Sports Fans Coalition has launched the Local Chapter SFC-Portland in order to organize and mobilize those frustrated Trail Blazers fans who continue to be shut out from being able to watch their home team play home games on TV unless they pay Comcast’s ransom. Furthermore, many sports fans in Oregon do not have Comcast in their area, and therefore, can not watch their team play.
Petitions, To the FCC, Uncategorized
Comcast Takes FCC to Court: SFC Asks Where Are My Games?
On January 20th, the FCC voted to close the “terrestrial loophole” on cable calling local sports exclusives anticompetitive. The rule enables competitors to add your sports games to their programming. You should now be able to see your games!
However, Comcast’s legal team has wasted no time. They are already in court fighting the FCC’s order making the erroneous argument that DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket is also anticompetitive, and that marginalizing you is ‘just business’. The Sunday Ticket, however, does not restrict sports fans from watching their games in local markets like Comcast does every day of the week. The bottom line is that they won’t walk away without a fight. Let’s keep the pressure on.
Blog, Local Sports, Petitions, Slider
Petition: Give Us our Local Sports
On December 3rd, Comcast announced its plans to merge with NBC Universal. The Sports Fans Coalition immediately raised questions about how the merged company will treat consumers given its history of forcing Philadelphia sports fans to buy cable to watch their local games. In Philly, Comcast owns the local sports network, cable system, broadband internet service, plus sports teams and the local arena. If the merger is approved, that raises a lot of concern for trouble in 11 TV markets, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C., Houston, Miami, Denver, Hartford and Fresno. Without penalty, Comcast currently uses local sports exclusives or the ‘terrestrial loophole’ to block its competitors from broadcasting sports games leaving many sports fans out in the cold without access to their games.
About SFC
SFC is the American sports fan’s advocate in the D.C. public policy arena fighting for sports fans in every city across the country.
Sports Businesses, Leagues, and Universities are grasping for our cash left and right. Let's join together to keep their hands off our wallets unless and until we have a say in how that money is spent. Futhermore, we sports fans believe we should be able to watch our games, no matter how we get our media.
