available throughout the state for free<\/a>, through broadcasting or streaming on a consistent channel or service.<\/p>\nThe NFL has, since selling its first national cable package in the 1980s, made games available in the local markets via free, over-the-air network affiliates. Baldwin\u2019s bill would expand that footprint significantly, requiring free access throughout a given state.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is leveling the playing field for fans,\u201d Baldwin told Marchand. \u201cSports leagues and teams of all sizes will continue to be able to make money from advertising and media rights. We just want to have some basic ground rules to bring down costs for fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marchand points to one specific, and recent, example. The Saturday night playoff game between the Packers and Bears was televised on over-the-air affiliates in Green Bay and Milwaukee. The rest of Wisconsin was SOL unless they paid for Prime Video.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor many fans in Wisconsin, the only place to watch the game was on Amazon Prime, so families were forced to pay Jeff Bezos just to watch the game,\u201d Baldwin said. \u201cIt\u2019s extremely frustrating to not know how or where to watch the games we love. It\u2019s also damn expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, the bill would remove local blackouts on out-of-market services when the game is available only on another streaming service. (That doesn\u2019t happen for the NFL\u2019s Sunday Ticket, since the local Sunday afternoon games are available \u2014 for now \u2014 for free on CBS or Fox.)<\/p>\n
The introduction of a bill doesn\u2019t mean it will become law. And, in some of the larger states with multiple franchises (like California), the logic doesn\u2019t apply with the same degree of clarity.<\/p>\n
Regardless, it\u2019s another tangible example of the pushback against the NFL\u2019s pivot to multiple streaming services. And it underscores the question of whether the NFL exceeds its broadcast antitrust exemption by selling games as a league to companies that don\u2019t make the games available on free, FCC-regulated airwaves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to the various attacks on the way the NFL does its broadcasting business, the league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-585901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585901","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=585901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}