Some viewers have been seeing an ad during football games urging viewers to text a number to “keep football free,” and after looking into it more closely, it became clear that what’s happening here isn’t what the ad suggests.
The spot positions itself as a warning about streaming services taking football away, but the goal appears to be getting fans to send form emails to Congress in support of loosening broadcast ownership rules. That effort benefits the large corporations that own most local stations, not the people watching these games.
In my latest video I take you through a number of misleading statements the broadcasters are using to trick football fans into their astroturf advocacy campaign.
The ad frames streaming platforms as the cause of rising costs, but the broadcasts featured on Prime Video, Netflix, and YouTube TV are still produced by the major networks. NBC produces the Thursday night games for Amazon. CBS Sports produced the Christmas Day game that ran on Netflix. The Super Bowl that aired in 4K this past year on YouTube TV came from Fox’s production. These aren’t original productions from the streamers. They’re network broadcasts delivered by different means, often using the same crews, the same equipment, and in some cases even the same production partnerships that handle network television.
The reason networks are turning to streaming platforms versus their local broadcast affiliate partners seems tied to the economics of local broadcasting. As cable and satellite subscribers have cut back due to ever increasing costs, local stations have leaned heavily on retransmission fees from pay-TV services. Those charges have steadily risen, and they show up whether someone watches over cable, satellite, or a streaming bundle. My own cable bill before I dropped it climbed from about $33 in local TV fees last year to over $38 this year. That pattern has repeated across the country. As more customers leave cable, the fees for those who remain increase to compensate. Not a very good economic model!
At the same time, many broadcasters have been signaling that the new ATSC 3.0 television standard gives them the flexibility to charge for some over-the-air channels. They would still provide one free stream, but additional channels could become paid offerings. This isn’t speculation; companies like Sinclair have stated this directly in filings with the FCC.
Alongside that, stations have begun encrypting these new signals and limiting how viewers can access them. Devices like the HDHomeRun, which let people stream over-the-air channels around their homes, are blocked unless the manufacturer receives permission from the broadcasters. Approved devices must remain directly connected to the antenna and TV, disabling features that consumers have taken for granted—such as in-home streaming or out-of-home access while traveling. Even emergency information could become harder to receive if these encrypted signals can’t be freely tuned.
When viewers text the number in the ad, they’re funneled to a site that collects their personal information and sends a pre-written email to Congress and FCC commissioners. That email can’t be edited and specifically pushes for relaxed station-ownership limits. Those limits exist to prevent any one company from dominating local markets, but in recent years large groups have been consolidating anyway.
A pending deal between Tegna and Nexstar would knit together two already sizable owners into one of the largest station groups in the country. Sinclair’s footprint is similarly extensive. The larger these conglomerates become, the more likely they are to merge or eliminate local newsrooms, centralize weather coverage, or replace market-specific reporting with generic content produced elsewhere. Examples of these changes are already visible, from stations reducing local newscasts to companies experimenting with centralized anchorless news segments or attempting to replace entire meteorology staffs with feeds from national services.
The ad’s promise of protecting free football doesn’t reflect what’s actually happening. If anything, consolidation and encryption will make TV more expensive and less accessible.
The one area where the public still has leverage is the ongoing FCC proceeding on broadcast encryption. This is the moment where viewers can register their concerns about how restrictions on recording, streaming in the home, and traveling with content could affect them. Anyone interested in that process can find resources on how to file comments and understand the issues at stake.
There’s a flag down on this play, and it’s worth taking a closer look at what these campaigns are really asking viewers to support.