Senators Push FCC Vote On Sports Blackout Rules

A pair of senior senators has asked Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler to vote on a final order eliminating its sports blackout rules by the beginning of August.

In a letter to the chairman, Sens John McCain (R-AZ) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that given that the FCC gave notice back in December 2013 that it thought the rules should go, it was time to move expeditiously to follow through -- it voted unanimously for a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking eliminating them.

The National Football League prevents the TV broadcast of any game not sold out 72 hours before game time. The FCC blackout rules backstop the league by preventing cable or satellite operators from airing a game blacked out on broadcast TV.

In December, it proposed eliminating that rule and leaving blackouts to private negotiations among rightsholders and distributors. "We agree wholeheartedly with the Commission that 'the sports blackout rules have become obsolete,'" they wrote, "and we believe the record clearly supports the FCC's tentative conclusions in favor of eliminating this unnecessary rule...We ask that you commit to bringing the final order to a vote within the next 60 days [the letter was dated June 2]."