The Department of Justice is coming for the National Football League.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the DOJ has opened an investigation into whether the NFL has “engaged in anticompetitive tactics to harm consumers.”
The “nature and scope,” per the report, isn’t currently known. Both the DOJ and the NFL declined comment.
The article focuses on the Sports Broadcast Act of 1961, which gives the league an antitrust exemption when it comes to the negotiation of TV rights.
The Journal did not report on the nature and scope of the investigation but mentioned the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which gave professional sports leagues antitrust protection to secure collectively-packaged television rights.
Both the NFL and DOJ declined to comment to the Journal.
Dating back to last year, Congress has asked sports leagues to give an explanation into how the current media environment – increasingly becoming more exclusive to streaming services – and new media rights deals are beneficial to the public.
The NFL did not send a representative to a Senate Commerce Committee hearing last May to discuss the market segmentation that has made it costly for consumers to watch their favorite teams.
“I wish they had come,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said of the NFL at the time. “I think the issues that were discussed apply to them just like they apply to the leagues that were here.”
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition, Policy, and Consumer Rights, Mike Lee, wrote April 7 to Omeed A. Assefi, the acting Assistant Attorney General, and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson and urged for the executive branch to investigate the SBA’s interpretation.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and Rep. Pat Ryan, D-New York, urged the Federal Communications Commission earlier this week “to closely examine the trends that have directly contributed to the current state of sports streaming.” The FCC announced in February it sought public comment on how the changing media habits of leagues affected consumers.
NFL games shown on streaming services always air in the local TV markets of the two competing teams’ cities. But estimates have shown that watching the NFL last season cost, on average, between $900-1,000, despite the NFL’s assertion that nearly 90% of its 272 regular-season games still air on local TV.
