FCC may push NFL to drop local blackout rules

Nearly 40 years after National Football League teams began to force broadcasters to black out local games in markets where stadiums fail to sell every ticket to a Sunday football game, the FCC may push the league to scrap the blackout rule.

The FCC said Thursday that it would review the blackout rules, in response to lobbying from The Sports Fan Coalition, whose advisory board includes executives from Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ). The commission said it would seek comments on a petition that was filed by the coalition last year.

Created in 1973, the blackout rules are aimed at protecting NFL team owners who were concerned that ticket sales would be hurt if all of their games were available on TV. But with team owners now sharing in the league's multibillion dollar TV licensing deals with CBS, NBC, Fox and ESPN, advocates for dropping the blackout rule could argue that it has become antiquated.

The blackout rule can also hurt cable operators, whose programming costs have increases partly as a result of retransmission-consent deals with stations that carrying programing from CBS, NBC and Fox. While operators pay increased fees for retransmission consent to help broadcasters pay for NFL games, cable subscribers miss somegames that are blacked out by local stations in markets such as Tampa, Fla., or Buffalo, where local teams have had trouble selling every seat in their stadiums.

While the league has maintained the blackout rule for nearly 40 years, it is also pursuing new media distribution opportunities for select games. It plans to stream the Super Bowl next month online and mobile devices for the first time.

For more:
- The Los Angeles Times has this story

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