Subcommittee Ranking Member Nadler’s Opening Statement at Hearing on Trump Antitrust Policies Driving Up Streaming Costs for Sports Fans
Washington, D.C. (June 10, 2026)— Today, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, delivered opening remarks at the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust hearing on how Trump Administration antitrust policies are increasing television streaming costs, particularly for sports fans.
Below are Ranking Member Nadler’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at today’s hearing.
WATCH Ranking Member Nadler’s opening statement.
Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler
Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust “Examining the Sports Broadcasting Act”
June 10, 2026
Mr. Chairman, for years, I have been warning this Committee about the dangers of unchecked consolidation in the American media industry. I have written letters. I have led oversight efforts. I have called for serious antitrust review of the deals that have steadily concentrated our newsrooms, our studios, and our broadcasting infrastructure into the hands of fewer and fewer companies. And for years, the Majority has turned a blind eye to these warnings.
Today we are here to examine the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961. And I want to be clear at the outset: this law absolutely deserves a serious reexamination. It was written for a media landscape that no longer exists.
American sports fans are paying more, getting less, and navigating a fragmented streaming environment that the 1961 Congress could not possibly have anticipated. Reform of this law is a legitimate subject for congressional attention. But you cannot examine the Sports Broadcasting Act in a vacuum. And that is exactly what the Majority is asking us to do today.
The same Administration that has suddenly discovered a concern for NFL fans has, over the past year, waved through one of the most aggressive waves of media consolidation in modern American history. Just last summer, the FCC approved the Skydance-Paramount merger, but only after the Ellison family paid the President a 16-million-dollar contribution to his presidential library, threw in millions more in free advertising, agreed to install a Trump-friendly minder in the CBS newsroom, and saw to the cancellation of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The result, as Ranking Member Raskin and I have warned this Committee repeatedly, was not antitrust review. It was a shakedown.
Now the same Ellison family is back, this time bidding for Warner Bros. Discovery, in a deal that would give them not only CBS and Paramount but also CNN, HBO, and one of the largest collections of sports broadcasting rights in the country. The President has publicly announced that he intends to be involved in the decision. The Ellisons have reportedly already promised him “sweeping changes” at CNN.
The same playbook that worked for Skydance-Paramount is being run again, with the same beneficiaries, the same victims, and the same silence from this Administration's antitrust regulators.
This is a First Amendment crisis dressed up as an innocuous business deal. When this President can use the merger review process to extract editorial control over a major news network, it represents a significant threat to our democracy and our constitutional liberties.
When the FCC can be used to retaliate against ABC for airing a Jimmy Kimmel monologue the White House did not like, no broadcaster in this country is safe. The story that 60 Minutes was forced to delay about lawless deportations and the firing of high-profile correspondents like Scott Pelley, are a preview of the censorship regime these mergers are enabling.
And all this unchecked consolidation, aided by corruption in the Administration, must inform our consideration of the sports broadcasting landscape.
The merger of CBS Sports and Turner Sports under one corporate roof would create a sports rights portfolio rivaled only by ESPN—encompassing rights to the NFL, the NHL, the Olympics, the UFC, the PGA Tour, the Big Ten, Big 12, NCAA basketball, and the Champions League. Fewer competitors bidding for sports rights means higher monthly bills for every American family, sports fan or not.
Last Congress, I joined my colleagues in writing to the Department of Justice about the proposed Venu Sports joint venture between Disney, Fox, and Warner Brothers Discovery—a venture that would have given three of the largest media companies in the country control over the sports streaming market. A federal court agreed with us, granted an injunction, and the Biden Antitrust Division filed a powerful amicus brief detailing the anticompetitive effects of that arrangement.
Last year, the Trump Justice Department then cleared Disney’s acquisition of Fubo, the very company that had brought the antitrust case in the first place. The result was exactly what we warned about: a competitor knocked out, a market consolidated, and consumers left with higher prices and fewer choices.
And now we are here to discuss the NFL. Not because the Majority has introduced any legislation to address the high cost of sports viewership. But because Rupert Murdoch personally lobbied the President at a White House dinner in February, warning that the NFL's streaming deals would “kill broadcast networks” like Fox. Within weeks of that dinner, the Justice Department opened the investigation that is the stated reason for today's hearing.
Yes, we should reform the Sports Broadcasting Act. Fans are being asked to pay too much across too many platforms just to watch their favorite teams. But we cannot pretend that we are doing the work of consumer protection when we examine the SBA in isolation while the Administration facilitates the very consolidation that is driving up the costs we claim to be concerned about.
I have called for a full investigation into the corruption at this Administration’s Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission, and I will continue todo so. We cannot have an honest conversation about the Sports Broadcasting Act, or any antitrust matter, when the agencies responsible for enforcing our competition laws have been turned into instruments of political and personal favor.
Before I yield back, we cannot discuss anything related to sports today without taking note of the most important sports story happening in this country today. And by that, I mean the New York Knicks’ drive for an NBA championship. Tonight is game four, and as long as Donald Trump stays far away from Madison Square Garden, the Knicks should do fine. Let's go Knicks.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.