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PK Press Club contributor and OutKick founder Clay Travis unleashed on the National Football League in a heartfelt testimony about the cost of watching games from home.
During his testimony, Travis “defends[d] for the reasonable fan” in an effort to put an end to what he called illegal “pay-per-view.”
“Every day, sports fans are being ripped off for the opportunity to watch their favorite teams. Fans are now paying significantly more money each year for something that, under the 1961 law, you all guaranteed would be free,” Travis began.
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NFL fans walk past the Super Bowl Experience at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California on February 6, 2026. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
“Most of your constituents are frustrated. They don’t know how to find games, and they have to pay way too much when they have the opportunity to watch these games. I don’t know how many of you remember the days when you could have a remote in your hand and easily switch to any other game… They just want to be able to watch their favorite team and not have to struggle to do so.”
“You have an important responsibility and opportunity to apply the law fairly and freely, and to help fans around the world pay less and get more.”
Travis then said the NFL was “very clearly violating the clear intent of the law.”
Netflix and NFL signage announces the two NFL Christmas Day marquee games streaming live on Netflix in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 1, 2024. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
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“It was designed to ensure that fans had free access to games. Anything that fans have to pay for, outside of the television broadcast, arguably falls outside the scope of that 1961 exemption,” Travis said.
Last March, the Senate Judiciary Committee requested a review of the law. Congress passed the law allowing leagues to pool their media rights and sell them nationally – a move that helped NFL Games a staple of free network television. Today, these same collective rights agreements are increasingly divided for streaming platforms, sparking backlash from fans frustrated by paywalls and platform hopping.
If we were to strictly broadcast all NFL games throughout the 2025 season on Sunday Ticket, Netflix, Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, ESPN Unlimited and NFL+, it would have cost a minimum of $575, and for others (former Sunday Ticket watchers) almost $800.
Sports leagues have benefited from the shift to streaming, with the NFL paying $1 billion a year to stream “Thursday Night Football” on Amazon, as one example. The Sports Broadcasting Act exemption passed in 1961 applies only to television.
The NFL logo is painted on the field at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, ahead of Super Bowl LX between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks on February 8, 2026. (Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)
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Courts have ruled in the past that this does not apply to other media, including cable, satellite and streaming. The Sports Broadcasting Act includes a rule allowing local games to be banned, which still applies to out-of-market packages sold by leagues.
