Justice Department Investigates NFL Over Broadcast Deals as Antitrust Exemption Draws Scrutiny
The Justice Department is investigating the NFL’s exclusive streaming deals amid fan frustration over fragmented and paid access. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr questions whether the league should retain its special antitrust exemption, initially established by the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961. Pak Gazette contributor Jonathan Turley suggests Congress examine the NFL’s monopoly structure, highlighting its $25 billion annual revenue and rising fan costs.
NEWNow you can listen to Pak Gazette articles!
A scathing report released Monday by the House Judiciary Committee and its chairman, Jim Jordan, criticizes the NFL, arguing that America’s most popular sports league has ignored the narrow barriers of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 and its antitrust exemption on its path to becoming a lucrative sports empire.
All while limiting consumer options and inflating game viewing prices.
The report, obtained by Pak Gazette, includes the central argument on pages 8 and 9 that Congress created the Sports Broadcasting Act (SBA) to keep games widely available on free television and help a struggling league survive.
But what has happened since 1961, lawmakers argue, is that the antitrust exemption created to lift the NFL instead created one of the most powerful sports media businesses in the world that expanded the narrow limits of the exemption.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., ranking member, attend a hearing in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 22, 2026. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg)
CONGRESS FOCUSES ON NFL’S $110 BILLION BROADCAST MODEL AS JIM JORDAN ASKS GOODELL TO WITNESS AT JUNE 10 HEARING
You know the report wasn’t going to be NFL-friendly just by reading the title.
The Sports Broadcasting Act: An Antitrust Exemption for Special Interests Gone Wrong.
The report, in essence, focuses on the league’s Sunday ticket offering. It highlights evidence from Sunday Ticket’s ongoing antitrust case, including a 2024 jury verdict that found the NFL violated antitrust law and awarded more than $4.796 billion in damages to plaintiffs. That verdict was later overturned by a judge, wrongly, according to the report.
THE NFL’S VERY EXPANDED NATIONAL SCHEDULE IS MAKING REDZONE AND SUNDAY TICKET LESS ESSENTIAL
The report also cites internal data suggesting that the majority of Sunday Ticket subscribers are not “avid fans who want every game,” but rather fans trying to watch an out-of-market team.”
Streaming service EverPass Media announced it will become the exclusive commercial provider of NFL Sunday Ticket beginning with the 2026 season. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
Page 18 of the report is especially concerning to the NFL regarding its decisions with The Sunday Ticket package. Outlines that:
- ESPN reportedly proposed a Sunday Ticket package priced at around $70 per season.
- According to documents cited in the report, the NFL objected to the lower price.
- The NFL also opposed a team-by-team purchasing option that would have allowed fans to purchase only their favorite team’s games.
- The report argues that these decisions limited consumer options and kept fans locked into a more expensive package.
The Committee and Subcommittee have been examining the NFL’s conduct with respect to its agreements with broadcast, cable and streaming distribution channels and weighing how they fit within the narrow antitrust exemption provided by the SBA.
And the findings?
The NFL’s description of its Sunday Ticket package is misleading in saying that its greatest use is to serve avid fans.
“Through their oversight, the Committee and Subcommittee obtained data showing that despite the NFL’s claims, the Sunday Ticket is largely not a product for the avid NFL football fan in general; rather, it is a product purchased primarily by fans who are trying to watch their favorite team and have no other option,” the report reads.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell welcomes fans to the 2025 NFL Draft prior to the first round on April 24, 2025 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)
Recent litigation and Committee and Subcommittee oversight demonstrate that the NFL’s entire television rights structure and the revenue that comes from it is “a house of cards built on an overburdened antitrust exemption.”
The report also takes apart the league’s claim that 87 percent of its games are available on (free) television. “In fact, far less than half of games are actually available to the consumer on broadcast television, depending on the week and geographic area,” the report reads. “However, the NFL asserts that Sunday Ticket, and its $480 price tag, is an easy-to-use product designed for the avid fan.”
NFL LAUNCHES LOBBY BLITZ AT FCC TO DEFEND ITS MEDIA MODEL AS STREAMING Scrutiny Intensifies
The committee suggests the NFL could face continued legislative scrutiny, antitrust challenges and pressure to change its media model. He suggests the NFL change its model before the courts or Congress force it to do so.
The NFL, of course, has repeatedly rejected such narratives. And it is understandable because its business model is at risk.
If Congress or a court somehow nullifies or further limits the current antitrust exemption the league enjoys, they would not be able to sell their product (NFL games) to streaming and streaming partners as a single entity.
The league currently can do that and that resulted in a deal worth roughly $110 billion in its latest round of contracts.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE Pak Gazette APP
Changing the current approach would force the NFL to allow individual teams to sell their own television rights. The league’s revenue-sharing model would collapse, and the league’s adoption of competitive parity would likely be disrupted, because some teams would get larger television deals than others, thus becoming more powerful.
This is no small problem for the NFL. It is, as a league source recently told Pak Gazette, “pretty much everything.”
FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO
