the long run?

No, we figure our team is just going to lose and we don't want anyone to see it .

Genius! Black out the game!

Pay Per View

[rssrss]

"They also don't think there's any chance the NFL will move its games to pay-per-view."

ROTFLMAO.

What are they smoking? The NFL will go PPV, ASAP.

Book it.