Ohio bill would ban exclusive streaming contracts for college sports
A bill proposed in the Ohio Senate would ban exclusive streaming contracts for college sports, stopping fans from needing to pay for numerous services to watch their favorite teams.
The national championship-winning Ohio State University football team played Michigan State University last season.
But it was a game you could only watch on Peacock, NBC's streaming service — something that OSU fan and state Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, was angry about.
'I don't have streaming services because, again, I can't afford to spend all that on the streaming service,' he said. 'The fact that I wasn't able to watch an Ohio State game about killed me.'
In recent years, streaming services have been getting exclusive contracts to broadcast college athletics. If you don't pay for the services, you don't get to watch.
DeMora said this adds up, since the Big 10 has a deal with Peacock and the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) has one with ESPN subsidiaries ESPN+ and ESPNU.
This could be especially difficult for people who can't access or don't have high-speed internet, he said.
'They can't watch streaming TV even if they wanted to pay the extra money for it,' he continued.
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Since DeMora is not only a fan, but also a state senator, he introduced Senate Bill 94, which would prohibit public universities from giving exclusive broadcasting rights to a streaming service.
'The streams were lagging, pixelated, out of sync and plagued by poor audio quality,' DeMora said during recent testimony on the bill. 'People were paying for something that was horrible quality to start.'
WEWS/OCJ reached out to both the BIG 10 and MAC conferences, the different streaming services and their owners — as well as OSU, Kent State and the University of Akron.
Akron said they didn't have a comment yet, and Kent declined to comment. But Ohio State did chime in.
'Media rights agreements are negotiated by the Big Ten on behalf of all conference members, and broadcast rights for specific athletic events are controlled by the designated media partner in accordance with the larger media rights agreement,' OSU spokesperson Ben Johnson said.
State Rep. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania) said this was a 'kind of stupid' bill.
'Imagine the Buckeyes not being part of the Big 10 anymore because a simple piece of legislation said you can't sign up to a streaming deal,' Williams said. 'I think it's ill-advised, ill-conceived and it won't get any support.'
This bill could hurt the schools, he added.
'You're going to stop universities from a revenue stream that they can generate off of their athletic programs that they use to reinvest into their athletic facilities,' the Republican said.
The legislation would also allow students to watch broadcasts for free. The legislation would require state universities to provide enrolled students access, but it is up to the school's discretion how that is implemented.
Johnson explained that Peacock does give a student discount. Right now, the premium subscription for students is $2.99 per month for a year, down from $7.99. Once a year passes, students will have to pay $7.99 per month.
'Having to pay extra to watch their teammates and classmates' sporting events isn't fair to them,' DeMora argued.
Williams disagreed with this argument and the Democrat's frustration with the cost in general.
'That's like saying someone can't afford the purchase of a television, so therefore games shouldn't be televised,' Williams said.
The general public is with him on what he calls the streaming epidemic, DeMora said.
'It's not fair to the everyday fan,' he said.
The bill will be subject to more hearings in the coming weeks.
Both DeMora and Williams have proposed football-related legislation. The Democrat proposed a bill that would prevent state money from going towards professional sports teams that have losing records. Williams, in the last General Assembly, introduced a bill that would make planting a flag in the center of the Ohio Stadium football field illegal. He proposed this after a brawl broke out when University of Michigan players tried to plant a flagpole after they beat OSU.
Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.
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