The Federal Communications Commission sent out a public notice hinting that it may crack down on sports broadcasting streaming contracts.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr tweeted on Wednesday that the agency will be scrutinizing streaming services and the rising costs for fans to watch games.
“Today, the FCC asks for comment on sports rights and broadcasting,” Carr Tweeted.
“For decades, Americans enjoyed turning on their TV & quickly finding the game they wanted to see,” he tweeted.
The FCC Chair will be asking to research if these streaming services could cost thousands of dollars to the consumer, and could also be hurting the local broadcast industry’s efforts to deliver local games to their respective viewing markets.
“Do local broadcast TV stations face challenges in airing other sports programming of interest to their local communities (e.g., local high school sports)?,” the public notice included.
READ THE FULL PUBLIC NOTICE BELOW
The FCC released a public notice to ask for comment about whether sports streaming services are damaging the way sports broadcasted.
Click here to view the PDF file
The FCC’s public notice states that it will explore how to make more games free to watch for the public, through over the air broadcast television.
“In addition to these specific questions, we invite comment on any other matters that parties believe would help the Commission understand the current sports media marketplace, its legal authority, and what actions the FCC could take to ensure continued access by viewers to live sports through free over-the-air broadcast TV,” the notice said.
Most sports leagues, college conferences, national TV networks, streaming services, sports teams and even YouTube charges fans to stream live sporting events.
The notice stated that the sports fan is the ultimate loser in the new landscape where it costs extra money to watch local sports.
“Sports fans are increasingly left with a fragmented ecosystem that requires them to subscribe to multiple services to watch their favorite teams,” the notice stated.