Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal takes aim at NFL's antitrust exemption
In recent weeks, some politicians have questioned the current viability of the NFL's broadcast antitrust exemption. As noted by John Ourand of Puck , some NFL executives have suspected that the effort carries the fingerprints of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who owns NFL partner Fox. The suspicions were validated on Thursday, when Murdoch's Wall Street Journal posted an editorial that focuses on whether the NFL still merits a broadcast antitrust exemption.
"[T]oday the NFL is the powerful giant while the broadcasters are weak ," the WSJ editorial board writes. "Commissioner Roger Goodell wants to take advantage of this dominance by renegotiating with the networks. In 2021 the NFL finished a package of broadcast deals, including with CBS, Fox and NBC, that were meant to run through 2033.
Rights fee roughly doubled. "Mr. Goodell is using the threat of an early opt-out provision to change the terms only halfway through the deals.
The assumption is that he thinks he can get more money from big tech’s streaming services than he can from his long-time TV partners. That would hurt the networks, especially local stations, that rely on the NFL for ad revenue. Live sports are one of the last drivers of large audiences, and the advertising funds local news and reporting.
" The editorial concludes with this message to Goodell and his 32 constituents, as to the antitrust exemption: "Let’s hear the NFL explain why it still deserves it. " It's a very bold move. But it comes as the NFL is making an equally bold effort to get CBS to immediately bump its annual rate for a Sunday afternoon package from $2.