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The U.S. Senate held a hearing Tuesday regarding the future of sports broadcasting. In his opening remarks, Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), who led the hearing, said that “in an era of deep partisan division, sports might be the most powerful cultural unifier that we have.”
“Whether on the couch or in the stands, Americans come together to cheer, hope, and believe. But those millions of fans are asking a simple question—why does it seem to be getting harder and more expensive to just watch the game?” he asked.
Cruz said sports viewing has become “more splintered” and requires multiple subscriptions and apps just to follow one team.
“It’s frustrating and it’s annoying to the dedicated sports fan,” Cruz said. “It’s not just frustrating—it can be expensive. … It can cost hundreds of dollars per year for a hardcore fan wanting to watch all of the league’s games.”
The senator said he doesn’t “blame” fans for spending money to watch all their team’s games, but questioned whether the regulation on the matter is outdated.
“Given that sports can get special treatment under the law, whether it’s antitrust protection, nonprofit status, or taxpayer financing of stadiums, what do fans deserve in return?” he asked.
Cruz questioned whether the Sports Broadcasting Act (SBA) of 1961, which grants professional leagues antitrust exemption to let them sell their national packages as a consortium as opposed to team-by-team, continues to benefit fans. The SBA was enacted when there were just three channels—media has fragmented exponentially since then, via cable/satellite packages and streaming services.
Senator Cruz called out the NFL for encroaching on the elements of the SBA that stipulated it not compete with high school and college football, by airing a Black Friday game on Amazon Prime Video during the past two seasons.
“Streaming may well be the future, but it shouldn’t sideline the fans,” Cruz said.
MLB executive Kenny Gersh, NBA executive William Koenig, and NHL executive David Proper attended the hearing. The NFL did not send a representative. Earlier this week, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell appeared with President Donald Trump in a show of force to announce that the 2027 draft will be held in Washington, D.C., at the National Mall.
In prepared remarks, Koenig said the new NBA deal will have significantly more games available on broadcast TV—between games with existing partner Disney’s ABC, as well as a new pact with NBC—and that league studies indicate 90% of existing fans already watch programming on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service.
Gersh said MLB is looking to “eliminate territorial restrictions” so that fans can watch games wherever they are and not worry about being blacked out.
“The predominant way that MLB clubs have distributed live games to their local markets has been through the pay-TV ecosystem through the regional sports networks. The system worked well for baseball fans for many years when most households subscribed to a pay-TV service,” Gersh said. “However, over the last decade, as more and more entertainment content migrated to streaming services, fewer households subscribed to pay-TV packages. To make matters worse, as the number of pay-TV subscribers continues to decline, distributors have begun to relegate the RSNs to more expensive tiers or not carry them at all. As a result, the RSN model has begun to crumble.”
