Federal regulators are continuing to examine whether the migration of major sports programming from broadcast television to subscription streaming services is harming consumers and local broadcasters.
The FCC has been gathering comments from leagues, broadcasters, and station groups about the increasing fragmentation of sports rights across services including Amazon, Netflix, and YouTube. The agency said consumers increasingly must subscribe to multiple services to follow major leagues.
The National Football League defended its current distribution model in filings with the FCC, arguing that more than 87% of its games still air on free broadcast television and all local-market games remain available over the air.
Broadcasters and affiliate groups have argued that the migration of premium sports inventory to subscription services threatens local stations by weakening audience reach and reducing valuable advertising opportunities tied to live events. The issue has implications for radio operators because sports rights remain one of the few forms of mass live programming that consistently attracts large local audiences and advertisers.