Why Did Congress Take A Call To Not Let NFL Be Telecasted On Saturday?

But if, as some have noted, the NFL dominates Sunday, college football owns Saturday. And that’s not due to an act of God, but rather a law passed by Congress, and a deal the NFL reached to save a significant TV deal that a judge had invalidated.

Why Did Congress Take A Call To Not Let NFL Be Telecasted On Saturday?

The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which was the outcome, protected college football by granting the NFL (and other professional sports leagues) a broadcasting antitrust exemption and effectively prohibiting the NFL from airing games on Saturdays for most of the autumn. Due to high school football, Friday nights are now included in the restriction.

The restriction on broadcasting is in effect from the second Friday in September through the second Saturday in December. Fans don’t get to watch league games on Saturdays until the conclusion of the season because of this. This weekend, the NFL will play its first Saturday competition of the season when the NFL Network airs two games.

Instead of having clubs negotiate their own TV arrangements, the league agreed to a deal with CBS in 1961 to have its season televised. By sharing national TV money among all teams, Commissioner Pete Rozelle believed the agreement was important to assist small-market teams like the Green Bay Packers in competing with teams in larger areas like New York and Los Angeles.

However, the Justice Department immediately raised antitrust concerns about the deal’s legality. In July 1961, Allan K. Grim, a federal judge in Philadelphia, overturned the agreement on the grounds that it “eliminated competition” between the teams in the selling of TV rights.

Following that decision, the League approached Congress, which eventually approved the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 in the following autumn. Major professional sports organizations were given permission to package games in exactly that fashion under the bill (which John F. Kennedy signed into law), but the NCAA also made a point of lobbying politicians to stop the pros from infringing on its turf.

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1713761833881080181

The statute specifies that NFL games may only be shown on television from the second Friday in September through the second Saturday in December.

 

 

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