Justice Dept. investigating NFL over antitrust tactics

Justice Dept. investigating NFL over antitrust tactics

The Justice Department and FCC have opened up an investigation into the NFL for antitrust tactics. It focuses on whether the league has created an unlevel field that harms consumers. The concerns drawn from the DOJ are that prices have gotten too expensive to watch during the season. 

The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 was created to limit antitrust protections. It allows leagues to combine broadcasting rights and sign exclusive contracts without crossing any lines. This Act has recognized that the individual teams are interdependent partners, which requires competitive balance and playing surface.

The DOJ is determining if the league is acting within the Act’s intent of fair competition and fan access. Before the Act, the teams had to negotiate tv rights. This created antitrust lawsuits and low attendance records. Consumers could just watch the games at home instead of going in in person. The SBA does not apply to streaming services such as Netflix.

The Justice Department opened the investigation because consumers are required to have multiple services to watch football, such as broadcast tv and streamers. The league has shaded out select games to sell to streaming. Christmas day for example saw the NFL play three games, two of which were on Netflix and the other being on Amazon’s Prime service.  

When factoring in inflation and higher demand for service, streamers have since raised their prices which aren’t making it any easier to watch football games. We have seen a jump in fees from 75% to 80% since the last media-rights deal. 

What has led to streaming, among other things, is that the market isn’t as strict with streaming vs traditional television. Broadcast companies like Fox have to adhere to stricter rules than streaming does. In a complaint to the FCC, Fox has stated they don’t think streamers such as Amazon and Netflix should put sporting events behind a paywall because demand would raise prices and consumers would be blocked. 

Fox made their thoughts clear to the FCC regarding this issue. “Making paywalled streaming the default viewing option for live sports could have devastating consequences for consumers and broadcast stations alike,” they said in the statement. 

“Moving more sports behind paywalls would increase consumer costs, price some consumers out of watching and keep others in the dark in areas where games featuring favorite teams would no longer be available,” they continued. 

Despite scrutiny, the league grew during the 2025-26 season. The league saw an eight percent viewership increase through week 5 of the season, pulling in 18.6 million viewers per game. This is a 10% increase from 2024 and a seven percent increase from 2023. 

With the league expanding its coverage through the international series, sports betting and league-wide culture shifts, growth was imminent. 

During the 2025 season, the league reached its second-highest viewed season since 1989 with 19 million viewers per game. Streaming services led to the overall growth as the season went on. Netflix led viewership with 24 million viewers per minute. 

Broadcast companies saw growth this season. CBS peaked, averaging 21.2 million viewers, in the late window, Fox averaged 25.2 million viewers, NBC averaged 23 million viewers and Prime Video averaged 15 million viewers. While high stakes games airing on TV brought an audience, Nielson, the leader in growth measurement, changed their methodology.