WASHINGTON – According to published reports, this season the National Football League (NFL) will change existing rules that result in game day television broadcasts to be blacked out in the local market when games are not sold out. Owners recently passed a resolution allowing teams to decide to broadcast games locally when more than 85 percent of seats are filled, overturning the longtime requirement for full capacity seating.
Congressman Brian Higgins, and members of the Buffalo Fan Alliance and local fan movement the Bills Mafia, who have strongly urged the NFL to reconsider any blackout policies, hailed the progress as a victory for fans.
Higgins said the news is a game-changer for football enthusiasts in Buffalo and across the nation. He also said that when the FCC had its comment period, Buffalo was by far and away the largest market to write into the FCC to express their opinion that the blackout rule should be changed.
The NFL has a policy of blacking out games that are not sold out to the home market. The policy dates back to a 1961 federal law requires broadcasters (networks) to abide by the League’s blackout policy.
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