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Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Wheeler: FCC To Kill NFL's TV Blackout Rule

The NFL is not having a very good couple of days.

In an op-ed written for USA Today, Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler said that the agency would vote on Sept. 30 to kill the television blackout rule which the league has fought to protect, reports NBC Sports.

“With the first weekend of professional football in the books, two things should be abundantly clear,” Wheeler wrote. “The NFL is king; and the Federal Communication Commission’s sports blackout rules are obsolete and have to go.”

Blackout rules were instituted in 1975 to drive fans off their couches in front of free television and to the games with a paid ticket.

But only two games were blacked out last year, and the NFL is raking in television money hand-over-fist, so the need to government intervention seems a bit outdated.

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