{"id":871696,"date":"2026-04-22T07:01:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871696\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T07:01:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:01:03","slug":"wisconsin-sports-access-bill-introduced-packers-warn-of-potential-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871696\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin sports access bill introduced; Packers warn of potential impact"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wisconsin <\/p>\n

MILWAUKEE – Green Bay Packers fans need not be reminded.<\/p>\n

The team’s 31-27 loss to the Chicago Bears during this year’s NFL playoffs saw the Packers lose an 18-point halftime lead before their season came to a crashing halt.<\/p>\n

That game left a lasting impression on U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) too.<\/p>\n

Game fuels access push <\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

In a press conference last week, Baldwin announced that game as the inspiration for her new piece of legislation \u2014 the For the Fans Act. Amazon Prime Video had the exclusive rights to that playoff game.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The NFL requires teams to broadcast games to their home TV markets. The Packers call Green Bay and Milwaukee home, so only fans in those markets could see it over-the-air.<\/p>\n

“Over 2 million Packer fans across the state found themselves unable to watch the game on cable or on YouTube TV,” Baldwin said. “The only way to watch was by paying Jeff Bezos and forking up a subscription to Amazon Prime Video.”<\/p>\n

FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android<\/a><\/p>\n

The bill would require professional sports games across the top leagues be broadcast free on a broadcast channel or streaming services for in-state fans. Baldwin said the channel could be ad-supported.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

It would also remove blackouts from other sport-specific streaming services that are often placed on games when they’re broadcast nationally or somewhere else.<\/p>\n

“It’s not only confusing. It’s also damn expensive,” Baldwin said.<\/p>\n

Baldwin said she intended for this bill to work with the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 (SBA), not replace it.<\/p>\n

The law, signed by President John F. Kennedy, provided the NFL with antitrust immunity. That protection allows the league to continuously negotiate its media rights collectively for the league, instead of leaving it up to the teams to do so individually.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

In a statement to FOX6, the Packers wrote, “The Packers greatly appreciate that Sen. Baldwin recognizes the SBA’s crucial importance to the Packers and we look forward to working with her on this issue important to fans across the state and beyond.”<\/p>\n

A separate proposal from another Wisconsin legislator takes a different approach.<\/p>\n

Investigating a 65-year-old law <\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) chairs the U.S. House Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, which is investigating the SBA.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“I think the rubber meets the road is that, if you’re going to continue down this path of segmenting and then charging specific subscription prices, it’s got to be in the public’s best interest,” Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald hasn’t said what specifically the committee would change about the SBA \u2014 just that he wants to make watching games easier and more affordable for fans.<\/p>\n

The law also keeps the NFL from playing games on Friday and Saturday nights through most of the fall, protecting high school football from competing for attention with its professional counterparts.<\/p>\n

An ‘existential threat’ to the Packers <\/p>\n

Local perspective:<\/p>\n

The SBA helped form two NFL systems geared toward competitive parity.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

First, the 32 teams divvy up the profits the NFL receives for its media rights deals as part of shared revenue. For the 2025 season, that provided each team more than $432 million.<\/p>\n

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Teams used to negotiate their deals on their own, which led to great discrepancies on the returns.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Second, the NFL teams use that money to pay the players on their roster under the salary cap. The league announces the cap total at the start of each year, setting the same limit for each team on the amount of money they can spend.<\/p>\n

Without both those components in place, Packers Director of Public Affairs Aaron Popkey said the team faces an “existential threat.”<\/p>\n

“The Green Bay Packers owe, really, the success and viability and the ability to survive in the smallest market in pro sports to the Sports Broadcasting Act,” Popkey said.<\/p>\n

Popkey shared NFL statistics, saying 87% of all games are available over-the-air, adding all the Packers games are available to their two home markets \u2014 Green Bay and Milwaukee \u2014 over the air.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The team met with both lawmakers trying to present their arguments.<\/p>\n

“If the act were to go away, and the league would no longer be available to negotiate collectively, that would be a situation where there’s just so many uncertainties,” Popkey said. “And the way the NFL is structured \u2014 I mean \u2014 that would be a problem, and as we said, a threat to the Packers.”<\/p>\n

The Source: FOX6 News utilized information from U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald and the Green Bay Packers.<\/p>\n

Sports<\/a>Green Bay Packers<\/a>Politics<\/a>News<\/a>Wisconsin<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE – Green Bay Packers fans need not be reminded. The team’s 31-27 loss to the Chicago Bears…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[7,41,345,2514,2513,88,6,428,4239,9,800,1601],"class_list":{"0":"post-871696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-green-bay","10":"tag-green-bay-packers","11":"tag-greenbay","12":"tag-greenbaypackers","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-packers","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-wi"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116447081626317151","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}