The FCC boss wants to make life less frustrating for sports fans

PERFECT—Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr is trying to make life less frustrating for sports fans.

The FCC announced on Wednesday that it will seek public comment on the ongoing shift of live sports from broadcast stations to streaming services. The comment period begins on March 27 and responses to comments are due by April 13. The move comes as the NFL, NBA, MLB and other major sports have moved many games from broadcast and cable television to streaming services.

“From a consumer perspective, they’ve been used, for a long time, to sit down, turn on the TV and get your favorite sports right there,” Carr told Fox News Digital on Wednesday night. “It might have been free, or it might have been part of a TV package that you already bought. In the last few years, we’ve seen a movement of a lot of games behind paywalls. I think that’s really frustrated a lot of consumers.”

Carr, who also spoke on the subject at Semafor’s Restoring Trust in Media Summit in Washington, DC, said sports fans are forced to remember multiple passwords, cancel services before the free trial expires, and sometimes have difficulty even finding where to watch the game they want.

“I think it’s been a real pain for consumers,” Carr said.

The FCC commissioner said he understands the argument that live streaming opens up more games and more content, but feels consumer frustration outweighs the benefits.

“They can’t find it easily. They feel like they have to sign up for all these different services. So, we’re looking at all of that,” Carr said.

Carr believes there has been a good partnership between broadcasters and sports leagues since the first live televised event in the US, when Columbia University and Princeton University faced off in a 1939 baseball game.

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NFL Thursday Night Football airs on Amazon, and many other games are on various streaming services. (Nam Y. Huh/AP Photo)

“It’s been great for the leagues. It’s been driven, it’s expanded their audience. It’s been great for broadcasters, because it’s really interesting content. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship,” Carr said.

“I think there are a lot of issues that arise when that relationship starts to break down, including Congress passing the Sports Broadcasting Act, which gave some antitrust exemptions to sports leagues where all of their content was 100% over the air,” he continued. “So, different people are looking at the Sports Broadcasting Act in the context of sports moving to broadcast, so we’ll see how it plays out, but it’s certainly something that has been a frustration for consumers.”

Sports organizations have entered a pivot in broadcasting, where the NFL receives $ 1 billion a year to play Thursday Night Football on Amazon as an important example. Carr wants to make sure the leagues are part of the conversation.

Carr also emphasized that the partnership between broadcasters and sports rights has helped support local news and journalism, as sports help drive money to the local stations that many Americans rely on. He feels the relationship could be strained if the leagues continue to ditch local broadcasters for streaming services that result in expensive paywalls.

Brendan Carr, Chairman, FCC, speaks on stage during Concordia’s 2025 Annual Conference at the Sheraton New York Times Square on September 22, 2025, in New York City. (Concordia Annual Conference John Lamparski/Getty Images)

“We definitely want to hear from the leagues,” Carr said.

“We want to hear about their thinking. I mean, look, there may be other government agencies that are interested in this, whether it’s Congress or other agencies,” said Carr. “Our goal is not to cover the whole area, but there is a connection between sports news rights, broadcasting, local news that we want to explore. But our door is open to hear from the leagues and hear their opinion.”

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An exemption from the Sports Broadcasting Act passed in 1961 applies only to broadcast television. Courts have previously ruled that it does not apply to other services, including cable, satellite and broadcast.

The Sports Broadcasting Act includes a rule allowing for the blackout of local games, which still applies to out-of-market packages sold by leagues.

“Consumers hate blackouts,” said Carr, noting that steps have been taken to help alleviate these problems, but he feels there is more work to be done.

“Really, we don’t exist [going to] we’ve been in a situation where the home fans can’t see the home team,” Carr said. “I don’t think that’s a good result for anybody.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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