STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL
Re: Sports Blackout Rules, Report and Order, MB Docket No. 12-3 (September 30, 2014)
The Commission’s sports blackout rules were adopted the same year that the Baltimore Colts, St. 
Louis Cardinals, and Los Angeles Rams clinched their respective NFL division titles.  These teams are no 
longer with us.  We bid adieu to them years ago.  It is time also to say goodbye to this agency’s archaic 
sports blackout policies.  
Our rules were put in place to help ensure that stadiums were filled with fans.  This prevented 
cable operators and satellite carriers from carrying a game in a market where it was not otherwise 
available on a local broadcast channel.  By protecting the gate receipts of professional teams—the 
primary source of team revenue at the time—the sports blackout rules helped support a community 
institution.  
But revenues today for professional sports teams are a multibillion dollar mix of television rights, 
stadium naming rights, merchandise, licensing, corporate sponsorships, and luxury suites.  For the life of 
me, I do not understand why this Commission still has rules in the middle of this mix.  They are a vestige 
from a bygone era.  It is time for us to retire them.    
So I am pleased we do that today.  I think this is good for sports fans.  This agency should not 
support policies that prevent fans from watching their hometown teams on television.  To be clear, even 
as we remove our rules, we cannot guarantee an end to sports blackouts.  That is because blackouts can 
still be enforced by privately-negotiated contracts.  But I would hope that leagues that rely on this rule—
namely the NFL—find a solution to avoid blackouts.  If not, I think they will risk alienating existing fans 
and turning off would-be fans at a time when they cannot afford to do so.  
I commend my colleague, then-Chairwoman Clyburn, for initiating this proceeding and Chairman 
Wheeler for carrying the ball across the goal line.  This has my full support.