NFL defends broadcasting strategy as regulators probe shift to pay TV

WASHINGTON, April 22 : The National Football League on Wednesday defended its TV broadcast strategy as the Federal Communications Commission has been reviewing the growing shift of live sports to pay TV and subscription services away from broadcast networks.

The NFL met with FCC staff on Friday, according to documents dated Tuesday and made public on Wednesday. The NFL said more than 87 per cent of its games are aired on free broadcast TV and 100 per cent of local market games are broadcast on local over-the-air TV. The league said the percentage of games aired on broadcast TV has varied little for two decades.

"This distribution model is good for our fans, for local television broadcasters, for our 32 clubs in small and large markets alike, and for the competitiveness of the game itself," the NFL told the FCC.

The NFL noted 86 of the top 100 TV programs in 2025 were NFL games and said games are strategically picked weekly to put the most compelling game into each broadcast market. The league noted Sunday Night Football on Comcast's NBC has been the No. 1 program in primetime for 15 years.

Major broadcast station owners including Fox Corp and Sinclair said last month the FCC should address the trend of Big Tech companies acquiring the rights to ​broadcast football, baseball and other sporting events, saying it could weaken local TV news.

A group of more than 700 affiliate stations for Paramount's CBS, NBC, FOX and Disney-owned ABC last week urged the FCC to take action "to keep marquee sports programming available on free over-the-air broadcast television for American viewers" saying "sporting events can’t unify Americans if the cost of watching them turns us into a nation of haves and have-nots."

The National Association of