NFL

The NFL Will Loosen Restrictions On TV Blackouts

The NFL is getting much nicer these days, which seems to contradict Roger Goodell’s normally dictatorial style. First, they pushed back the late afternoon start time from 4:15 to 4:25 to avoid overlap with the early afternoon games. Now they’re helping out the commoners by lightening the blackout rules for television, which previously required a 100 percent sellout for games to remain televised locally.

Here’s more, via the WSJ:

“Team owners have passed a resolution that starting this season will allow for local broadcasts of NFL games even when as few as 85% of tickets are sold. Under the new rule, each team has more flexibility to establish its own seat-sales benchmark as long as it is 85% or higher. To discourage teams from setting easy benchmarks, teams will be forced to share more of the revenue when they exceed it.

Good. Very good.

[WSJ]

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