WASHINGTON (TNND) — The National Football League gears up for the new season with the release of the full schedule on Thursday, as the league faces tough scrutiny from President Donald Trump and his administration over the increasing number of football games winding up on streaming services.
The President aired his frustrations during a recent exclusive interview with "Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson."
You got people that love football. They’re great people. They don’t make enough money to go and pay this. It’s tough, and they could be killing the golden goose," Trump said.
A full transcript of Trump's remarks on the NFL is available below:
ATTKISSON: Your justice department is investigating the NFL for moving a lot of viewers from free broadcast television into more expensive pay programming like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Peacock, and YouTube where the NFL makes more money. Do you think this is price gouging on America's favorite sport? Should the government do anything about it?
TRUMP: I think it's just tough. It's tough. You got people that love football. They're great people. They don't make enough money to go and pay this. It's, it's tough. And they could be killing the golden goose. I mean, they have that stupid kickoff thing that you can't watch. It's unwatchable. I hate the games where they, you know, they have the new phony kickoff. I don't think it's any safer. Um, I hope college football doesn't do that. Do you know what I'm talking about, right?
ATTKISSON: I, I'm not a big-
TRUMP: You know the football, you are not a football fan. These people know what I'm talking about. That, that, that, you know, they ruin the game. But they have to be careful because, you know, others have tried this and all of a sudden you don't have a sport anymore. Probably will.
ATTKISSON: Government will step in and do something.
TRUMP: There's some, there's something very sad when they take football away from many, many people. Very sad. I don't like it.
Along with broadcast television, some NFL games appear exclusively on streaming services. The media rights deals span from the billions to the hundreds of millions, with games on Amazon Prime, Netflix, Peacock, ESPN+, and YouTube, with many demanding a monthly subscription fee that could total more than $1,000 if a fan kept the subscriptions for a full year.
The Justice Department is probing potential antitrust violations by the league, and the FCC has opened up public comments on the issue for frustrated fans to voice their concerns.
The National Football League gears up for the new season with the release of the full schedule on Thursday, as the league faces tough scrutiny from President Donald Trump and his administration over the increasing number of football games winding up on streaming services. (TNND)
"There's a question of whether they are extending beyond the scope of that antitrust exemption. If they move too many games behind a paywall," FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a March 29 interview.
It’s not hard to find football fans airing their grievances about streaming on social media. Some Democrats in Congress also seem to share the Trump administration’s concerns.
Wisconsin Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin has a bill requiring free viewing for local fans when their team is on streaming and eliminating local blackouts of games.
"People are finding this complexity and cost just as aggravating as can be," Baldwin said.
The NFL has defended itself by saying 87% of its games last year were free on over-the-air broadcast networks. A number sports analysts are casting doubt on.
"Most of those games are clustered into three windows on a Sunday, where you’re going to get at most three gamesthey’re on free TV, but you ain't getting 87% of them. I’m not, nobody’s getting 87% of the games for free," Pro Football Talk founder Mike Florio said.
Fans living near their teams do get a break. When an NFL team appeared exclusively on a streaming service last season, the fans in the local market were able to watch their team on over-the-air broadcasts 100% of the time and didn’t have to stream.