House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan has invited NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to testify at a hearing examining the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 and its effect on the modern broadcast market for major sports leagues.
“In particular, this hearing will examine the ways in which the distribution of professional sports leagues has evolved since the SBA was first enacted 65 years ago,” the invite, which was shared on X, states. “It will also examine the extent to which the antitrust exemption created by the SBA has been used by professional sports leagues to harm consumers and whether potential legislative remedies may be needed to address that harm.”
The hearing will be held on June 10 at 10 a.m. ET. The letter further asks Goodell to confirm his attendance by Wednesday.
An NFL spokesperson did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.
The fresh scrutiny from Congress comes as the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission are investigating the league’s practices and media rights strategy and how sports’ shift to streaming is impacting consumers.
As such, NFL execs met with FCC officials on April 17 to discuss distribution approach for live games and how it benefits both fans and local broadcasters.
“For many years, 100% of NFL games have aired on broadcast television in the home markets of the competing teams. Most of those games are distributed to a significantly broader geographic area, if not nationally,” NFL officials wrote in a prior letter to the FCC. “Our contracts with ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC account for the distribution of more than 87% of all NFL games, a number that has varied little in the past two decades. This distribution model is good for our fans, for local television broadcasters, for our 32 clubs in small and large markets alike, and for the competitiveness of the game itself. The success of our fan- and broadcast-friendly strategy is evident as the 2025 season was the most viewed since 1989 and one of the most competitive in League history.”
The league also defended its antitrust exemption under the 1961 Sports Broadcasting Act that allows it to negotiate media rights for all of its affiliated teams. It argued that having 32 teams negotiate their own rights deals individually would result in more viewer confusion and higher costs.
In addition to that letter, the NFL shared a presentation with the FCC detailing how traditional TV consumption has fallen from 77% in 2015 to 47% in 2025, while streaming consumption has climbed from 23% to 53% over the same period. During that time, the number of pay TV households has fallen from 99 million to 65 million, per the presentation. Despite these trends, the sports body noted that 86 of the top 100 TV programs in 2025 were still football games.
The NFL also has an opt-out clause in its current media rights agreements that can be exercised starting after the 2029-30 season, but could potentially reopen negotiations as early as this year.
The league’s current partners include Disney/ESPN, Comcast/NBCUniversal, Paramount/CBS, Amazon and Fox. It also has separate deals with YouTube for the NFL Sunday Ticket and Netflix for Christmas Day games.
The NFL and CBS are currently in renewal talks. Paramount CEO David Ellison declined to comment on specific negotiations, but previously told CNBC that Paramount has “planned accordingly” in the event of a potential increase in the overall cost of the NFL by as much as 50%.
Per the NFL’s presentation, Amazon’s Thursday Night Football saw a 16% year over year ratings increase to 15.4 million average viewers in 2025. Meanwhile, CBS’s Sunday package grew 11% to 21.3 million average viewers, Fox’s Sunday package grew 6% to 19.6 million viewers, NBC’s Sunday Night Football grew 11% to 23.5 million viewers, ESPN’s Monday Night Football grew 13% to 16.5 million viewers and the NFL Network grew o.1% to 7.6 million viewers.
