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FCC Votes to Finally Kill Antiquated NFL Blackout Rule

For forty years now, regulators have enforced a rule that blacks out local NFL games on television if locals didn't buy enough tickets to see the games. The idea at the time was to aid a young and struggling league, but as time has passed the rules have proven burdensome on communities, and an unnecessary "subsidy" for a hugely profitable NFL.


Some four decades later and the FCC today in uncharacteristic fashion votes unanimously 5-0 to end the rules, declaring the rare-show of partisan cooperation a "victory for sports fans."

"(Forty years ago), ticket sales were the primary source of revenue for the NFL and most NFL games failed to sell out," the FCC said in a statement.

"Today, television revenues have replaced ticket sales as the NFL’s main source of revenue, and blackouts of NFL games are increasingly rare. The NFL is the most profitable sports league in the country, with $6 billion in television revenue per year, and only two games were blacked out last season."

In other words, there's no longer a need to blindly help subsidize one of the most profitable business operations in the country.


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jmn1207
Premium Member
join:2000-07-19
Sterling, VA

2 recommendations

jmn1207

Premium Member

Now to Address MLB Blackouts

The team owners were probably getting headaches from having to purchase any remaining tickets to get the game to appear on local TV. I'm sure it was a pain to manage from an accounting/tax perspective.