CPAC Opposes FCC Intervention in Sports as Carr Questions Super Bowl on Streaming
The FCC shouldn’t intervene in the sports rights marketplace and doesn’t have the authority to do so, said the Conservative Political Action Coalition Foundation’s Center for Regulatory Freedom in a filing posted Monday in docket 26-45. It came just days after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr highlighted Amazon’s increased carriage of sporting events in a social media post.
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“Amazon wants the NFL to sell them the right to take the Super Bowl off of free broadcast TV and put it on Amazon’s streaming service. What do you think?” Carr wrote Saturday on X, adding a screenshot of a New York Times column on Amazon Prime's growth.
CPAC argued in its filing that “efforts to impose regulatory constraints designed to preserve legacy distribution patterns risk producing significant unintended consequences.”
The FCC’s proceeding “correctly identifies a period of significant change in the distribution of live sports programming,” but the matter doesn’t fall within the agency’s jurisdiction, CPAC said. “Expanding the Commission’s role into the regulation of content distribution markets -- particularly those beyond its traditional jurisdiction -- would set a precedent with far-reaching implications. Such an expansion risks blurring the line between communications infrastructure regulation and content market oversight.”
It's not the first time CPAC has urged the FCC to stay within its jurisdiction. The conservative group also called for the agency not to eliminate the TV ownership cap and has opposed an ATSC 3.0 tuner mandate. “The Commission’s role in this context should be one of careful observation and analytical rigor, rather than premature intervention,” said Monday's filing.
FCC intervention “to limit exclusivity or mandate broader distribution” of sports programming could reduce the value of sports media rights, CPAC added. “This, in turn, could result in fewer games being produced or distributed, particularly at the margins, thereby reducing rather than expanding consumer access.” FCC policies aimed at standardizing access across platforms could restrict the ability of providers to tailor packages for different segments of the market, CPAC said.
In another filing, NTT IndyCar racing series owner Roger Penske said he welcomed the FCC’s efforts to keep sports on broadcast TV. He's the CEO of transportation company Penske, which also owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indianapolis 500. IndyCar events are broadcast by Fox, which previously filed comments at the FCC arguing that streaming shouldn’t be the default method of showing sporting events.
“Sports thrive on broadcast television,” Penske said in his comments, posted Monday. “Protecting this ecosystem is essential for the fans, sports teams, and the local communities that depend on the strength of their local broadcast stations.”