Abstract
ABSTRACTSports leagues have developed an economic business model where they sell national media rights on behalf of all of the teams and the teams sell media rights in their home territory without competition. To protects a home team's territory, leagues blackout some games in certain geographic regions. Recent policies include blacking out local team's games on league-wide satellite and Internet-based digital media packages. To obtain access to most of a local team's games fans, thus, need to purchase a subscription to a regional sports network. These territorial arrangements that restrict game exposure have been construed by some as anticompetitive, leading to limited choice and increased prices for consumers. Sports leagues contend these restrictions are necessary to protect individual team broadcast revenue and ensure competitive balance. The recent Laumann v. NHL and Garber v. MLB lawsuits questioned whether leagues broadcast policies were more harmful or beneficial to consumers and if assigning exclusive regional broadcast territories violated United States antitrust laws.
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