With streaming services now offering live sports, finding games on television has become a more expensive and burdensome process.
In addition to cable subscriptions, fans often need several streaming services to locate the games they want to watch. Amazon Prime Video holds rights to NFL and NBA games. Netflix has acquired rights to MLB and NFL contests. Peacock airs college football, college basketball, NFL, NBA and MLB games. Apple TV+ carries MLB and MLS matchups. ESPN+ and Hulu stream some NHL games.
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In response to rising costs, two Democratic lawmakers asked the Federal Communications Commission to use its “broad authority to protect the public interest” and noted that Congress has previously directed the commission “to actively promote economic competition.”
“We encourage the Commission to closely examine the trends that have directly contributed to the current state of sports streaming,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Patrick Ryan wrote to the FCC.
In March, the FCC requested public comment, seeking proposals to address concerns about television access to live sports.
“For decades, Americans have enjoyed turning on their television sets and quickly finding the games they wanted to watch for free on over-the-air broadcasts,” the FCC said. “Many games are still available for free over broadcast TV, but there has been a surge in recent years of games going behind the paywalls of various streaming services. While this can increase the number of games and sports available to fans, many consumers today find it more difficult to locate the events they want to watch, and are now paying to sign up for one or more video distribution platforms that can be difficult to navigate.”
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The lawmakers cited examples of alleged anti-competitive practices that have increased costs for sports fans. Those include Fubo’s merger with Disney, parent company of ESPN, and “forced bundling” of cable and streaming services with channels or platforms sports fans don’t use.
“For sports fans, the cost of watching live sports on television or via streaming becomes more expensive every year, and the options for tuning in become even more complicated,” Warren and Ryan wrote. “Mergers involving already-dominant distributors, streamers, and sports leagues themselves threaten to make matters worse, leaving viewers spending more and more money to watch the sports they care about.”
The lawmakers suggested the FCC take a more active role in reviewing transactions.
