NFL defends shift to streaming in meeting with FCC

The NFL defended its shift to streaming during a meeting with FCC officials last week as the agency questions whether the league has made watching games too challenging and pricey, according to a filing Tuesday.During a meeting Friday in Washington, DC, which the NFL requested, the league’s top media exec, Hans Schroeder, argued that allowing the league’s 32 teams to negotiate their own media rights deals would actually worsen confusion and costs for viewers, according to an FCC filing.FCC Chair Brendan Carr – who has told The Post that the football league could lose its antitrust exemption if it moves too many games behind streaming service paywalls – greeted the NFL executives before turning over the meeting to his top advisers, according to the filing.In February, the Federal Communications Commission asked the public for comment on how the shift from traditional broadcasts to streamers has impacted sports fans — claiming viewers pay as much as $1,500 a year to watch every pro football game across several streamers.The Department of Justice has launched a separate antitrust investigation into the NFL, a government official told The Post earlier this month.Federal officials are questioning the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which has allowed teams to pool their media rights together into massive TV packages – and whether the antitrust exemption should be revoked for bringing harm to consumers.In his presentation Friday, Schroeder argued that pro football is the most fan-friendly sport for viewers despite the shift to streaming because most of its games are still available through free broadcast television.His presentation said 87% of NFL games are primarily distributed on broadcast TV through CBS, NBC, Fox and ABC.When specific games are streaming-exclusive, they are also available in the local markets of the two teams playing, according to the league.“Facts are stubborn things,” Schroeder told the Wall Street Journal.

“Even as we’ve gone on...