MLB, NBA, and NHL Reps Head to Capitol Hill to Explain Sports Streaming Mess Tomorrow
If you’ve ever frantically scanned Google to find how to watch your favorite team’s game, you’re not alone. The sports TV landscape is a train wreck. Things have gotten so bad, league reps now have to testify in front of our other great national embarrassment: Congress.
Tomorrow, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation will convene a hearing on the future of sports broadcasting. Executives from three major sports leagues will testify:
- NBA: Bill Koenig, President of Global Content and Media Distribution
- NHL: David Proper, Senior Executive Vice President of Media and International Strategy
- MLB: Kenny Gersh, Executive Vice President of Media and Business Development
The NFL declined send a representative to the hearing.
The proceeding is intended to shine a light on sports fans’ frustrations with media rights. Some games are available over-the-air for free, while others are paywalled with hard-to-find regional sports networks. Viewing options are different whether you’re in-market or out-of-market. Even if you have the right package, you may run into a blackout.
In a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Chairman Ted Cruz (R – Mordor) wrote that the shifts in broadcast options “raise questions about accessibility, affordability, market competition, and the long-term implications for fan engagement.”
It’s unlikely Congress can do anything about the arrangement other than complain. The leagues have been happy to divvy up rights among entertainment companies. The government could pursue a monopoly claim against the leagues, but it’s not like they could break up the NFL or force top players to jump to the UFL or something. The government can’t force sports leagues to offer their games for free.
Given the government’s current war on public media, it’s unlikely we’ll ever get any sort of enshrined right to a public broadcast of these sports leagues. They’ve got the product and they’re under no obligation to make things easy for fans.
The only real weapon fans have is their viewership. Media partners are counting on their ability to sell ads during the games. If people give up on live sports when they’re on hard-to-find channels or expensive services, it could prompt those media companies to find other methods of distribution. We’ve already seen this in some cases — the Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns, and New Orleans Pelicans now offer most in-market games free over-the-air, leading to higher viewership (if less money from a streaming exclusive deal).
Surveys show the fragmented sports landscape is turning off fans, especially younger viewers. As we reported last month, 36% of people age 18-29 who watched baseball last year plan to watch less Major League Baseball this year. Just 19% of people in that age group plan to watch more baseball in 2025. Four in 10 Gen Z baseball fans say TV access (or a lack thereof) impacts how often they watch MLB.
With a huge number of NBA games becoming Peacock-exclusive starting next season, the league may be in danger of turning off more young people unwilling to pay for an otherwise-weak streaming service.
The NFL is the easiest league to watch, but it, too, has been leaning into streaming more than fans would like. When Peacock aired the exclusive AFC Wild Card Game in January 2024, Nielsen reported older viewers were especially frustrated — the game pulled 14% fewer viewers over 50 than the same game the previous year. Netflix pulled 24.2 million viewers for its Christmas Day NFL games, but that was 5 million fewer than the year prior, when the games were on regular TV.
Ultimately, sports leagues will sell to the highest bidder and that bidder will carve up rights to promote their streaming services however they see fit. Only when fans turn away will we have a hope of a better solution.
If you’d like to watch the hearing, it begins Tuesday, May 6 at 10 a.m. ET. You can watch on the committee’s website.
