DOJ Opens Probe Into NFL’s Sports Television Deals

The US Justice Department has opened an antitrust probe into the National Football League, looking at whether its broadcast deals with media companies drive up the costs for consumers, according to people familiar with the matter.

The NFL and other sports leagues currently have an antitrust exemption that allows them to negotiate media deals collectively on behalf of their teams under the 1961 Sports Broadcasting Act. But media outlets, regulators and members of Congress have recently highlighted how difficult it is for consumers to be able to watch games amid a labyrinth of streaming, broadcast and cable options. Policy experts have begun to debate whether the act applies to negotiations beyond free broadcast TV distribution. The US Justice Department has opened an antitrust probe into the National Football League, looking at whether its broadcast deals with media companies drive up the costs for consumers, according to people familiar with the matter.

The NFL and other sports leagues currently have an antitrust exemption that allows them to negotiate media deals collectively on behalf of their teams under the 1961 Sports Broadcasting Act. But media outlets, regulators and members of Congress have recently highlighted how difficult it is for consumers to be able to watch games amid a labyrinth of streaming, broadcast and cable options. Policy experts have begun to debate whether the act applies to negotiations beyond free broadcast TV distribution.

The Justice Department’s investigation is focusing on the broadcasting exemption in the Sports Broadcasting Act and the leverage the NFL has to extract high prices, which get passed on to consumers, one of the people said, asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on the opening of the investigation. The Justice Department had no immediate comment.

“The NFL’s media distribution model is the most fan and broadcaster-friendly in the entire sports and entertainment industry,” the league said in a statement. “With over 87% of our games on free, broadcast television, including 100% of games in the markets of the competing teams, the NFL has for decades put our fans front and center in how we distribute our content.”

Modern sports programming looks a lot different today than it did when the exemption was enacted more than half a century ago. Instead of a small number of free broadcast networks like ABC, NBC and CBS, the NFL now also licenses games to cable TV networks and streaming platforms like Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and YouTube, which are behind a pay wall.

The increased competition is driving up the prices broadcasters must pay for games while making it harder for viewers to access them.

In February, the Federal Communications Commission launched an inquiry into the trends in live sports programming, asking the public to weigh in on whether they feel harmed by the rise of streaming TV. Republican Senator Mike Lee, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, wrote a letter last month to the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission seeking a review of the sports exemption.

In his letter, Lee said that during the past season, to watch every NFL game football fans spent almost $1,000 on cable and streaming subscriptions. In practice that means signing up to multiple streaming services and maintaining high-speed internet in addition to a traditional cable or satellite bundle, he said.

“The resulting fragmentation has produced consumer confusion and increasing costs for viewers attempting to watch their teams,” Lee wrote at the time.

While it’s unclear what the exact effects of removing the NFL’s collective negotiation shield would be, people could become emboldened to file more lawsuits alleging harm from the league, said David Goodfriend, the founder of the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Sports Fans Coalition.

In 2024, a California jury found the NFL illegally colluded with DirecTV to increase prices for Sunday Ticket subscribers and awarded $14 billion in damages.

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