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Looks like Blackout Rule May be OTD

CloakNNNdagger

CloakNNNdagger

Hall of Fame
Finally, something fan-friendly and less likely to hold fans hostage to seeing their home team play for bucks they can't afford.

The NFL is not having a very good couple of days.

In an op-ed written for USA Today, Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler said that the agency would vote on Sept. 30 to kill the television blackout rule which the league has fought to protect.

“With the first weekend of professional football in the books, two things should be abundantly clear,” Wheeler wrote. “The NFL is king; and the Federal Communication Commission’s sports blackout rules are obsolete and have to go.”

Blackout rules were instituted in 1975 to drive fans off their couches in front of free television and to the games with a paid ticket.

But only two games were blacked out last year, and the NFL is raking in television money hand-over-fist, so the need to government intervention seems a bit outdated.

That’s Wheeler’s stance, and he pounded the drum on behalf of fans in Green Bay, Cincinnati and Indianapolis, who nearly missed out on playoff games on TV when ticket sales lagged.

“The bottom line is the NFL no longer needs the government’s help to remain viable,” Wheeler wrote. “And we at the FCC shouldn’t be complicit in preventing sports fans from watching their favorite teams on TV. It’s time to sack the sports blackout rules for good.”

The league has fought to protect the rules, as it helps protect their investments. But a time when they’re working to convince fans to come to the stadium, the stick of a television blackout might be going away.
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If that actually happens this would be huge. The blackout rule never made any sense to me anyway and with the FCC continuing to get out of wanting to regulate as many things as it has historically this makes perfect sense and is good for the fans.
 
For the life of me last weekend I could not get any help to get the Texans broadcast in NYC, due to the blackout and Fox Sports.

I ended up picking up the illegal stream.
 
I heard on the radio that only two games were blacked out last season. This is an antiquated rule and should be abolished accordingly.
 
The unintended consequence could be pay-per-view. The greed of the NFL knows no bounds.

They're like the thief that just robbed a person and saw a $5 bill fly out of the wallet as he was fleeing. In his eyes he just "lost" five bucks.
 
Showtime100 said:
The unintended consequence could be pay-per-view. The greed of the NFL knows no bounds.

They're like the thief that just robbed a person and saw a $5 bill fly out of the wallet as he was fleeing. In his eyes he just "lost" five bucks.
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Sadly, if I have to do pay-per-view to watch NFL games I'll probably be done.
 
Don't know why pay per view is even a topic. They are making billions and billions off TV as is. As DB pointed out this affects almost nothing ticket sales wise. It actually means more people get to see the games so the adspace is more valuable.

The sky isn't falling.
 
If you are telling me you can't see the NFL going pay-per-view in the future, for whatever reason, you are kidding yourself.
 
Showtime100 said:
If you are telling me you can't see the NFL going pay-per-view in the future, for whatever reason, you are kidding yourself.
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They already are, in a way, with NFL Ticket.

But, with public financed stadiums and the threat of congress with the tax exempt status, I do not see it going full blown pay-per-view anytime soon.
 
Double Barrel said:
They already are, in a way, with NFL Ticket.

But, with public financed stadiums and the threat of congress with the tax exempt status, I do not see it going full blown pay-per-view anytime soon.
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There would be a tremendous decline in viewership if they went PPV and off over the air networks. Unless there was a shift in how TV and sports on TV work overall, I don't see this happening any time soon.

What they might do, is make it available PPV online, separate from your TV subscription, but I don't think DirecTV would be too happy about that.
 
The NFL won't go to strictly pay for view, it would be suicide. There will always be NFL over free air. There are way to many fans that can't afford tickets anyway, and that TV ad revenue is big.
 
paycheck71 said:
There would be a tremendous decline in viewership if they went PPV and off over the air networks. Unless there was a shift in how TV and sports on TV work overall, I don't see this happening any time soon.

What they might do, is make it available PPV online, separate from your TV subscription, but I don't think DirecTV would be too happy about that.
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I agree. Just look at the multi-billion dollar deals they sign with networks. That's a guaranteed revenue stream that cannot be replaced with pay-per-view.

I think they will evolve the NFL Ticket type thing to augment the existing systems with networks.
 
Sunday ticket is as close to ppv as it gets. I think they will just keep doing what they do, maybe convert all games to sunday ticket and up the price. Greedy ****s
 
amazing80 said:
Sunday ticket is as close to ppv as it gets. I think they will just keep doing what they do, maybe convert all games to sunday ticket and up the price. Greedy ****s
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But why do that when the networks pay you BILLIONS. Now way could that revenue be replaced by sunday ticket sales.
 
paycheck71 said:
But why do that when the networks pay you BILLIONS. Now way could that revenue be replaced by sunday ticket sales.
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Pretty sure DTV paid like 4 billion, now you get rid of cbs, espn and fox and ONLY show games on dtv sunday ticket, you could charge crazy amounts of money. It would suck for consumers, but the nfl clearly doesn't care about the fans
 
This is the sort of thing I point to whenever someone gets too far down the road on a rant against big business and how government needs to rein them in. Government all to often is complicit in decisions that help business at the detriment of the public - in this case, the blackout rules, which were put in place by the government specifically to force the public to buy tickets of they wanted to watch the game. Government has no place in that process. Of course, we also have the stadium deals, taxes to pay the owners, etc.
 
What I don't comprehend, I pay for NFL Sunday Ticket, I also have the package that allows streaming. But if the local channel is showing the game, it's blacked out. As my job requires I be out on Sundays, it'd be nice to watch the game from my iPad. Stupid rule!
 
daniel kaplan @dkaplanSBJ
Now official, FCC ends the NFL's blackout rule.
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Andrew Brandt ‏@adbrandt
Re FCC ruling, NFL's "commitment to free, over-the-air television will not change for the foreseeable future.” There will be lawyers...
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Source tells me there will be no change in NFL blackout policy after FCC vote, as agency commissioners predicted. Sorry twitter world

...The FCC’s decision will not change that commitment for the foreseeable future." Foreseeable sort of an ominous adjective here

NFL statement on FCC ruling: "the NFL is the only sports league that televises every one of its games on free, over-the-air television...
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No shock here that the NFL won't lift the rule. They just need to "own" it now and not blame it on the Feds.

More versions of all-tarp stadium?

Jaguars-Tarps.jpg
 
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