It’s been a Congressional quest for several years to ensure the most popular National Football League team in a given geographical area get over-the-air coverage, rather than relying on Designated Market Area (DMA) rules that use mileage as the default gauge for what’s made available to local viewers.
Now, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin has introduced legislation designed to ensure everyone in the state has access to Green Bay Packers telecasts.
Introducing S.2857, the “Go Pack Go Act of 2023.”
Authored by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), her bill would amend the Communications Act of 1934 and title 17 of the United States Code to provide greater access to in-state television broadcast programming for cable and satellite subscribers in certain counties.
The proposed legislation has been referred to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, where Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) will either take up discussion of the bill or let it languish, which is not likely.
Getting Packers games in every Wisconsin ZIP code isn’t easy, in particular in the New Richmond area. This is the heart of the portion of Wisconsin within the Minneapolis-St. Paul DMA. Some 6% of the market is within the state of Wisconsin.
The Duluth, Minn.-Superior, Wisc., market, has a member of the Packers TV Network: KQDS “FOX 21.”
Meanwhile, Packers TV Network stations can be found in Minot, Fargo and Bismarck, N.D.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Omaha-Council Bluffs; Peoria, Ill.; all of Iowa; and even in St. Louis.
But, for those on the Wisconsin side of the border mere miles from St. Paul, a strong over-the-air antenna capable of receiving Eau Claire, Wisc., stations would be the lone way of getting Packers game and not those of the Minnesota Vikings.
That’s why Baldwin has reintroduced the “Go Pack Go Act,” which “requires cable and satellite providers to provide their Wisconsin subscribers with access to programming from broadcast television stations in a Wisconsin media market.”
It’s not so simple, in particular in the portion of the state within the Minneapolis-St. Paul market. Here, substitute FOX or CBS affiliates would need to be brought into the mix. And, in an environment where retransmission consent fees are a hot-button nonstarter of a topic for MVPDs, getting Baldwin’s bill to become law has myriad challenges.
What prompted Baldwin to bring back the act?
The Packers, Vikings and Detroit Lions were each scheduled to play at the same time last weekend, leaving Packers fans in Western and Northern Wisconsin unable to access the Packers broadcast due to DMA geography. Florence County, Wisc., a rural parcel of the state bordering Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the town of Iron Mountain, is within the Marquette, Mich., market and therefore gets Lions games.
“On weeks like this one, where the Vikings and Lions are playing at the same time, thousands of Packers fans in Wisconsin could be denied the chance to see their team play,” Baldwin said. “Every Packers fan across our state should be able to watch every Packers game.”
Until that happens, Baldwin is calling on the NFL to do a better job scheduling games and “help ensure every Wisconsinite that bleeds Green and Gold is able to watch their Green Bay Packers.”
Sunday’s schedule was heavy on 1pm Eastern games due to the start of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in the religion.
In Wisconsin, more than 415,000 people live in 13 counties that have been assigned to an out-of-state market.
