House Judiciary Committee Requests NFL Testimony on Sports Broadcasting Act

The House Judiciary Committee has requested NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to testify about the potential misuse of the Sports Broadcast Act of 1961 by sports leagues. The letter, sent by Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, asks Goodell to appear on June 10. This summons is not a subpoena, allowing Goodell the choice to testify or not, with a response due by June 3.

An NFL spokesperson did not provide immediate feedback on Goodell’s intentions regarding this request.

“We respectfully request your testimony at a hearing titled ‘Examining the Sports Broadcasting Act’ on June 10, 2026, at 10:00 a.m., in room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building,” the letter to Goodell stated. “This hearing will scrutinize the Sports Broadcasting Act (SBA) of 1961 and its effects on the current broadcast market for major sports leagues.”

The hearing aims to assess how the SBA’s antitrust exemptions have shifted professional sports distribution, potentially harming consumers, and whether legislative changes are needed.

The Sports Broadcasting Act allows leagues to pool television rights for collective selling, a model central to the NFL. This exemption benefits the league, letting it negotiate deals as one unit across all 32 teams, generating massive contracts. Current media-rights agreements with ABC/ESPN ($2.7 billion/year), FOX ($2.2 billion/year), CBS ($2.1 billion/year), and NBC ($2 billion/year) total over $110 billion, lasting through 2033.

Concerns have grown as probes by Congress, the Department of Justice, and the FCC examine if these rights are improperly allocated to pay-per-view streaming services, impacting consumer expenses.

The NFL asserts most games (87%) remain on ‘free’ TV. However, platforms like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, requiring subscriptions, have taken over multiple broadcasts, increasing costs for fans.

Amazon Prime has exclusive rights to the NFL’s Black Friday game and 15 Thursday Night Football games in the upcoming season. Netflix holds two Christmas Day games, and Peacock streams a unique regular-season matchup. These services’ cumulative cost forms the basis of consumer grievance.