The NFL has met with the FCC as the
league faces scrutiny from regulators
[April 23, 2026]
By JOE REEDY
The National Football League has met with the Federal Communications
Commission as the league faces scrutiny from federal regulators.
League officials requested the meeting, which took place last Friday
in Washington. The FCC recently sought public comments on the
ongoing shift of live sports from broadcast channels to streaming
services. As of Wednesday, nearly 8,700 comments have been logged.
The NFL's letter about the meeting and its PowerPoint presentation
to the FCC were posted to the FCC's public comment section on sports
broadcasting on Wednesday.
The NFL is not alone in creating packages for streamers. Its
standing as the most popular league and the revenue it receives from
media rights, however, put it front and center in a changing
landscape.
The NFL reiterated the benefits of its distribution strategy,
including the fact that more than 87% of all games last season were
on broadcast television. All games in a team’s home market air on a
broadcast network.
“This distribution model is good for our fans, for local television
broadcasters, for our 32 clubs in small and large markets alike, and
for the competitiveness of the game itself. The success of our fan-
and broadcast-friendly strategy is evident as the 2025 season was
the most viewed since 1989 and one of the most competitive in League
history,” Brendon Plack, the NFL's senior vice president of public
policy and government affairs, wrote in a filing recapping the
meeting.
Plack was among the officials who represented the NFL at the
meeting, a group that also included Hans Schroeder, the executive
vice president of media distribution.
The FCC officials included Greg Watson, chief of staff for Chairman
Brendan Carr. Carr had used an illustration of a fan watching a
Green Bay Packers game when he announced the public comment period
on Feb. 25.
Games aired last season on CBS, NBC/Peacock, ABC/ESPN/ESPN+, Fox,
NFL Network, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and YouTube TV.
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Workers prepare the draft theater ahead of the NFL Draft Tuesday,
April 21, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/John Locher)
The league is expected to move at least three more
games to streaming as part of a five-game package next season. That
would include games on Thanksgiving Eve, a second on Black Friday
and Christmas Eve. The Week 1 game between San Francisco and the Los
Angeles Rams in Australia on Sept. 10 would also be offered via
streaming. The Week 1 games from Brazil the past two seasons were
also streamed.
A five-game package could bring the league at least
$250 million.
The league averages nearly $11 billion in revenue per season from
its media deals. That could increase since the sale of Paramount to
Skydance Media allows the league to renegotiate its deal with CBS.
Besides the FCC scrutiny, the Justice Department is investigating
the NFL for potential anticompetitive practices.
Congress and other federal agencies have also discussed changes to
the Sports Broadcasting Act. Passed by Congress in 1961, it grants
professional sports leagues limited antitrust immunity, allowing
them to pool their media rights and negotiate as a single entity
while protecting them from antitrust lawsuits.
The act applies only to broadcast networks. Courts have ruled in the
past that it does not apply to other media, including cable,
satellite and streaming. There has been bipartisan sentiment in
favor of updating the law.
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