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The FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Wednesday proposing the elimination of the agency's local sports blackout rules.
The FCC instituted blackout rules back in 1973 to help make sure that local sports stadiums were not empty on game days because all the locals were at home watching the game on TV. So the FCC allowed the local sports franchise to black out games that hadn't sold a certain amount of tickets. It further ruled that if the local broadcast station couldn't carry blacked-out games, then the cable company serving the area couldn't either.
It's a money thing, and a huge annoyance for sports fans.
"These needless policies restrict what viewers can watch, and what programming cable systems can carry, in the name of protecting local broadcasters from competition and boosting ticket sales to sporting events," John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney at Public Knowledge.
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