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Stop Sports Blackouts Act of 2025

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to direct the Federal Communications Commission to promulgate regulations with respect to rebates for certain video programming blackouts, and for other purposes.

Introduced Jan 31, 2025

Latest action (Jan 31, 2025) Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Referred to
Energy and Commerce Committee
Policy area
Science, Technology, Communications
Issues
Technology & Privacy

Summary
  • Requires the Federal Communications Commission to establish regulations within 90 days for video providers to issue rebates when subscribers lose access to programming due to retransmission consent negotiations
  • Applies to cable operators and direct broadcast satellite providers
  • Requires rebates for any period a provider denies subscribers access to programming they agreed to provide at the time of subscription
  • Directs the FCC to determine the appropriate rebate amount for programming blackouts

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)
7 cosponsors

Money behind the sponsor

Top reported contributors to Patrick Ryan’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.

  • PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES $29,300
  • WHITE & CASE LLP $22,600
  • PALANTIR $19,800
  • TRANSDIGM GROUP $16,500
  • ANDURIL INDUSTRIES $16,500

Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Patrick Ryan → · Outside spending →

Actions (2)
  1. Jan 31, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. · house
  2. Jan 31, 2025 Introduced in House

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • S 328 — Stop Sports Blackouts Act · Introduced Jan 30, 2025 · Cong. 119 87%
  • S 4301 — For the Fans Act · Introduced Apr 15, 2026 · Cong. 119 69%
  • HR 908 — Stop the Censorship Act · Introduced Feb 4, 2025 · Cong. 119 69%
  • HR 3976 — NCAA Accountability Act of 2025 · Introduced Jun 12, 2025 · Cong. 119 65%
  • S 867 — Broadcast Freedom and Independence Act of 2025 · Introduced Mar 5, 2025 · Cong. 119 63%
  • S 955 — NCAA Accountability Act of 2025 · Introduced Mar 11, 2025 · Cong. 119 63%

Text versions (1)
  • Introduced in House · Jan 31, 2025

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 31, 2025

Mr. Ryan (for himself, Mrs. McIver, Mr. Carson, and Ms. Norton) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to direct the Federal Communications Commission to promulgate regulations with respect to rebates for certain video programming blackouts, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Stop Sports Blackouts Act of 2025”.

SEC. 2. REBATES FOR VIDEO PROGRAMMING BLACKOUTS.

Title VII of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

“SEC. 723. REBATES FOR VIDEO PROGRAMMING BLACKOUTS.

“(a) In General.—Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this section, the Commission shall promulgate regulations—

“(1) to require a provider to issue to a subscriber of such provider a rebate with respect to any period during which the provider denies such subscriber, as a result of a covered negotiation, access to video programming that such provider agreed, at the time of subscription entry or renewal (as the case may be), to provide to such subscriber during such period; and

“(2) to establish the appropriate amount of a rebate issued under paragraph (1).

“(b) Definitions.—In this section:

“(1) Covered negotiation.—The term ‘covered negotiation’ means a negotiation with respect to—

“(A) retransmission consent of a television broadcast station under section 325(b); or

“(B) carriage of video programming of an entity that is not a television broadcast station.

“(2) Provider.—The term ‘provider’ means either of the following:

“(A) A cable operator (as defined in section 602).

“(B) A provider of direct broadcast satellite service (as defined in section 335(b)(5)).

“(3) Television broadcast station.—The term ‘television broadcast station’ has the meaning given such term in section 325(b)(7).

“(4) Video programming.—The term ‘video programming’ has the meaning given such term in section 602.”. <all>

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