WASHINGTON—In another sign that broadcasters are using the Federal Communication Commission's recently launched inquiry into sports rights and distribution to advance longstanding regulatory concerns, Gray Media used a recent meeting with the agency’s staff to highlight the importance of digital rights management (DRM) being part of NextGen TV deployments and to argue that the agency needs to change rules on how broadcasters negotiate retransmission agreements with vMVPDs like YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV.
The National Association of Broadcasters has taken a similar response to the FCC’s request for public comments on sports broadcasting practices and market place developments by urging regulators and Congress to abolish ownership caps on station groups.
A letter summarizing a March 5, 2026, meeting between FCC staff and Gray representatives explained that “Gray shares the Commission’s concerns about how difficult it has become for consumers to find their favorite sporting event now that so much is moving to streaming and behind paywalls. During the discussion with Commission staff, Gray described the complex sports rights ecosystem. Gray highlighted the following difficulties: (a) professional sports leagues demand those carrying their games to include digital rights management (`DRM’) into the transmission signal to the extent technically feasible, which is why it is critical that the Commission continue to permit the use of DRM in ATSC 3.0 signals, and (b) network affiliates’ inability to negotiate for carriage of local television signals with virtual multichannel video programming distributors, which significantly handicaps local affiliates' ability to competitively bid for local sports rights because affiliates do not control and cannot appropriately monetize the relationship with a significant distributor of their local signals. Shutting out local affiliates from negotiations for sports rights and distribution not only disenfranchises local affiliates, but it also threatens the revenues used to produce local news, weather, and sports programming that is core to Gray’s mission.”
Article continues belowStation groups have long contended that the current practices of letting the media companies like Disney that own broadcast networks like ABC handle retransmission consent deals with vMVPDs harms them financially by reducing the amount of money that they could get in retrans fees, an argument that the broadcast networks reject.
Including DRM in the NextGen TV standard has been opposed by some consumers while broadcasters have long argued that it puts them at a competitive disadvantage to streaming platforms, who use DRM to encrypt streams, in sports rights negotiations because DRM is not part of the existing ATSC 1.0 standard.
The March 5 meeting at the FCC was attended by Robert Folliard, III, Senior Vice President – Government Relations and Distribution for Gray Media, and I met with Ms. Erin Boone, Chief of the Media Bureau; Evan Morris, Deputy Bureau Chief; and Chad Guo, Attorney Advisor.
The full letter is available here.
