Sports Fans Coalition continued to urge the FCC...
Sports Fans Coalition continued to urge the FCC to repeal the sports blackout rule that bars multichannel video programming distributors from carrying games blacked out by sports leagues in markets where the games haven’t sold out. The rules “are anti-consumer…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
and do not serve the public interest,” it said in an ex parte filing in docket 12-3 (http://bit.ly/1hVtoN6). Existing FCC regulations and federal copyright statutes offer significant protection to the sports leagues, it said. The sports blackout rule should be examined separately from the network non-duplication and syndicated exclusivity rules, SFC said. The commission also may repeal the rule for open video systems and direct broadcast satellite systems, it said. SFC also continued to urge the Media Bureau to investigate SFC’s allegations that the NFL pressured some stations to buy unsold tickets in order to avoid blackouts. SFC made the allegations earlier this year (CD Feb 25 p14). The filing recounted a meeting with Media Bureau staff.