Sports Leagues’ Game Exposure Policies: Economic and Legal Complexities

ABSTRACT

Sports leagues have developed an economic business model where they sell national media rights on behalf of all of the teams and the teams sell media rights in their home territory without competition. To protects a home team's territory, leagues blackout some games in certain geographic regions. Recent policies include blacking out local team's games on league-wide satellite and Internet-based digital media packages. To obtain access to most of a local team's games fans, thus, need to purchase a subscription to a regional sports network. These territorial arrangements that restrict game exposure have been construed by some as anticompetitive, leading to limited choice and increased prices for consumers. Sports leagues contend these restrictions are necessary to protect individual team broadcast revenue and ensure competitive balance. The recent Laumann v. NHL and Garber v. MLB lawsuits questioned whether leagues broadcast policies were more harmful or beneficial to consumers and if assigning exclusive regional broadcast territories violated United States antitrust laws.

体育联赛的赛事曝光政策:经济和法律的复杂因素

体育联赛目前已经研发出以下经济商业模式:联赛代表其全部队伍出售全国性媒体权利, 各个队伍可以在主场领地出售媒体权利, 不必面临竞争。为了保护主场队伍的领地, 联赛会在某些地理区域禁播部分赛事。最新的政策包括:禁止通过联赛卫星和互联网数字媒体文件播放本土队伍的比赛。为了观看本土队伍的多数比赛, 体育迷们就得付费订阅区域性体育广播网。某些联赛解释道, 这种限制赛事曝光的区域性政策旨在限制竞争。然而, 这种政策却让消费者面临着有限选择及更高价格。体育联赛辩称, 为了保护各个团队的赛事播放收入并确保竞争平衡, 这些限制性政策很有必要。然而, 最近两起诉讼 (即:Laumann与NHL案件、Garber与MLB案件) 提出了以下质疑:一是联赛的播放政策对消费者更加有害, 还是更加有利༟二是指定独家区域性播放地区是否违反了美国反垄断法༟

KEYWORDS:

• Sports league game exposure
• sports television
• digital media
• antitrust law
• Garber v. MLB

关键词:

• 体育联赛的赛事曝光
• 体育电视
• 数字媒体
• 反垄断法
• Garber与MLB案件

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John A. Fortunato

John A. Fortunato (PhD, Rutgers University) is a professor at Fordham University in the School of Business, and Chair of the Area of Communication and Media Management. He is the author of four books, including Commissioner: The Legacy of Pete Rozelle, Making Media Content, and Sports Sponsorship: Principles and Practices. He has published articles in Public Relations Review, Journal of Sports Media, Journal of Sport Management, International Journal of Sport Communication, Journal of Brand Strategy, and multiple law reviews. Dr Fortunato previously taught at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations and he received his PhD degree from Rutgers University in the School of Communication.