The NFL held a meeting last week with senior Federal Communications Commission officials “to justify the league’s media-rights strategy.” The meeting Friday in D.C., “which the NFL requested,” came after the FCC started its probe into the changing sports-media business and “whether the evolution is harming consumers and the broadcast-television industry.” Separately, the U.S. Justice Department is investigating sports leagues’ pivot to streaming and its “impact on the marketplace.” The FCC gathering included NFL Media EVP/Media Distribution Hans Schroeder, whose presentation to the FCC “defended its 65-year-old antitrust exemption that allows it to negotiate media rights for all NFL teams.” In one slide, the league “argued that having 32 teams negotiate their own rights deals individually would result in further viewer confusion and higher costs” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 4/22).
NFL makes its media-rights case to the FCC amid inquiry
