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NFL Report: The
Commissioner's View -- Winter 1997 Val Pinchbeck, who was our longtime chief of broadcasting, recently was asked to explain one of the NFL’s most misunderstood subjects--the television blackout policy. Here is Val’s response: The reason for the NFL’s blackout policy is very simple: It is essential from a business standpoint because you can’t give away what you are trying to sell. As a result of NFL television policies, fans in every city are able to see more than 100 games on television every season from the Hall of Fame Game through the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl, including all the road games of the teams in their area and the home games that sell out 72 hours in advance. The reason for this liberal supply of games on television, including the playoffs and Super Bowl, is that the NFL is able to sell packages to five different networks. Maintaining those packages is keyed to having capacity crowds as often as possible in order to bring out the excitement factor for television. The blackout rule supports this arrangement by enhancing the goal of attracting sellout crowds to NFL games. It works as follows: For a home game to be aired locally, the game must be sold out 72 hours in advance of kickoff. If the game is not a sellout by the 72-hour cutoff, any station with a signal penetrating a 75-mile radius from the game site will be blacked out and the carrying network will air an alternate game. This policy was originally established as law by Congress in 1973. The NFL has voluntarily adhered to the tenets of the law since its expiration after the 1975 season. Prior to the 1973 law, the NFL followed a standard practice since the early days of television of not showing locally the game being played locally. The purpose was to ensure the ability of the home team to sell tickets. The practice developed after one team, the Los Angeles Rams, acting under a guarantee of game attendance by a TV sponsor, undertook in 1950 to televise its home games within its home territory. The decline in the club’s stadium attendance, despite a championship team, was so marked that the sponsor bore a severe financial penalty. The experience vividly illustrated the point that it is much more difficult to sell tickets to your home games if your fans know in advance that the games automatically will be available on television. The two clubs participating in a local football game have no more obligation to automatically make their own entertainment event available on free home television in the area where the game is being played than do the producers of any other form of entertainment, such as motion pictures, concerts, and theater performances. This policy reflects the conviction that television is an important adjunct to stadium attendance, but that it should not be permitted to become a substitute. The foundation of the NFL continues to rest with the fans at the stadium. Without the excitement created by large crowds at games, the NFL as a television attraction would not have the same appeal. Currently, fans are able to see approximately 12 hours’ worth of NFL games every weekend--Sunday afternoon games on FOX and NBC, Sunday night games on TNT or ESPN, and Monday night games on ABC. There are also occasional late-season Saturday, Thanksgiving Day, and Thursday games shown nationally. In addition, all playoff games, the Super Bowl, and the Pro Bowl are free over-the-air television. The NFL is the only league that televises all of its game on free over-the-air television. The NFL continues to believe that its television arrangements, and the policies that support them, including the local blackout rule, serve the best interests of the overwhelming majority of fans. |