Sponsors
The bill delivers guaranteed free local-team broadcasts and stronger enforcement for consumers, at the cost of higher burdens on broadcasters/streamers, potential regulatory overlap, and continued gaps for small-league fans.
Local sports fans: Gain free, high-quality access to every live local-team game without geographic blackouts, ensuring local viewers can watch home-team broadcasts at no cost.
Consumers: Strengthens federal consumer-protection enforcement by treating blackout/anti-competitive practices as unfair or deceptive acts enforceable by the FTC, increasing remedies against blackout abuses.
State attorneys general and local enforcers: Gain explicit authority to sue for relief and recover fees, providing an additional, local enforcement avenue to protect consumers from blackout practices.
Streaming services and sports leagues: Will face higher distribution costs and potential lost subscription revenue from mandated free local access and a ban on blackouts, which could lead to higher prices or reduced investment in programming.
Regulators, companies, and consumers: Create legal and regulatory complexity and risk overlapping or inconsistent enforcement because the FTC, FCC, and state attorneys general may pursue parallel investigations or rulemaking.
Fans of minor and small leagues: Remain excluded from the free-access protection because leagues with fewer than eight teams are exempt, producing uneven access across different levels of competition.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Bans blackouts by league-controlled streamers and requires free, high-quality live access to local fans for qualifying professional teams, enforced by FTC, FCC, and state attorneys general.
Bans league-controlled streaming services from imposing regional or team-specific blackouts and requires those services to provide free, high-quality live access to local fans for qualifying professional teams. The Federal Trade Commission enforces the blackout ban; the Federal Communications Commission and State attorneys general enforce the free-local-fan requirement. Minor leagues and leagues with fewer than eight teams are excluded.
Introduced April 15, 2026 by Tammy Baldwin · Last progress April 15, 2026