FANS Act

Furthering Access and Networks for Sports Act or the FANS Act

This bill amends the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to provide that the antitrust laws shall apply to joint agreements among professional football, baseball, basketball, or hockey league covering the telecasting of sports contests to the extent that any such league does not: (1) expressly prohibit sponsored telecast licensees and any video licensee from intentionally removing the live content of such league from a multichannel video programming distributor during, or related to a negotiation regarding, carriage of the league's games by such distributor; or (2) make a sponsored telecast of a game that is played in the home territory of a member club available to consumers over the Internet in any territory in which the game is not available for private viewing through a local television broadcast station or a such a distributor.

The bill repeals the exception that allows the antitrust exemption for such a joint agreement that prohibits televising games within the home territory of a member club on a day when such club is playing at home.