FCC Eliminates Sports Blackout Rules; Sports Lawyer Questions Timing

The Federal Communications Commission announced Tuesday that it was repealing its sports blackout rules, which has prohibited cable and satellite operators from airing any sports event that had been blacked out on a local broadcast station.   The action removes Commission protection of the NFL’s current private blackout policy, which requires local broadcast stations to black out a game if a team does not sell a certain percentage of tickets to the game at least 72 hours prior to the game