Nhl loses key decision in tv rights lawsuit

[troutman]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=459001

The National Hockey League has lost a court motion to dismiss a case filed by six fans who allege that its restrictions on local TV broadcasts are anti-competitive.

Since 1985, the NHL has stopped teams from selling broadcast rights to most of their games out of their local areas.

If this latest litigation is successful, it's possible that popular teams like the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks could begin selling their broadcast rights throughout the United States.

In a lawsuit filed in New York two years ago, a group of disgruntled fans claimed that the restrictions on broadcasting were inappropriately driving up the price of sports cable television packages.

[Resolute 14]

Would be interesting to see the submissions themselves, however looking at it from a completely non-legal perspective: It is very hard to credit the argument that hockey is what is driving the price of sports cable packages for fans who live in the markets of the Panthers and Islanders.

[JohnnyT]

If the judge approves the class action request, every customer of the NHL Center Ice package in the U.S. would be included as a plaintiff. The case does not involve or affect broadcast rights within Canada.

Before anyone gets too ahead of themselves

[jayswin]

"Nhl"

I simply cannot handle seeing only the first letter of NHL capitalized. It just looks so weird.

[albertGQ]

Wouldn't this be good for the individual teams that are popular outside their local area?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

Wouldn't this be good for the individual teams that are popular outside their local area?

Sure, but that doesn't necessarily make it good for the league as a whole. It is largely moot at the moment because there is eight years left on the NBC deal, but allowing the six teams NBC cares about to sell their own rights nationally dramatically reduces the value of a national rights package. And since it is unlikely that such individual team rights packages would be shared league wide to any significant degree, such a shift in who gets the revenue would have a seriously detrimental effect on many teams - including the Flames. I could see an outcome where this scenario creates a financial and competitive imbalance as bad - or worse - than the late 90s.

[FAN]

Anyone know if the NFL and NBA do the same things? Not really well versed in the business of sports.

Legally speaking, I can't see how the fans would win. I mean they have to prove that teams would actually sell broadcast rights outside of their local market and that prices would be lower if they do to claim damages.

[the2bears]

Originally Posted by FAN

Anyone know if the NFL and NBA do the same things? Not really well versed in the business of sports.

Legally speaking, I can't see how the fans would win. I mean they have to prove that teams would actually sell broadcast rights outside of their local market and that prices would be lower if they do to claim damages.

They'll just need to show it harms competition. This, at least in theory, is enough. No need to prove prices would be lowered, since this is assumed if competition is affected.