In the last two years, professional and semi-pro sports leagues have been signing a multitude of live play-by-play rights with the owners of broadcast TV stations, shifting away from regional sports networks. Now the NAB wants to make sure over-the-air TV doesn’t lose the momentum in the face of digital “Big Tech” encroachment.
What’s fueled the creation of the NAB’s Game On microsite and fight to “keep the game on”?
The continued availability of live sports on free, local television — complete with a Congressional ask to introduce legislation that would “keep sports on local TV.”
While Scripps Sports and Gray Media are among the local broadcast TV station ownership groups that have made big strides in stripping RSNs of their pro sports rights agreements, this effort clearly targets the shift of the National Football League and Major League Baseball coverage to subscription-based streaming platforms.
While some 100 million Americans watched NFL games on broadcast TV on Thanksgiving Day, the NAB laments that Christmas Day games “will be behind the Netflix paywall.”
The NAB did not mention that Amazon Prime already has “Thursday Night Football” rights. Nevertheless, the association led by President/CEO Curtis LeGeyt bemoans the fact that, in the NAB’s view, “fans are increasingly being locked out of marquee events that bring communities together.”
The NAB then references “a national survey of likely voters” that shows 83% of respondents prefer games on broadcast TV compared to 17% who favor streaming.
LeGeyt commented, “What used to be simple, turning on the TV to watch the game with family, is now a maze of expensive streaming subscriptions and login screens. Games that once aired on local broadcast stations are increasingly gobbled up by Big Tech platforms, hidden behind paywalls that come with steep monthly bills. That is not progress, it is a problem. Broadcasters need the ability to compete and keep sports accessible to everyone. Broadcasters bring the games fans love to the masses, but if we are going to be able to deliver this public service in the future, we must be able to compete on a level playing field with Big Tech behemoths.”
