Yesterday, Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY) wrote a letter to the FCC in response to a previous filing by the National Football League. In his letter, Higgins pointed to the findings of several top economists that “local television blackouts have little or no effect on ticket sales or attendance for the game that is being televised,” and that “local blackouts of home games harm consumers without producing a significant financial benefit to teams.” Higgins also called attention to the fact that Western New Yorkers may soon be asked to help pay for improvements to Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson Stadium, even as 3 out of 7 home games were blacked out there last season. He ultimately urged the FCC and NFL to “abandon its decades old blackout rules.”

You can read Higgins’ letter here.

Sports Fans Coalition thanks Rep. Higgins for his tremendous support for fans everywhere.

Meet Arthur MacDonald. He is one of the many disabled fans who finds himself unable to attend the games of his beloved Buffalo Bills. When the game is blacked out on television (3 out of 7 Buffalo games were blacked out last season) he has no way of seeing the games. Here’s what he wrote to the FCC:

I am completely disabled now. My teaching career as a High School Band Director afforded me the opportunity to have my Kemore West Sr HS Band the opportunity to be featured at three Bills Half time shows. My late brother & I had season tickets, but now due to disability I can’t walk from the car nor navigate the crowds. Please note so many of the “crowds” show no concern for the disabled. I pay taxes that go to support the upkeep as well as the original construction. The ability to see games on tv is the very least to be give back to those who have given their all to support the team and the league.

Mr. Goodell, what do you say to Mr. MacDonald and the countless disabled and elderly fans like him? How can you possibly justify blacking these fans out, especially when, as nine top sports economists have shown, blackouts “have no significant effect on ticket sales in the NFL”?

The most significant discussion on sports blackouts since President Richard Nixon lobbied against them is taking place and ESPN is nowhere to be found. At best, this is a major oversight by “The World Wide Leader in Sports”; at worst, it reeks of corporate profits trumping public service.

In January, the Federal Communications Commission agreed to review its 36-year-old blackout rule in response to a petition filed by Sports Fans Coalition and other prominent public interest groups. (The rule itself pre-dates ESPN!) The agency set a one-month period for public comments (in other words, it wanted fans to write in and share their feelings) but at no point during that period did ESPN – via any of its innumerable outlets – let fans know how to do so. This isn’t to say ESPN should have told fans what to say to the FCC, but it should have told them how and where to say it. (By contrast, Deadspin told folks how they could submit their comments to the FCC.)

On February 13, the initial deadline for public comments, formal comments were filed by Sports Fans Coalition, the NFL, MLB, the National Association of Broadcasters, five U.S. Senators, several top sports economists (who said “blackouts have no significant effect on ticket sales in the NFL”), and over 4,000 individual fans around the country. Yet there was absolutely no coverage of the initial filings by ESPN. ESPN.com didn’t even pick up the lengthy AP article on the filings, yet somehow devoted space on its NFL front page to the fact that Rashard Mendenhall may – or may not – play in 2012.

ESPN’s decision to ignore this story may be intentional or not. Best case scenario, it is failing to do a public service by letting fans know that their government is seeking public comment on the issue. Even if ESPN simply informed fans that the FCC wants to hear from them about whether it should eliminate its blackout rule and here’s how to do so – without attempting to influence their comments one way or another – it would be performing basic journalism. Worst case scenario, ESPN’s blackout of the blackout issue is yet another example of corporate interests trumping journalistic ethics. The NFL is fighting hard to maintain its ability to black out games and ESPN is a major partner of the league.

ESPN is the primary news source for the large majority of sports fans. It does not have to engage in public journalism (imagine how much better sports would be if it did!). But it does need to report on news that affects millions of fans in several cities around the country. The blackout issue may not affect fans around the country, but blackouts have affected or threatened almost half the teams in the NFL in the last decade. Further, all fans are affected if ticket prices are kept artificially high because of the blackout threat (that the government is propping up).

The leagues have tried to keep the blackout issue hidden from the public. ESPN shouldn’t do the same.

Since January 1, around 2.8 million Time Warner Cable customers have been unable to see games on MSG, the regional sports network owned by the Madison Square Garden Company, which also owns the New York Knicks. This means fans across New York have missed out on Knicks games, as well as Buffalo Sabres, New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils games. And fans have missed the sudden rise of Jeremy Lin, the previously unknown point guard who has led the Knicks to 7 straight wins.

The carriage dispute is the sort of situation that most frustrates fans. Sports Fans Coalition strongly opposes these types of programming takedowns during contractual disputes between programmers and distributors. Back in May, we filed comments with the FCC asking the Commission to prohibit the taking down of sports during so-called retransmission consent disputes. Our comments in that proceeding still ring true: “Sports fans have become a political football in retransmission consent disputes. In the recurring smack-down negotiations between big broadcasters and big pay-TV companies, games are pulled right before the action starts, leaving fans in the cold. Fans who are vital to the success of sports and who have contributed through multiple public and private expenditures are treated like fumbled pigskins.”

A copy of the comments can be found here.

Sports Fans Coalition strongly encourages both sides to seek an immediate resolution to this dispute so fans can watch they can watch their favorite teams and so everyone in New York can find out if Jeremy Lin can keep it going…

Several top sports economists, including Roger Noll and Andrew Zimbalist, filed very significant comments in the FCC’s blackout rule proceeding on Monday. The economists laid waste to the NFL’s contention that “blackout policies, supported by the FCC’s sports blackout rule, promote live attendance and thus improve the stadium experience.” In fact, the economists wrote, “Academic research supports the conclusion that local television blackouts have little or no effect on ticket sales or attendance for the game that is being televised.  Local blackouts of home games harm consumers without producing a significant financial benefit to teams.”

The economists also wrote:

“The main reasons to abandon the FCC’s blackout rules are, first, to get rid of unnecessary regulation and, second, to erase an official government endorsement of an NFL policy that harms consumers and that has been voluntarily abandoned by all other professional sports leagues.  As stated by Commissioner Goodell, the NFL sees blackouts as a means for “driving people to … stadiums.” Blackouts have no significant effect on ticket sales in the NFL and increase no-shows only when the weather is bad. The issue in deciding whether to continue the FCC’s blackout rules accurately can be characterized as follows: should the federal government assist the NFL in forcing a few hundred people a few days per year to choose between not seeing a game and attending the game in bad weather, while simultaneously preventing fans who do not have tickets from watching the game on television?”

The filing will no doubt become the definitive analysis of the economics of blackouts. You can view it here.