WASHINGTON, D.C. — The NAB has released a new television spot as part of its new “Keep the Game On” campaign that highlights what the association led by Curtis LeGeyt believes is a growing concern among sports fans: the increasing number of games moving behind paywalls and subscription services.
The spot encourages viewers to make their voices heard by texting “SPORTS” to 39179 and joining the effort to keep sports accessible on free, local television. It is available in both English and in Spanish, using the same visual creative rather than a unique culturally relevant advertisement as advocated by Hispanic marketing leaders for decades.
Furthermore, the timing of the spot is unfortunate for fans of the Las Vegas Golden Knights who rely on DirecTV to receive ABC affiliate KTNV-13 in Las Vegas. That’s because KTNV is a station owned by The E.W. Scripps Co., which saw all of its broadcast properties blocked from DirecTV local lineups at 4pm Pacific Sunday due to a retransmission consent impasse.
The dispute came as DirecTV and Griffin Media resolved a carriage fee dispute that left viewers of its Oklahoma City and Tulsa stations in the dark for roughly one month.
While cable TV largely inked sports rights agreements across the 1990s, creating the regional sports network and putting pro sports behind a paywall, the NAB has told RBR+TVBR that the battle against “Big Tech” is different as cable television service providers always offered broadcast and cable channels within the same paid tier.
— With reporting by Adam R Jacobson, in Nashville
