CONGRESSMAN PAT RYAN DEMANDS INVESTIGATION INTO SPORTS BLACKOUTS, DECRIES DOUBLE WHAMMY RIPPING OFF SPORTS FANS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

October 31, 2023
Press Release

Congressman Pat Ryan Demands Investigation into Sports Blackouts, Decries Double Whammy Ripping Off Sports Fans Across the Country

New York families pay more than $1,400 per year to watch their favorite teams, yet broadcast monopolies still leave fans missing out

Owners have exclusive control on airing games and sell rights to patchwork of networks, increasing costs and decreasing accessibility 

WASHINGTON, DC  –  Today, Congressman Pat Ryan wrote to the United States Comptroller General and the Commissioners of the four major sports leagues demanding an investigation into sports blackouts. Owners of sports teams have exclusive control on who airs games, and sell these rights to a patchwork of networks and streaming services, leaving fans with no option but to pay thousands of dollars to watch their favorite teams on streaming services like Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, and ESPN+. Because of these monopolistic practices and “blackouts,” fans still can’t do the one thing they want: watch their favorite teams play ball.

“Yesterday was the sports equinox, the one day of the year that all four major professional sports leagues play at once. Yet New Yorkers, who already pay thousands of dollars a year to watch their favorite teams, stared at black screens because billionaire owners care more about profit than their fans. It’s total BS,” said Congressman Pat Ryan. “I’m demanding that the United States Comptroller General and Commissioners Goodell, Manfred, Bettman, and Silver immediately launch an investigation into sports blackouts to make sure New Yorkers don’t continue to get screwed.”

“At the end of a long day, all we want to do is watch the Yankees and Knicks with our families,” Ryan continued. “Whether you’re a senior in Kingston or a parent in Newburgh, you shouldn’t have to buy 6 streaming services just to find out the game is blacked out. The leagues make more than enough money – let’s put power back where it belongs: with the fans.”

Since the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, Congress has granted sports leagues an antitrust exemption for their broadcasting agreements, allowing them to sell the rights to show certain games in a season off to the highest bidder. When sports teams sell the exclusive broadcast rights to their games to different content providers throughout a single season, it forces fans to either sign up for multiple expensive services or face a blacked out screen when they try to watch games.

During the 2023 MLB season, for example, Mets and Yankees fans in New York were blacked out from 25 games each because the league had sold exclusive rights to the games to streaming services like Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Peacock. Fans who wanted to watch every Mets game this season had to fork over more than $1,400 to a variety of streaming services to avoid blackouts. Congressman Ryan is calling on the Government Accountability Office to fully investigate whether sports leagues are abusing their antitrust exemption to take advantage of fans, as well as steps federal agencies and Congress can take to restore fan access to games. 

A copy of Ryan’s letter to Comptroller General Dodaro and Commissioners Goodell, Manfred, Bettman, and Silver appears below:

###

Dear Comptroller General Dodaro,

I write to request that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct a study on sports blackouts that bar certain media markets and consumers from viewing live sporting events. 

Sports blackouts have long been a source of frustration and inconvenience to Americans of all backgrounds. As a result of policies adopted by major sports leagues and broadcasters, fans in their home team’s territory are blocked from viewing nearly all of their team’s games on any platform other than their local regional sports network (RSN), forcing them to subscribe to the RSN while out-of-market viewers have their pick of cheaper, more comprehensive streaming services. Even RSN subscribers can be blacked out when the league sells the exclusive rights to certain games to streaming services like Prime Video, as happened over 20 times to New York Yankees and Mets fans over the 2023 Major League Baseball (MLB) regular season. This confusing patchwork leaves many fans without a reliable option for watching all of their team’s games on one platform, even when they are subscribed to a service which should have all of the team’s games. 

In addition, blackouts can also result from an impasse in negotiations between distributors and content providers, which impacts a consumer's ability to watch their favorite team’s games, even when they have subscribed to and paid for access to those games. For example, the recent dispute between Charter Spectrum and Disney left Spectrum’s customers blocked from viewing all Disney-owned programming for ten days. As a result, millions of Americans missed out on viewing parts of Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN, the US Open, and the start of the college football and NFL seasons. Although the dispute was resolved, it was not an aberration. From 2010 to 2022, New York experienced a total of 82 blackouts related to carriage disputes amounting to 3,080 blackout days for subscription services that had been paid for. 

Congress has played an important role in regulating the sports media landscape. The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 grants the major sports leagues an exemption to antitrust laws with regard to broadcasting agreements, allowing them to pool the rights to all teams’ games in a national package. Under the 1992 Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act, distributors must gain broadcasters’ permission before carrying their programming.  If negotiations stall, broadcasters have the right to black out content for the distributor’s customers, as happened to millions of Spectrum customers this year. Congress thus has an interest in determining whether the current sports media landscape is one that upholds a reasonable level of access for fans.  

To that end, I request that GAO conduct a study into sports blackouts that specifically examines the following:

  1. The prevalence and adverse impacts to consumers of sports blackouts throughout the United States over the last ten years, including those stemming from both league policies and carriage disputes. 
  2. Steps federal agencies can take to reduce sports blackouts. In particular, whether and to what extent the Federal Communications Commission has the authority to intervene in carriage disputes that are causing blackouts.
  3. Whether sports blackouts are related to the major sports leagues’ antitrust exemption under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 and MLB’s blanket antitrust exemption under Federal Baseball Club v. National League, and how removing the exemptions would potentially impact sports blackouts. 
  4. Legislative actions Congress could take to ensure that fans can reliably watch every game of their favorite team’s season on a single platform, regardless of where they live. 

Thank you for your prompt attention to this request. 

Sincerely, 

Patrick K. Ryan 

Member of Congress