{"id":494922,"date":"2026-02-28T04:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T04:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/494922\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T04:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T04:07:09","slug":"brendan-carr-sees-relationship-between-sports-and-local-news-as-fccs-purview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/494922\/","title":{"rendered":"Brendan Carr sees relationship between sports and local news as FCC’s purview"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it was launching an inquiry<\/a> into the ongoing fragmentation of sports broadcasting between traditional television platforms, such as over-the-air broadcast networks and cable channels, and paid streaming services, such as Prime Video and Netflix.<\/p>\n

While such issues might not seem within the FCC\u2019s purview, Chairman Brendan Carr explained that the relationship between sports programming and advertising revenue for news programs on local affiliates makes them a concern of the commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn recent years, it\u2019s gotten a lot more complicated,\u201d Carr said on Thursday\u2019s episode of The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show<\/a>. \u201cPeople are having to sign up for bespoke streaming services. They can\u2019t find the game they want to watch. They\u2019re signing up for free trials of one platform just to get a playoff game, and then they have to remember to cancel it down the road. Many of them are paying more out of pocket. That\u2019s a problem. It\u2019s a real frustration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a role for the FCC here, too, because when sports are broadcast over the air on television, that helps drive advertisers to local broadcasters, and that\u2019s what ends up funding local news and local reporting,\u201d continued Carr. \u201cSo we\u2019re exploring this relationship between sports and broadcast \u2026 As more and more games start to go behind paywalls, it begins to tug at some of the underpinnings of that Sports Broadcasting Act. I think people are right to start asking whether we have the right regulatory framework in place right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carr added that if network television lost a substantial number of NFL broadcasts in the presumed right renegotiations in 2029, that could pose a real problem for the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf too many of those games start to go behind a paywall, it\u2019s a problem on many fronts. I think it\u2019s a problem for local news and for broadcasters. I think it\u2019s a problem for consumers who will continue to be frustrated by an inability to find the games,\u201d Carr said. \u201cAnd again, it starts to undermine some of the reasons why we have the Sports Broadcasting Act. Now look, there are some good things that come from this as well. There are more games available now, so there is some upside. But there\u2019s also real consumer frustration. I hope the NFL ultimately finds the right balance where we still get these free over-the-air games that help grow the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carr shared similar sentiments in a recent interview with Semafor\u2019s Max Tani, saying, \u201cWe need healthy affiliates, healthy local TV stations\u201d to ensure quality local journalism continues.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

As for how much pull and oversight Carr and the FCC actually have here, that\u2019s unclear. Carr has been accused of overstepping<\/a> in his criticisms of late-night TV shows and trumping up potential penalties that he ultimately didn\u2019t have the authority to enforce<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it was launching an inquiry into the ongoing fragmentation of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[17105,88,3092,21556,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-494922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-brendan-carr","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-fcc","11":"tag-media-rights","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}