U.S. Senator to introduce bill aimed at ending sports blackouts, making games easier to watch for fans
The bill aims to prevent fans from having to own subscriptions to multiple streaming services to watch their favorite team.
In the past, all you needed to watch your favorite NFL team every Sunday was access to local television channels. That can still work these days, but only if you live in that team’s particular city … as long as that team isn’t playing in a prime-time, nationally-televised game … or if that team was selected to play one of the games on the various streaming services the league has worked with in recent years. It can all get a little confusing, and expensive, for fans, which is why one U.
S. Senator will introduce a bill aimed at making games more accessible and ending most sports blackouts. That Senator — Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin — is expected to introduce the “For the Fans” act, which will make local games easier to watch and prevent fans from having multiple subscriptions to watch their favorite teams.
The bill, if passed, would impact most major sports leagues, per The Athletic, which detailed some the changes the bill looks to make. If enacted, the new bill would impact the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, WNBA, MLS and NWSL, among other leagues. All nationally televised games involving pro teams from a state would be made available for free statewide, via broadcasting or streaming and on a consistent channel or service.
This is similar to the NFL’s policy with TV partners that mandates free local access for fans of participating teams in nationally streamed games, like “Thursday Night Football” airing on Amazon Prime Video. While the NFL does require “free local access” to fans during certain nationally-streamed games, that rule doesn’t apply across the entire states. In Wisconsin, for example, a Green Bay Packers game on Amazon Prime Video only needs to be shown locally in Green Bay, not anywhere else in the state.