Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961
By: Shruthika Kamat
What is it?
The Sports Broadcasting of 1961 allows professional sports teams to sell their rights in sponsored telecasts of their games. This allows them to put together their separate rights and sell them for purchase to a network such as FOX or ABC.
What effects does it have?
The Act allowed home ticket sales to be protected as well as the revenues from the games. With the Act in place, blackout rules have been enforced, meaning that if a home team is playing at home, competing games on the same day will not be aired in the home territory.
The NFL is the most affected by this Act.
Recent Years
The NFL has begun to run its own games on their own network and then charge really high rates for cable providers to show their network. Cable networks and satellite providers have been upset because of the high prices and they feel that legal action must be taken. In this instance, the NFL has been taking advantage of the Sports Broadcasting Act by charging high prices for their games.