The House Judiciary Committee will conduct a hearing next week on the Sports Broadcasting Act. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell received an invitation to attend and testify.
Goodell has officially communicated his unwillingness to do so.
Via John Ourand of Puck, who reported earlier this week that Goodell would “politely decline,” NFL general counsel Ted Ullyot sent a letter to House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) explaining the league’s position.
Per Ourand, Ullyot wrote that the league does not believe the streaming of games on services like Prime Video, Netflix, and YouTube impact the traditional broadcast networks.
“As technologies have presented new ways to distribute video content, viewing habits have changed, and we have adjusted our approach, but to be clear, this has not come at the expense of our dedication to broadcast television,” Ullyot said, according to Ourand.
Ullyot also explained the NFL’s position that streaming services “offer significantly more reach than the current pay-TV ecosystem. . . . Broadcast television remains the foundation of our media distribution.”
But if the streaming services provide greater reach, the NFL will become even more inclined to sell more packages to streaming services if/when those options provide greater revenue.
That’s the heart of the current concerns for the networks, as evidenced by Fox owner Rupert Murdoch’s decision to embark on a multi-platform political pressure campaign. As the league attempts to get more money from the networks (starting with CBS) under deals that were already finalized (and that last at least four more seasons), the not-so-subtle “or else” comes from the possibility of selling the packages currently held by the broadcast networks to streamers.
The NFL believes it currently has struck a balance that does not threaten broadcast TV. The threat comes not from where the puck is, but from where the puck could be going.
It’s not a risk-free endeavor for the league. Beyond the very real question of whether the NFL’s sale of league-wide packages exceeds the limits of the broadcast antitrust exemption (which the Department of Justice reportedly is investigating) is the question of whether Congress would strip the league of the exemption entirely.
The latter outcome would create chaos for the league, forcing teams to sell their TV rights individually, potentially turning the current salary-cap system on its head, and possibly setting the stage for the NFL to fracture into two separate leagues.
