Tom Brady of the Buccaneers is looking for an open receiver in the red zone during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Training Camp on August 4, 2020 at the AdventHealth Training Center in Tampa, Florida.
Cliff Welch | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images
While Covid-19 is setting the college’s athletics on fire, the National Football League may be looking to change its schedule to include Saturday games, maybe even Friday games, but there is one obstacle – American law.
Chapter 32 of Title 15 of the United States Code states that the NFL is prohibited from airing its content on Friday nights, beginning at 6 a.m. or “on every Saturday,” because of high school football matches and colleges occupy these days / time slots in the fall.
The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 was adopted to exempt sports organizations, including the NFL, from the Sherman Antitrust Act, which allows leagues to bundle the content rights of their teams in one package and sell those rights to TV networks.
The law, which was introduced by the New York Rep. Emanuel Celler and signed by President John F. Kennedy in September 1961, led to the NFL’s first major deal with CBS in 1962 for roughly $ 4.6 million.
The 1961 Sports Act also included provisions that protected high schools and collegiate football matches. The law states that the NFL is not permitted to show games “during the period beginning on the second Friday in September and ending on the second Saturday in December each year of all telecast stations within seventy-five miles of the game website of every intercollegiate or interschoolastic football game planned to be played. “
With the Big Ten and Pac-12 becoming the first of the Power Five conferences to postpone football seasons because of Covid-19, it was said that the NFL moved games sold to Saturday, and maybe even Friday, as well.
Mike Arthur, former vice president of Veritone, which advises the Big Ten on its licensing for advertising and content, also called TV “networks will come calling sooner rather than later if they fully know what’s going on with college football.”
The NFL currently has media rights over major networks, including CBS, NBC and Fox, which bring in more than $ 5 billion each year.
On Wednesday, The Washington Post also reported that the NFL may require a wavier to broadcast games on Saturdays, but also noted that the league would “learn to damage its relationship with college football.”
While the Big Ten and Pac-12 have played it safe, the Southeastern Conference, which generated $ 721 million in revenue for 2019, the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big 12 still plan to hold football seasons for now.
Also, the NFL would need approval from the National Football League Players Association, and preliminary discussions have not taken place.
The NFL did not return calls from CNBC to seek comment.
The NFL, which has canceled its press season due to Covid-19, is scheduled to open its 2020 season on NBC on September 10 when defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs host the Houston Texans.
Announcement: NBC Sports, which mother NBCUniversal shares with CNBC, broadcasts NFL games.
.
