Entertainment Weekend: The Super Bowl Is Not Headed To PPV Anytime Soon

Congress will have a say in the shift from free TV to PPV.

DAZN sports executive chairman John Skipper thinks the Super Bowl is going to be on a pay-per-view platform in future. A note to Skipper good luck with pursuing Moby Dick. It is not going to happen because Congress will not let it happen. Skipper said, The “Super Bowl. Take that to pay-per-view. That’s how they’re going to replace the money someday.” Someday is not going to be anytime soon. Congress made the National Football League valuable and sometimes Congress reminds NFL owners of that fact. Congress is not going to take the Super Bowl off of free TV and risk the wrath of irate voters.

In 1961, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle cut a two-year, $9.1 million deal with CBS.  The NFL submitted the deal before Federal Judge Alan K. Grim in Philadelphia to make certain it was legal. In July, 1961 Judge Grim decided the NFL-CBS deal violated antitrust laws. Rozelle went to Emanuel Cellar, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Anti-Trust and Monopoly, looking for help. Cellar got a bill through the House. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate by Estes Kefauver who pushed it through the Senate. President John Kennedy signed the Sports Broadcast Act of 1961 into law on September 30th. The legislation created the modern NFL. Networks throw huge money at the NFL to get the Super Bowl. On December 29th , 2007, the undefeated New England Patriots-New York Giants contest became a political football, as it was scheduled to be carried on the NFL Network. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts suggested the game be moved to NBC. Kerry and other Senators wrote a letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell and threatened to reconsider the 1961 act. The NFL put the game on CBS and NBC. Pay-Per-View is a long way off.

Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191  

Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Rob Gronkowski (87) celebrates with Mike Evans (13) and quarterback Tom Brady (12) after Gronkowski scored a touchdown during the first half of the NFL Super Bowl 55 football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2021, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Mark LoMoglio)