FCC Ends NFL TV Blackouts
Trending News: Watching The NFL On TV Will Never Be The Same Again
Why Is This Important?
The FCC has reversed a rule that allows the NFL to black out local games when the local home team doesn’t sell out of tickets.Long Story Short
For about 40 years, the NFL has punished their fans when their local team didn’t sell out for home games. If your favorite local NFL team didn’t sell out, you couldn’t watch them on TV. This FCC ruling changes that.Long Story
Since the 1950s, the NFL had a rule in place that punished local fans for not showing up to the team’s home games. If the stadium didn’t sell out then nobody in the local area within a 75-mile radius could watch the game on TV.For decades, the NFL has used public funding which, in turn, raised taxes in order to help their teams build new stadiums, but they wouldn't let those fans — those taxpayers — watch the game on TV?
Talk about a cruel and unusual punishment.
Teams like the Buccaneers, Bills, Chargers, and Raiders have faced blackouts most recently. The Chargers have been solid in the last ten years, but they have an old, worn-down stadium. It’s much better to watch the game from home on your big HDTV.
Meanwhile, the Bills and Raiders haven’t been good at all (maybe not showing their games locally is good thing?).
Other leagues have similar rules in place to help stadiums sell out. The NBA will only show local games on NBA TV if they are not sold out. The MLB and NHL have the best blackout policy of all the leagues, as their blackout rules have nothing to do with attendance. Both leagues only blackout a nationally televised game if a local channel is broadcasting it as well.
For example, if ESPN is airing the same game as a local network, then they black out the ESPN version and have the local channel be the only way to access the game. That makes sense.
In 2012, the NFL blacked-out 15 games and that number dropped to two games in 2014. With the blackout rule no longer in place will you see NFL attendance drop or less sellouts happen?
At times when teams were close to selling out, sponsors would buy out the remaining tickets in order for the games to air locally. Some teams, like the Raiders, put a giant tarp over their stadium seating to drastically reduce the number of tickets that needed to be sold to avoid a blackout.
While no experience is quite like actually going to an NFL game, there may be a lot more people today choosing to watch from the safety and convenience of their own home. You can watch games on big screens, tablets or even on mobile phones.
It will be interesting to see how this rule will affect tickets sales for the NFL.
Own The Conversation
Ask The Big Question: With so many cool ways to watch NFL games today, will more fans prefer to watch from home than actually go to the stadium?Disrupt Your Feed: The NFL has taken several hits to their policies and image in the last few months, but that won’t stop them from making billions of dollars in profits every year.
Drop This Fact: The NFL is listed as a Non-Profit Organization and is tax exempt despite a revenue of $9.5 billion per year.
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