WASHINGTON — U.S. senators including Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard of Colorado have asked the pro football commissioner to tackle the issue of making game-day TV broadcasts on the NFL Network available on free television to more fans.
The league has said it provides free broadcasts in the home cities of competing teams. But 13 lawmakers said in a letter this week to Roger Goodell that the NFL is too narrowly interpreting what is a home city.
“The policy leaves behind NFL fans across the country simply because they live outside cities to which the NFL has granted franchises,” according to the letter made public Wednesday. For example, the NFL does not consider the western Pennsylvania town of Johnstown part of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ home market, the letter said.
Salazar, a Denver Democrat, is one of the 13 senators who signed the letter.
“We in Colorado love to watch our Broncos and we should continue to be able to see the games on television throughout the state,” Salazar said. “The NFL’s narrow interpretation of a ‘home market’ does a disservice to fans across Colorado and across the country.
“The NFL needs to change course, and it should start by allowing all Coloradans to watch the Broncos pound the Browns next Thursday,” Salazar said.
The senators want quick action so fans in every market receive free TV access to games played by their closest team or the team it has been historically aligned to. Eight games will air this season on the NFL Network, which is not available everywhere. The league is in a dispute with major cable companies over whether they should carry the channel as part of a basic package.
This not the first time Congress has gotten involved. Late last year, Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the NFL threatening to reconsider the league’s antitrust exemption if it didn’t make games on the NFL Network available to more viewers.
The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The other senators who signed the new letter were: Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, both D-R.I.; Pete Domenici, R-N.M.; Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, both R-Wyo.; Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent; and John Thune, R-S.D.
