NFL suspends blackout rule for 2015 season, will stream London game worldwide
NFL owners have voted to suspend the league’s unpopular blackout rule, which forbids local TV stations from airing games with lackluster ticket sales, for the entire 2015 season. But ditching the rule isn’t yet permanent; owners plan to reevaluate upon the season’s conclusion to see if the decision had any unwanted effects. The blackout rule actually didn’t prevent any TV viewers from seeing a game in 2014, and only two games were blacked out for the year prior.
As written, the rule is activated when a team fails to sell 85 percent of seats 72 hours before kickoff; in 2012, the NFL relaxed its previous, more stringent set of requirements that led to a higher frequency of blocked games. The FCC did its part in getting here last year,…
Source:: The Verge
