WASHINGTON—As more sports shift from broadcast and cable to streaming and a growing number of consumers are complaining about the cost and complexity of following their favorite teams, the Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has announced that it is seeking public comments on how the changing broadcast and sports rights landscape is impacting consumers.
“For decades, Americans have enjoyed turning on their television sets and quickly finding the games they wanted to watch for free on an over-the-air broadcast,” the Media Bureau noted in a Public Notice seeking comments on the issue. “Yet watching your favorite sports team play is not as easy these days. 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 find the events they want to watch and are now paying to sign up for one or more video distribution platforms that consumers can find difficult to navigate.”
“It is against this backdrop that the Media Bureau issues this Public Notice,” the Media Bureau noted. “We would like for commenters to address the current and emerging trends in the distribution of live sports programming. How does the present marketplace benefit or harm consumers? How does the recent trends towards fragmentation facilitate or inhibit the ability of local broadcast television stations to meet their public interest obligations, including their production of local news and reporting? In what ways is the marketplace continuing to evolve and how will future changes impact consumer access to free over-the-air news and information, including public safety information?”
For the comments, the Media Bureau has opened MB Docket No. 26-45 and set a deadline for comments of March 27, 2026, with reply comments due on April 13, 2026.
The Public Notice did not, however, address or describe specific actions, such as new rules, that the agency might take in response to its inquiries.
In the Public Notice, the Media Bureau indicated that a major focus of its inquiries would be on the impact the changing sports rights business has on local broadcasters.
"Given the nexus between sports programming and the local media marketplace—as well as the FCC’s ongoing work to support local news and reporting—we believe it is important for us to evaluate the sports media landscape and understand how changes have impacted consumers and broadcasters," it noted.
The Public Notice seeking comments also described extensive changes in the sports media rights landscape that the inquiry seeks to address.
“Live sports are no longer on broadcast TV alone,” the Media Bureau explained. “Today, the NFL has media rights agreements with Disney (ESPN/ABC), Paramount (CBS/Paramount+), Fox Corporation (Fox/Fox One), NBCUniversal (NBC/Peacock), NFL Network, Amazon (Amazon Prime Video), Google (YouTube), and Netflix. Over the life of these agreements the NFL stands to bring in over $100 billion in sports rights fees. The other major professional sports leagues, the NHL, MLB, and NBA, have also agreed to media rights contracts with a range of national video program distributors that amount to billions of dollars.”
“Over the last two decades college athletic conferences have also entered into multi-billion dollar media rights agreements,” the Public Notice continued. “Both professional sports leagues and college athletic conferences have also launched their own networks and direct-to-consumer streaming services. As a result, today, NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL games can be found on broadcast, cable, and streaming services. Further, revenue derived from sport rights fees (national and local) is now a vital revenue source in sports, and in some cases is replacing gate receipts and other forms of income as the largest source of revenue.”
This ongoing fragmentation of rights can create problems for consumers, the Public Notice added.
“While streamers have helped expand access to professional and collegiate sports, they also appear to have contributed to the fragmentation of the sports media marketplace,” the Media Bureau reported. “In 2025, NFL games aired on 10 different services, which, according to some estimates, could cost a consumer over $1,500 to watch all games.”
The full Public Notice and the list of questions that the FCC plans to explore are available here.
In a post on X, FCC Chair Brendan Carr described the inquiry as follows:
For decades, Americans enjoyed turning on their TV & quickly finding the game they wanted to see.Yet watching your favorite team play isn’t as easy these day. Many games are still on broadcast, but an increasing number are on a range of different online platforms.Today, the… pic.twitter.com/0NkscbH0FBFebruary 25, 2026
