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Sports Fans Coalition continued to urge the FCC...

Sports Fans Coalition continued to urge the FCC to repeal the sports blackout rule that bars multichannel video programming distributors from carrying games blacked out by sports leagues in markets where the games haven’t sold out. The rules “are anti-consumer…

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and do not serve the public interest,” it said in an ex parte filing in docket 12-3 (http://bit.ly/1hVtoN6). Existing FCC regulations and federal copyright statutes offer significant protection to the sports leagues, it said. The sports blackout rule should be examined separately from the network non-duplication and syndicated exclusivity rules, SFC said. The commission also may repeal the rule for open video systems and direct broadcast satellite systems, it said. SFC also continued to urge the Media Bureau to investigate SFC’s allegations that the NFL pressured some stations to buy unsold tickets in order to avoid blackouts. SFC made the allegations earlier this year (CD Feb 25 p14). The filing recounted a meeting with Media Bureau staff.