DOJ investigates NFL over streaming deals, antitrust exemption faces scrutiny

Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Jason Fitz and Coley Harvey react to the U.S. Department of Justice investigating the NFL and its streaming deals as they relate to the league’s antitrust exemption. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.

Video Transcript

The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the NFL, accusing the league of engaging in anti-competitive tactics that have harmed consumers per The Wall Street Journal.

Senator Mike Lee wrote in a letter to the DOG and Federal Trade Commission that NFL fans would have had to spend almost $1,000 to watch every game last season through cable and streaming subscriptions.

Now, this gets a little complicated, Coley, because certainly part of what they’re arguing is that you would have to spend $1,000 to watch every game.

Part of what the NFL is arguing is that they don’t have to make every single game available to every single market.

Like there’s still free, essentially, like antenna-based football available to every household in America on Sundays at 1:00 and 4:00 and 7:00 PM.

It’s just you, you know, you may not have your choice of games.

So this is a little bit complicated in the sense that the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are looking at some of the anti-exemption laws that the NFL gets and benefits they get and saying, “Ah, but you’re not giving everybody the product.”

And the NFL is saying, “Yes, we are.

I’m just not guaranteeing that, you know, Jason Fitz can watch the Raiders from Connecticut without having to pay extra for it.”

So it is dicey.

This Antitrust Exemption Act that was, written in 1961, and that was a chance for the NFL since it had a– since it became the conglomerate, so to speak, of pro football, to have its games broadcast for free over the basic ch- basic, cable channels so that people could watch their games, whether it was CBS or NBC and, and eventually ABC and, and, and down the line to Fox.

that being said, now we have so many options, whether it’s Netflix, Amazon, Peacock for some of the other sporting leagues, that are at play with this as well, and it’s because of that, that this is where we are.

This is the NFL basically saying, “Look, viewers are watching these streaming services.

They’re paying for these streaming services.

Whether they’re paying for our product or not, they’re paying for it, so we’re just gonna meet the consumer where they are.”

Is that right?

Is that fair?

Is that wrong?

I don’t know.

I think it’s– there’s some shade of, of gray in the middle of all of that.

so, so what this looks like will happen to me is that at some point in time, the language of the Antitrust Exemption Act is going to have to be written to reflect what we– what our current status is with the streaming services being part of that mix.

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