Clay Travis Delivers Statement To House Judiciary Committee About Sports Broadcasting Act

[0:00] Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the invite today. Mr. Nadler, I enjoy and appreciate the opportunity to [0:05] speak to all of you. My name is Clay Travis. I founded a site called Outkick in 2011. If you [0:11] haven't gone yet, you should. It's the sanest site in all of sports. And a big part of what we do on [0:17] that site and what I have done for the past 22 years in my career is advocate for the average [0:23] sports fan. Many of you are lawyers and you're familiar with the standard of a reasonable man. [0:28] How would someone respond in a context in the law? I'd like to advocate here for the reasonable fan. [0:36] I just asked before I started speaking today, my followers on X, what would you say if you had the [0:42] opportunity today to speak to Democrats, Republicans, to everyone across the country about your experience [0:48] as a sports fan? I would encourage you guys to go look at the responses there. Hundreds of them have [0:54] all come in. None of them are happy. Every single day, sports fans are getting gouged now for the [1:02] opportunity of watching their favorite teams. And I would say under the Sports Broadcast Act, as a very [1:08] easy summation, fans now pay far more money every year for something that by law in 1961, you all guaranteed [1:18] for them should be free. For anyone out there who is saying, why is Congress involved in this? [1:23] You interjected yourself in 1961 at the behest of these leagues to provide them an exemption that they [1:30] have now taken advantage of. And they are gouging so many different fans out there across the entire [1:36] sports landscape, regardless of who you are a fan of. Let me hit you with just a couple of ideas. [1:42] The NFL in particular. CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, ABC, Amazon, Netflix, the NFL Sunday Ticket, Paramount, Peacock. [1:52] Most of your constituents are frustrated. They don't know how to find games and they are having to pay [1:58] far too much when they have the opportunity to actually watch those games. I don't know how many [2:04] of you remember back in the day when you could have one remote control in your hand and you could [2:09] easily flip from any different game. Nowadays, with passwords, with sign-ins, how many of your [2:16] constituents on an average Saturday or Sunday are extremely frustrated because they just can't even [2:21] get logged in to watch their favorite games? And these are things that they're already paying for. [2:27] I hear from fans every single day about how frustrated they are with what the leagues are doing. [2:33] They just want to be able to watch their favorite team and not have to struggle to do so. [2:38] Think about this perspective. Remember when flat screen televisions were very expensive? [2:45] I spent $4,200 in 2006 for my first ever flat screen television. Now they are a few hundred dollars. [2:54] Capitalism has worked when it comes to flat screen television. Sports fans now can watch huge flat [3:00] screens in their home for a fraction of the cost that they paid in 2006, but they now have to pay a [3:06] massive amount to be able to watch all of their favorite teams. Your investigation has actually [3:13] uncovered that the NFL Sunday ticket, which is one of the most expensive packages out there, [3:18] the NFL doesn't even offer to the average fan what they actually want, which is the ability to [3:24] subscribe to their favorite team if they live out of market. Something that many of you know all about [3:29] because you travel all the time and you probably want to watch your favorite NFL team, [3:33] your local constituent team. You don't have the ability to do it. They don't offer that product [3:38] even though the marketplace is telling them that's what people most want. I love college football. I [3:43] love the NFL. I have three boys. We spend all day Saturday and Sunday watching games. In the college [3:49] football world, you know I get 10 broadcast games for free every single Saturday. The market for college [3:58] football is robust. In the NFL, at most you only get four. The NFL is going to argue that 87 percent of [4:06] their games are still free. That still means that they're violating the law with 13 percent of the [4:11] games that they are putting behind streamers. It also means that the reality is if you look at your [4:17] individual constituents, none of them are getting 87 percent. And let me close with this one example [4:25] here and I look forward to your questions. Buffalo Bills, great new stadium opening, $850 million in [4:33] taxpayer funds. Their very first home game is on a Thursday on Amazon. Most of the taxpayers in the [4:42] state of New York who paid for that stadium are not able to watch for free a Buffalo Bills home opener. [4:50] That's wrong. You guys have an important responsibility and an opportunity to apply [4:55] the law fairly, freely and help fans everywhere across the entire nation pay less and get more. [5:02] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Travis.