NFL fans’ 2025 bills come under focus as FCC probes the rise of sports streaming services

The FCC on Wednesday announced it would seek public comment on the ongoing shift of live sports from broadcast channels to streaming services. The move comes as the NFL, NBA, MLB and other major sports have moved many games from broadcast and cable television to streaming services.

The sports leagues have cashed in on the pivot to streaming, with the NFL landing $1 billion a year to air Thursday Night Football on Amazon as an example. The Sports Broadcasting Act exemption passed in 1961 applies only to broadcast television.

Repealing blue laws have also helped work this into play. You have dance competitions and sporting events on Sunday mornings that when an adult team at a prominent studio was invited to participate, we as a whole refused to do anything that would prevent us from going to church. We protected our church hours because many of the team attend church and kept it sacred.

This reminds me of what just happened in Commerce, Georgia, for the International Hot Rod Association purchase of the former Atlanta Dragway. The IHRA received its permit for drag racing to be conducted there, but there is one catch: No engines can be started, and no racing will be permitted before noon on Sundays.

NASCAR has seen since the 2001 media deals (safe for a few West Coast races) rules prohibiting race starts at noon. The only races that start at 12 noon (local time) are the West Coast races. The only 2 PM start times are at Martinsville, Talladega, and on occasion Watkins Glen. Most races now start at 3 PM ET or later, to allow churches to finish.

Speaking of church attendance, I watched a video from the church that threw the family out over a change in soteriology.

The NFL doesn’t allow games to start before noon local time. The last time it happened was 11:30 AM in January 1990 for the 1989 AFC Championship Game, which is why the NFL has the 1500/1830 rule currently in effect on the second and third playoff weeks to prevent morning games.

You would be surprised to see there are more girls in dance competitions than boys and girls playing ball on Sunday mornings. More people attended one dance studio’s youth dance concerts in May (10,000 for four shows in a weekend) than attended a relegated college baseball team’s final series (less than 10,000 for three games), and barely 100 attend similarly aged boys’ varsity baseball games in high schools or even youth league baseball. This is actually part of the problem in our society’s War Against Boys. We celebrate girls where boys don’t get anything.

And you watch when churches now are feminine in their worship songs. Nobody sings, they just listen to a concert.

This is in the public interest because Big Streaming wants you to pay premium events in order to get you into watching their wicked X-rated shows.

This is a 51-year old policy issue the FCC wants to re-review. The Burger Court (mostly Warren Court justices) struck down the FCC’s anti-siphoning regulations in 1977. The Broadcast Services Act of 1992 in Australia is one example of anti-siphoning. The fear is one PPV service could gain exclusivity over the Presidential Inauguration and the President’s press conferences also. Premium pay will become “buy porn to get our shows”.

Paramount Skydance has networks in Australia and the UK, where anti-siphoning regulations exist and they’ve had events on the Protected List in Australia under CBS ownership (December 2017). One potential move is for PSKY to take UFC events in Australia straight to Network Ten to comply with these rules.

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