NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will not testify before Congress next week about the league’s broadcast deals and its recent practice of broadcasting games on banned streaming services.
Godel refused Invitation to appear at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on June 10 “due to ongoing litigation related to the subject matter of the hearing,” the association’s general counsel, Ted Ullyot, wrote in a letter Wednesday to the committee’s chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
Jordan is one of several elected officials who have raised concerns about the prices fans have to pay to watch NFL games and whether the league’s live streaming deals comply with the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which gave the league a limited antitrust exemption.
The law only applies to broadcast networks. Courts have ruled in the past that this does not apply to other media, including cable, satellite and live broadcast. There was bipartisan sentiment in favor of updating the law.
Department of Justice this spring An investigation into the NFL has begun for potential anti-competitive practices related to its broadcast deals.
In his letter to Jordan, Ullyot said that 87% of the league’s matches will be available over the air this season, and that every match in the competing teams’ home markets will be broadcast on television. He said the increasing number of games on streaming services corresponds with a slight decline in games on cable.
“The NFL’s decision to license a few games to widely adopted streaming services is merely a reflection that these platforms now provide much greater reach than the current pay-TV ecosystem and that streaming television remains the foundation of our media distribution,” Ullyot wrote.
A Jordanian spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The association also sent a letter to Jordan signed by 21 members of Congress urging it to be cautious with any changes to the broadcast law. Ullyot’s letter said the SBA helps maintain competitive balance because it supports “widespread media distribution, significant revenue sharing between clubs, and collectively negotiated salary caps.”
“If the league does not handle media distribution as it has since the SBA passed, the result will be to harm NFL fans by increasing cost and confusion and undermining the competitive balance that makes NFL games so exciting,” the letter said.
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AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy contributed to this report.
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