NEWYou can now listen to PK Press Club articles!
The House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on whether major sports leagues, the NFL in particular, benefit consumers or violate the Sports Broadcast Act of 1961 by funneling games behind increasingly costly paywalls, was a one-sided debate.
During the two-hour hearing, Republicans and Democrats on the committee did something rarely seen in Washington, D.C. these days: They mostly agreed.
Then another rare sight, as if seeing a unicorn wasn’t enough… the witnesses invited to testify all arrived from roughly the same side and they were generally uninterrupted by committee members eager to reclaim their time.
SCANTING JUDICIAL COMMITTEE REPORT ACCUSES NFL OF EXTENDING ANTITRUST EXEMPTION
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stands with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the Seattle Seahawks game against the New England Patriots at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on February 8, 2026. (Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
It was like watching an All-Pro team bulldoze a roster of undrafted free agents who had decided not to take the field.
And the NFL was last in this scenario as Commissioner Roger Goodell was asked to testify but refused. And the league had no one to defend its interests.
When PK Press Club Digital contacted the NFL after the hearing to ask for its side of the story, there was no response. The NFL has remained in the dark on all matters relating to this important audience.
And the feeling here is that the league might regret remaining silent because calls to stop it from diverting its games to paid streaming services were loud behind the microphones. Consumer complaints about rising prices for watching games on these streaming sites were multiple and unopposed.
NAB COMMISSIONER SUPPORTS FRUSTRATED US SPORTS FANS AS LEAGUES PIVOT TO STREAMING SERVICES
So the NFL was routed this afternoon on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., leaves a House Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on February 28, 2023.
Member after member has raised concerns that major sports leagues in general and the NFL in particular are benefiting from the antitrust exemption provided by the Sports Broadcasting Act, while operating their businesses outside the confines of the antitrust exemption of the law that protects them.
The chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., explained what the SBA was supposed to do.
FCC CHAIRMAN QUESTIONS NFL ANTITRUST PROTECTION AS LEAGUE MOVES TO STREAMING SERVICES
“Congress believed that joint television agreements would help make games more widely available to the public,” Fitzgerald said in his opening remarks. “It would also preserve competitive balance between teams and maintain the financial viability of the professional sports league.
“In return, Congress sought to maximize the public interest by limiting the exemption to only ‘sponsored telecasts,’ ensuring that fans would have access to their favorite sports teams. Sixty-five years later, however, it is fair for this body to question whether professional sports leagues have held up their end of the bargain. In my view, they have not, and sports fans are paying the price.”
Fitzgerald criticized the league’s claim that 100 percent of its “local market games” are available for free, live and that 87 percent of games have “primary distribution” on television.
Fitzgerald showed a clip from the Sunday Ticket website that attempts to convince consumers to buy the product by warning that in the first month of the season, “94 percent of teams tend to have games on CBS and FOX that are broadcast in less than half the country.”
Streaming service EverPass Media has announced that it will become the exclusive commercial provider of NFL Sunday Ticket beginning with the 2026 season. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
So, Sunday Ticket’s pitch to fans directly contradicts the NFL’s claims.
And what did the NFL say to that?
Nothing – because Goodell refused to testify, no one else took his place to represent the league’s interests and the NFL would not comment on the matter.
Curtis LeGeyt, president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, came to the hearing to advocate for free local television and radio stations in the United States.
“NAB is not calling for repealing the Sports Broadcasting Act,” LeGeyt said. “What we’re asking is that the committee affirm its safeguards that it’s supposed to govern negotiations between the league and broadcasters. It’s not supposed to allow sports to be hidden behind paywalls.”
LeGeyt also said the law was being “misused” and he called on the committee to ensure its enforcement.
The NFL, of course, had no one to push back against the idea that it was breaking the law. There was no one to argue that millions of Americans are already behind these so-called paywalls and that a new generation of people are staying away from live television.
And the reason the NFL couldn’t make that point is why? Because Goodell declined the committee’s invitation to do so and the NFL found no allies in this hearing.
CLAY TRAVIS SAYS NFL SHOULD OFFER A SEPARATE TICKET OPTION FOR SUNDAY TO SAVE FANS MONEY.
OutKick founder and PK Press Club contributor Clay Travis interviews former President Trump during halftime of the Georgia-Alabama football game in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Charles Hunnell/OutKick)
Clay Travis, a PK Press Club contributor and founder of OutKick, brought to the committee the kind of populist thinking that has made his site a rising star in the media landscape.
“All of this,” Travis said in his opening statement, “needs to be looked at through the lens of the reasonable sports fan, people like me and your constituents, regular fans, who just want to be able to watch their favorite teams at a reasonable price without getting gouged.”
Travis highlighted what is happening in Buffalo right now and in the second week of the NFL season. The Bills will play their very first game in their new stadium on September 17, 2026, against the Detroit Lions on Thursday Night Football.
Buffalo’s new $2.2 billion stadium, which will host the game, was financed in part by New York taxpayers, who are paying $600 million, and by Erie County taxpayers, who are paying another $200 million.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PK Press Club APP
But even though the game will be streamed live for free in the Buffalo TV market, Bills fans in nearby Rochester and Syracuse, who help fund the facility with their tax dollars, will need to have an Amazon Prime Video subscription to watch the streaming broadcast.
They are taxed to pay for the stadium. And they have to pay to watch the game from home.
And what has the NFL said in response to this seemingly unfair situation? You guessed it. Nothing.
FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO
