Local Broadcaster Wants FCC to Intervene in High School Sports Rights
The FCC should take action against statewide exclusivity contracts between MVPDs, state athletic associations and networks that prevent local broadcasters from airing high school sports championships, said Mid-State Multimedia President Robert Meisse in a filing in docket 25-322 Tuesday.
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Though that proceeding is widely seen as targeting broadcaster network/affiliate contracts, Meisse told us in an interview Wednesday that he hopes it could lead to an agency intervention in arrangements that give MVPDs and streamers exclusivity rights to high school sports postseason games. Communications attorneys told us that FCC action on the matter is unlikely
Meisse’s station WMFD-TV Mansfield, Ohio, airs hundreds of live local high school sports games but has been blocked from carrying live post-season games -- or sometimes even delayed broadcasts -- by statewide contracts and network pay per view restrictions. The Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) has a statewide exclusivity contract with Charter and a pay per view arrangement with streaming service NFHS Network. If Charter doesn’t elect to pick up a game, NFHS will, blocking local broadcasters, Meisse told us.
This year, three high schools covered by WMFD made it to the final round of the regional football postseason, and two – Shelby High School and Galion High School -- played each other in a regional championship game Monday. “We’ve been covering these schools all year, and [Charter] kicked everybody out and carried it on a stream.” To watch the game, viewers had to have Charter’s app, Meisse said. “Our phone absolutely rang off the hook” with calls from viewers looking for the game, he said. “We told them they should call OHSA with the same frustration level.” NCTA and Charter didn’t comment.
A communications attorney with experience dealing with sports rights matters told us there's very little chance of the FCC intervening in contracts between MVPDs and state sports associations. The agency would have little authority to do so under existing law. While there are provisions that might allow a station such as WMFD to file a complaint if the MVPD was vertically integrated, that doesn’t appear to be the case here. The network affiliate NPRM issued by the agency last week mentions sports only once, and it's in the context of national programming networks simulcasting marquee sports programming on their streaming services.
Broadcasters are required to operate in the public interest, and “these national contracts are preventing us from doing what the FCC requires us to do,” Meisse said. “This undermines the very concept of local broadcasting,” said his ex parte filing.