NFL, NAB Team To Defend Sports Blackout Rule

The National Football League, with the support of CBS, Fox and the National Association of Broadcasters, has launched a Web site, protectfootballonfreetv.com, to push back against the Federal Communications Commission's proposal to drop its sports blackout rule.

FCC rules prevent cable and satellite operators from importing distant TV station signals carrying an NFL game that has been blacked out on broadcast TV in a local market due to insufficient ticket sales. The leagues can still write such blackouts into their media rights contracts, but the rule provides a legal backstop.

"While every other professional sports service has moved to pay services like cable or satellite," says the site, "the NFL makes every regular-season and playoff game available to you for free," the site points out, saying scrapping the rule will threaten free TV and weaken local economies. The site claims that pay TV has "manufactured" the controversy, and adds that "we cannot let these special interests dictate what is best for the NFL fans."