Buffalo Radio: Pai Talks To WBEN About Blackout Rules

Commissioner Pai

While in Buffalo, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai talked with Entercom's N/T WBEN 930 AM. Buffalo is one of the cities most affected by TV blackouts and fans fear The Bills could leave the city, if sold to a group of investors, headed by Rock artist Jon Bon Jovi. (See original posting: Click Here)

Adopted 39 years ago, Pai said there’s no reason to keep the policy in place that forces cable and satellite companies from blacking out a game just because local over-the-air TV can’t air it. The hope is that will pressure teams to end the bans on local TV. “Our job is to serve the public interest, not the private interests of team owners,” Pai said. He notes NFL teams make more money on TV rights deals than ticket sales.

The Republican Pai is asking FCC chair Tom Wheeler (Democrat) to hold an up-or-down vote on ending the rule.

If approved by a majority of the five FCC commissioners, the NFL would still be allowed to have contracts that require blacking out of games on basic over the air TV whenever that game is not sold out in a local market. However, pay TV wouldn't be under any federal regulation to comply

"There are a lot of different rationales, but the most important I think is that the government shouldn't put its thumb on the scale, on the side of NFL team owners. We should let the NFL negotiate with video distributors, and find an accommodation, " Pai said in an interview on WBEN Tuesday morning.

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW: Click Here

"But what we shouldn't do is essentially say whatever the NFL policy is, we are going to back it up and prevent cable and satellite from showing the games as well," he continued. "That's the kind of government intervention that doesn't do anyone any good at the end of the day."

Pai believes that if the FCC rules were repealed, fan pressure on the league would be enough to prevent it from blacking out games on their own, or moving games to a subscription service. "Free over-the-air broadcast is a good value proposition for the NFL," Pai said while at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo on Tuesday. "It exposes a much wider variety of Americans to the NFL product. Taking it off the air and putting it on a subscription service might serve the people who happen to subscribe, but if you're not able to afford that subscription, what does it gain you at the end of the day?"

Since most MLB, NBA, and NHL teams have moved their broadcasts to regional sports channels and away from over-the-air TV, the only league that would be realistically impacted by the elimination of these decades’ old rules is the NFL, which recently told the FCC that it will pick up its ball and go to pay-TV if it can’t be allowed to black out games anymore.

While Pai didn’t explicitly back Buffalo radio stations’ decision to yank Bon Jovi songs over the rocker’s participation in a bid that would potentially move the team to Toronto, the commissioner did score some points in western New York by saying that’s where the Bills should remain.