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The NFL Has an Antitrust Exemption and You Have a Second Job

published · May 11, 5:44 PM · $0.00 total · published 48d ago
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Trump goes on record: the NFL is price gouging fans. $1,000 a season to watch every game across streaming subscriptions. DOJ is investigating the league's media-rights strategy. Mike's angle: this isn't really about football. It's about what happens when a monopoly gets an antitrust exemption from Congress, charges whatever it wants, and then moves the product behind a paywall. The guy who worked a plant floor in 2003 can't afford Sunday football anymore. The league made $20 billion last year. Button: The golden goose lecture lands different when you're the one who laid the egg.

America-first economics — monopoly behavior, working-class pricing out, named hypocrisy. Trump's own framing gives Mike a clean on-brand hook. Recent content didn't touch NFL streaming; the earlier NFL piece was about a Congressional deal walkback, different angle.

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Congress gave the NFL a special carve-out from antitrust law back in 1961. The Sports Broadcasting Act. Look it up. It let the league negotiate TV rights as a single entity instead of competing team by team. The deal was: you get the exemption, fans get the games on free TV. That was the understanding.

Now the league made $20 billion last year, and Sen. Mike Lee's office says fans are spending close to $1,000 a season just to watch every game across cable and streaming subscriptions. Fox, Netflix, Amazon, Peacock. Pick the wrong package and you're blacked out of your own team's playoff run. The NFL asked for a meeting with the FCC to make its case. Its case. The league with the government exemption is now lobbying the government to keep the government out of it. Trump called it price gouging. DOJ is looking at the media-rights strategy. The FCC is looking at it too.

I worked a plant floor until 2003 when that work went to Mexico. My guys are putting in forty-five hours a week. Nobody here is buying four streaming subscriptions to watch a sport that used to be free. The NFL will tell you 87% of games are still on over-the-air broadcast. Sure. Until they aren't. They've been moving the line for ten years. The man who said "others have tried this and all of a sudden you don't have a sport anymore" was Donald Trump, and he's not wrong. You can't kill the golden goose and then act surprised when nobody shows up for the lecture.

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NFL made $20B last year. Working guys pay $1,000 a season just to watch. Congress gave them the antitrust exemption. Take note. #nfl #manufacturing #americafirst #smallbusiness

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    May 11, 5:44 PM

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