Blackout (broadcasting)

For blackouts of syndicated programming, seesyndication exclusivity.

Inbroadcasting,the termblackoutrefers to the non-airing oftelevisionorradioprogramming in a certainmedia market.

It is particularly prevalent in thebroadcasting of sports events,although other television or radio programs may be blacked out as well. Most blackout policies serve to protect local broadcasters (primarilyregional sports networks) from competition by "out-of-market" networks that carry different teams, by only allowing viewers to watch non-national telecasts of teams within their designated markets (with television providers blacking out regional telecasts of teams that are outside their market; in turn, encouraging viewers to purchase subscription-basedout-of-market sports packages), and by allowing teams to black out national telecasts of games that are also being shown by a local broadcaster.

By contrast, some blackout policies, such as those of the U.S.National Football Leagueand Englishassociation football(soccer), serve to encourage attendance to games by respectively requiring that a specific percentage of tickets be sold in order for a game to be televised in the home team's market, or by enforcing a blanket prohibition on any telecast of football matches (regardless of where it is being played) during specific windows.

The term is also used in relation to situations where programming is removed or replaced on international feeds of a television service, because the broadcaster does not hold the territorial rights to air the programs outside of their home country.

Canada

Federal elections

Perhaps the most notable non-sports-related blackout in television was the blackout ofCanadian federal electioncoverage. Because there are sixtime zonesacross Canada, polls close in different parts of the country at different times.Section 329 of the Canada Elections Actoutlawed disseminating election results from other ridings in constituencies where polls were still open, ostensibly to prevent the results fromthe Eastfrom influencing voters inwestern ridings.

However, in thefederal election in 2000,Paul Charles Bryan published results fromAtlantic Canadaonline despite being told not to by the authorities. Bryan was charged before theProvincial Court of British Columbia,but fought the charges as unconstitutional undersection 2of theCanadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,which protects freedom of expression andfreedom of association.Bryan's victory before theBritish Columbia Supreme Courtmeant that voters inBritish Columbiaand the rest of Canada legally learned of election results in other ridings during thefederal election in 2004.However, Elections Canada appealed, and Bryan lost his case before theBritish Columbia Court of Appeal.Bryan further appealed to theSupreme Court of Canada,but in a ruling made on March 15, 2007 (R. v. Bryan), in a 5–4 ruling, the Court ruled that Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act isconstitutionaland justified undersection 1of theCanadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.Stephen Harper,who later became Prime Minister, labelledElections Canada"jackasses" and tried to raise money for Bryan. TheCanadian Broadcasting Corporationalso supported Bryan, hoping to "make election night a bigger event than it already is".

Before the 2000 election, Elections Canada moved to reduce the effects of the blackout and the influence of unauthorized knowledge of election results in Western ridings by altering the times that polls close, so that polls no longer close at the same local time throughout the country. Polls inAtlantic Canadaclose at 9 p.m.Atlantic(9:30in Newfoundland), polls fromAlbertatoQuebecclose an hour later (9 p.m.Eastern,8 p.m.Centraland 7 p.m.Mountain) and finally, polls in British Columbia close an hour after that (7 p.m.Pacific). Historically, the results of the election are often not decisively known until more than an hour after polls close in the Eastern Time Zone, but are usually known within two hours of these polls closing.

Provincial elections are not subject to blackout restrictions – in provinces that have two time zones, the vast majority of the population lives in one time zone or the other. Election laws in these provinces stipulate that all polls are to close at the same time – this time invariably being 8:00 p.m. (or 9:00 p.m. in Ontario beginning with the2007 provincial election) in the time zone of the majority.

On August 17, 2011, Elections Canada Chief Electoral OfficerMarc Mayrandsuggested improvements of the voting system to Parliament; among them were a proposal to remove the blackout rule. Mayrand argued that "the growing use ofsocial mediaputs in question not only the practical enforceability of the rule, but also its very intelligibility and usefulness in a world where the distinction between private communication and public transmission is quickly eroding. The time has come for Parliament to consider revoking the current rule. "On January 13, 2012, it was announced that the federal government would introduce legislation that would repeal the blackout rule, citing the increased use of social media. The blackout rule was officially repealed in October 2015, prior to the2015 Canadian federal election.

CFL

TheCanadian Football League's constitution does provide the option for teams to black out games in their home markets in order to encourage attendance; at one point, the CFL required games to be blacked out within a radius of 120 kilometres (75 mi) around the closest over-the-air signal carrying the game, or 56 kilometres (35 mi) of the stadium for cable broadcasts (and, for theSaskatchewan Roughriders,the entirety of theprovince).

The policy received significant criticism in 2002 when theHamilton Tiger-Catsenforced a blackout on a game against theToronto Argonautsthat had playoff implications; the range of the blackout was considered too wide for the market.

Under the league's 2008–2013 contract withTSN,teams were given a cap on the number of blackouts they could impose per-season (with the number varying by media and CFL reports, ranging from 2 for Hamilton and Toronto, and 5 for teams in Western Canada), and final decisions were assigned to the league if at least 90% of tickets were sold out within 48 hours of the game. Although the CFL stated that the league's current contract with TSN (which began in 2014) does allow for blackouts, they have been seldom-used, if not at all.

NHL

Rogers Sportsnet broadcast regions.

Map of TSN's regional feeds

As in the U.S., National Hockey League games that are not scheduled as national telecasts bySportsnetorTVA Sportsare broadcast byregional feedsof either Sportsnet,TSN,orRDS(French), and are blacked out for viewers outside the team's home market. Sportsnet's four regional feeds correspond with each of its NHL teams' designated markets; the Ontario and Pacific feeds are designated to theToronto Maple Leafs,andVancouver Canucksrespectively, while Sportsnet West and its corresponding market (which includes all ofAlbertaandSaskatchewan) is shared by theEdmonton OilersandCalgary Flames.Although West is also the main feed forManitoba,Flames and Oilers games are blacked out there to protect theWinnipeg Jets.As of August 2014, TSN is similarly structured, with the Ottawa Senators on TSN5 (East), Maple Leafs on TSN4 (Ontario), and Jets on TSN3 (Manitoba and Saskatchewan). TheMontreal Canadienswere added in 2017 onTSN2(which was originally promoted as being a secondary national channel).The Canadiens and Senators share the same market, which includes parts of Eastern Ontario (primarily theOttawa Valley), and the entirety of Quebec and Atlantic Canada, while Saskatchewan is shared by the Jets, Flames, and Oilers.

Until the 2014–15 season, allFrench-languagebroadcasts of theMontreal Canadienswere available nationally on RDS, which was previously the national French-language rightsholder of the NHL in Canada. As RDS was, until 2011, the only French-language cable sports channel in Canada,the team forwent a separate regional rights deal and allowed all of its games to be broadcast as part of the national package. As of the 2014–15 season,Quebecor MediaandTVA Sportsis the national French rightsholder as part of a sub-licensing agreement withRogers Communications.RDS negotiated a 12-year deal with the team for regional rights to the Canadiens: games are now blacked out for viewers outside Quebec, Atlantic Canada, and parts of Eastern Ontario.

Out-of-market games can be viewed using the subscription-basedNHL Centre Iceand Sportsnet+; in-market games are blacked out from Centre Ice to protect local broadcasters,but Sportsnet+ does not black out in-market broadcasts of games televised by Sportsnet since it is a direct-to-consumer version of the Sportsnet channels themselves.

Internet television

Many programs carried onInternet televisionin other parts of the world are not available in Canada because the major broadcast networks in Canada secure exclusive rights to them and prevent Internet television aggregators, one notable example beingHulu,from distributing them in Canada. TheNational Football League,for example, sold worldwide Internet broadcast rights to a package of itsThursday Night Footballgames during the2016 seasontoTwitter;however,Rogers Mediaforced Twitter to block the streams in Canada by virtue of its holding of terrestrial television rights in the country.Numerous organizations have attempted to establish workarounds that route Canadians' Internet traffic through the United States, workarounds that local broadcasters have opposed, with one,Bell Media,calling such practices "stealing",and that aggregators such asNetflixhave actively fought against.

India

Indian lawrequiresall sporting events of "national importance", whose broadcast rights are owned by a pay television service, to be simulcast by the state broadcasterDoordarshan(DD) on itsDD NationalTV channel.Tata Sky(which is partially owned by the parent company ofStar India,owner of theStar Sportsnetworks) filed a lawsuit over the rule, arguing that these simulcasts devalued the exclusive broadcast rights because DD National is a must-carry channel. In 2017, theSupreme Court of Indiaruled that pay television services must black out DD National when it is airing such events in order to protect the pay TV broadcaster, restricting availability of DD's simulcasts of such events to terrestrial television andDD Free Dish.

United Kingdom

Association football

UEFAArticle 48.2 and the majorassociation footballleagues of the United Kingdom enforce a blackout on all television broadcasts of football between 2:45 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. on Saturday matchdays. This applies to all matches, regardless of whether they are a domestic or international competition. A match which kicks off within the window may be joined in progress once the blackout window ends.

This policy is ostensibly intended to encourage fans to attend football matches in-person, especially in lower divisions that compete with top-flight matches on television. The practice originated in the 1960s;BurnleychairmanBob Lordwas opposed to television broadcasts of football matches — going as far as banning theBBCfrom televisingMatch of the DayfromTurf Moorfor a time. He pushed theFootball Leagueto adopt this stance as an organization-wide policy; it has since been adopted byThe Football Associationand the currentPremier League,which broke away from the Football League in 1992 to become the highest level of club football in England.

Affected matches can still be broadcast internationally, hence more Premier League matches can be shown outside the United Kingdom by other rightsholders than within. This intricacy created a "grey market"for obtaining the broadcasts from alternative sources, such as foreign satellite providers or unofficial online streaming services. The Premier League and other stakeholders have historically considered this practice to be a violation of thecopyrightof the broadcasts. In 2014, for taking inadequate steps to prevent unauthorized retransmissions from its streaming broadcasts online, the Premier League briefly restrictedMENAregion rightsholderbeIN Sportsto one 3 p.m. match per week on television only.

Critics, includingAdvocate Generalat theCourt of Justice of the European UnionJuliane Kokott,have argued that 3 p.m. blackouts are outdated, as its purpose is hindered — especially within the Premier League — by the high demand for the few tickets available to the public, and that there was little evidence that television broadcasts actually affected attendance.To preserve the value of its domestic broadcast rights and allow more games to be televised, the Premier League has added more matches in windows outside of Saturday afternoons, such as weekdays and Sundays — including thefinal matchday of the season.

In 2018, after complying by blacking out the first 15 minutes of aSerie Amatch that sawCristiano Ronaldo's on-field debut forJuventus,streaming serviceEleven Sports UK & Irelandbegan to defy the ban and show selected Serie A andLa Ligamatches during this period. On 17 October 2018, Eleven announced that it would cease its telecasts of 3 p.m. kickoffs, but argued that the rule was outdated because only the UK andMontenegrohave such blackout rules, and that the blackout period encourages illegal streaming. A representative of La Liga has backed Eleven Sports' position.

In April 2020, due to theCOVID-19 pandemic,UEFA authorised the suspension of the blackout rule for the remainder of the season.Upon the resumption of the2019–20 Premier League,all matches were shown on domestic television due to them being playedbehind closed doors,while a number of free-to-air broadcasts (viaSky Sports' sister channelsPickandSky One,Amazon Prime Videoand its sister serviceTwitch,and the BBC — which usually holds rights to free-to-air highlights programmes) were also aired.This arrangement continued into the first month of the2020–21 Premier League.After an attemptedpay-per-viewscheme folded in November 2020, the Premier League returned to allocating the matches to the four broadcasters through at least the end of 2020.

In 2023, the Premier League sought a rare private prosecution against members of a fraud "gang" who sold £10-a-month subscriptions to retransmitted games. The illegal streams brought in more than £7m in revenue from more than 50,000 subscribers, with five members receiving jail sentences between three and eleven years.

United States

MLB/NHL blackout policies

Main article:Major League Baseball blackout policy

Major League Baseballand theNational Hockey Leaguehave very similar blackout rules. Unlike theNational Football League,the blackout of games has nothing to do with attendance, but instead is implemented to protect broadcasters with contracts to air games. Unless one of MLB's national partners hold exclusive rights to a certain regular season game (such as ESPN'sSunday Night Baseballor Apple TV+’sFriday Night Baseball), the local broadcaster of a game has priority over a national broadcaster, and the national broadcast would be blacked out in markets where a local broadcaster is also showing coverage.The blackout rules do not apply during the postseason, as there are no regional television broadcasts.

The NHL utilizes a similar policy of exclusive and non-exclusive national games; with the new broadcast deals enacted with2021–22 season,all regular season games carried byABC, ESPN, and ESPN+are exclusive national broadcasts. AllTNTgames were exclusive national broadcasts during the 2021-22 season, but became subject to blackouts the following season.In some cases, national games are scheduled in windows where no other games involving U.S. teams are being played. NHL Network still carries non-exclusive national games, most of which are simulcast from one of the regional broadcasts or aCanadian national broadcast.All games in the first round of theStanley Cup playoffsare non-exclusive national games (though with no blackouts of the national broadcaster), after which they are exclusive to ESPN, TNT, or TBS.

Out-of-market games can be viewed using the subscription-basedMLB Extra Innings,MLB.tv,andNHL Center Iceservices, as well as ESPN+ for the NHL. In-market games are blacked out from all four services to protect local broadcasters, and they do not offer nationally televised games (except for NHL games exclusively carried or simulcast by ESPN+).

Radio blackouts

In Major League Baseball, there are no radio blackouts. However, for many years, the local radio networks of the two participating ballclubs in theWorld Serieswere not allowed to air games, forcingflagshipstations, if they wanted to carry the Series, to simulcast the network broadcast. As an example, whileBoston Red Soxradio flagshipWHDHandSt. Louis Cardinalsflagship stationKMOXboth broadcast the1967 World Series,both stations had to simulcast theNBC Radiobroadcast along with Boston'sWCOPand St. Louis'sKSD,the nominal NBC Radio affiliates in those cities.

This changed after1980,as fans of thePhiladelphia Phillieswere angry that they could not hear their popular broadcasting team ofHarry KalasandRichie Ashburncall the team's appearance in that year's World Series. Their complaints led to a provision in Major League Baseball's next broadcasting contract permitting the radio flagships of the participating ballclubs to produce and air their own Series broadcasts locally. Since then, only the flagship stations of the two participating ballclubs can originate coverage (though their broadcasts, as well as the national English and Spanish broadcasts, are also available out of market via subscription-based packages on such platforms asMLB,Sirius XM,andTuneIn). Flagship stations are required to make mention of the presenting sponsor of the national ESPN Radio broadcasts as also sponsoring the team's own broadcasts during the World Series (as of 2016 this isAutoZone). All other network affiliates of the two clubs must carry the feed from MLB's national partner (currently ESPN Radio). Should another ESPN Radio affiliate exist in the same market, that station can claim exclusivity, forcing a blackout of the team network affiliate from carrying the game, although this is rarely done as listener pushback against the ESPN Radio affiliate blocking the local play-by-play would likely be untenable (for instance in2016,ESPN Radio O&OWMVPinChicagobroadcast the national ESPN feed as expected, but made no move to block the officialCubsbroadcasterWSCRfrom carrying local play-by-play, to the point of only mentioning the national coverage existed on their station through promos in national ESPN Radio programming).

Additionally, radio stations (including flagships) may not include MLB games in the liveInternetstreamsof their station programming. MLB itself offers radio feeds as a pay service via the league and team websites, along with being a part of the monthly premium fee service from streaming providerTuneIn.Some stations will simply stream the station's regularly scheduled programming that is being pre-empted by the game.

The NHL has no radio blackouts for local broadcasts, althoughNBC Sports Radiobroadcasts are, similarly to some cable broadcasts, not carried within the local markets of participating teams. Internet streaming of radio calls from the NHL's team radio networks, unlike MLB, are allowed to be broadcast for free nationwide with no geoblocking. Also, unlike other leagues, the Stanley Cup Finals (should a team make it to that point in the playoffs) can also be carried on all affiliates of that team's radio network with no restrictions.

NBA blackout policy

Prior to the1998-99 NBA lockout,the NBA and the W NBA used to black out nationally televised games oncable televisionwithin 35 miles (56 km) of the home team's market; however, these are now restricted to games onNBA TV,WatchESPN and other streaming providers.

NFL blackout policy

See also:National Football League television blackout policies

The NFL has engaged in various blackout policies to protect both local ticket sales, and local rightsholders of specific games.

Blackouts based on attendance

In the NFL, any broadcaster that has a signal that hits any area within a 75 miles (121 km) radius of an NFLstadiummay only broadcast a game if that game is a road game (also known as an away game), or if the game sells out 72 hours or more before the start time for the game.If sold out in less than 72 hours, or is close to being sold out by the deadline, the team can sometimes request a time extension. Furthermore, broadcasters with NFL contracts are required to show their markets' road games, even if the secondary markets have substantial fanbases for other teams (like inHarrisburg, Pennsylvania,officially aBaltimore Ravenssecondary market, but home to manyPittsburgh Steelersfans). Sometimesif a game is within a few hundred tickets of selling out, a broadcasterwith rights to show the nearly sold-out game will buy the remaining tickets (and give them to local charities) so it can broadcast the game. Other teams elect to close off sections of their stadium, but cannot sell these tickets for any game that season if they choose to do so.As a result, if the home team's game is a Sunday day game, both networks can air only one game each in that market (until 2000, this rule applied whether or not the game was blacked out; however, this was changed because some markets virtually never aired doubleheaders as a result). Usually, but not always, when each network can show only one game each in a market, the two stations work out between themselves which will show an early game and which will show a late game. This only affects the primary market, and not markets in a 75-mile (121 km) radius, which always get a doubleheader each Sunday. For theNFL International Series,the network broadcasting an International Series game will not have the game blacked out for the team's markets as the game is played outside of the United States; however, some blackout regulations do apply.

There have been two exceptions to the rule, of which one has never been implemented and the other no longer applies. The first is for theGreen Bay Packers,which have two overlapping 75-mile blackout zones – one surroundingthe team's stadiuminGreen Bayand another surroundingMilwaukee.The team'sradio flagship stationis in Milwaukee, and the Packers played part of their home schedule in Milwaukee from 1953 through 1994. However, this policy has never been implemented in the Packers' case, as they have sold out every home game in Green Bay since 1960 and have a decades-long season-ticket waiting list (games in Milwaukee also sold out during this period). The second exception was for theBills Toronto Series;by a technicality,Rogers Communications(the team's lessee) owned all tickets to those games and resold them to potential fans. Even when Rogers failed to sell all of the tickets, they were still technically defined to be sellouts by the league since Rogers was said to have "bought" the tickets. The technicality came into play for both Toronto Series preseason games, and again for the last two regular season games of the series.The Bills Toronto Series was cancelled after the 2013 season, largely due to the aforementioned lackluster attendance.

In June 2012, NFL blackout regulations were revised in which, for the first time in NFL history, home games would no longer require a total sellout to be televised locally; instead, teams would be allowed to set a benchmark anywhere from 85 to 100 percent of the stadium's non-premium seats. Any seats sold beyond that benchmark are subject to heavierrevenue sharingwith the league.Four teams, the Buffalo Bills, theCleveland Browns,theIndianapolis Coltsand theSan Diego Chargers,opted out of the new rules, as it would require the teams to pay a higher percentage of gate fees to the NFL's revenue fund.In the2013 NFL season,theOakland Raidersbegan to artificially limit the capacity ofOakland Coliseumby 11,000 in order to improve their chances of meeting the 85% threshold; the seats comprised sections of "Mount Davis",an extended upper deck that had originally been built as part of the Raiders' 1995 return to Oakland. Under NFL rules, the stadium had to remain in this configuration for the entirety of the season.

In the2015 NFL season,the league, after no games were blacked out at all in the2014 season,voted to "suspend" the blackout policy as an experiment.The suspension continued into the2016 season(a season that included the return of theRamsto theLos Angeles Memorial Coliseumas an interim home until the completion ofSoFi Stadium;the Coliseum has had long-standing issues with NFL sell-outs); commissioner Roger Goodell stated that the league needed to further investigate the impact of removing the blackout rules before such a change is made permanent.The suspension quietly continued into the2017 NFL seasonas well, which saw theSan Diego Chargersalso relocate to Los Angeles, temporarily using the 27,000-seat,soccer-specificDignity Health Sports Park(known as StubHub Center before 2019) as an interim venue until the completion of SoFi Stadium for the2020 season,which is shared with the Rams.

The suspension came a year after theFederal Communications Commission(FCC) ended a policy that formally forbade multichannel television providers from distributing telecasts of sporting events that had been blacked out by local broadcast television stations. Then-FCC chairmanTom Wheelerconsidered such policies to be "obsolete".The policies are still enforced via contractual agreements between the NFL and its media partners.

Exclusivity of local simulcasts for cable and streaming games

Per NFL policies, all games that are exclusively televised on pay television or streaming, includingESPN'sMonday Night FootballandAmazon Prime Video’sThursday Night Footballaresyndicatedto over-the-air broadcasters in the markets of the teams involved, and blacked out on the cable channel in defense of the local simulcast. The local market for these rights is defined as any station within the 75-mile (121 km) radius of a team's respective stadium.

This policy attracted controversy in December 2007, whenHartford, ConnecticutCBSaffiliateWFSBwas refused permission to air the local simulcast of aNew England Patriots-New York Giantsgame on December 29, 2007. The game, which was part of theThursday Night Footballpackage on NFL Network, would see the Patriots attempt to become the first NFL team since 1972 and the expansion of the regular season to 16 games, to finish the regular season undefeated. At the time, NFL Network was available only on a sports tier of cable providerComcastin the immediate viewing areas of the Patriots and Giants.SenatorJohn Kerryand Rep.Ed Markey,both of the state ofMassachusettsand fans of the Patriots team, wrote to the NFL as well as Comcast andTime Warner Cable,to request that the Patriots-Giants game be aired at least onbasic cablein order to reach the highest possible number of television-viewing fans, citing the "potentially historic" nature of the game.Kerry clarified the next week that he did not intend to interrupt current negotiations between the cable operators and NFL.

On December 19, 2007,Joe Courtneyand other members of the Connecticut Congressional Delegation wrote to NFL commissionerRoger Goodellto try to have the NFL allow wider broadcast access to the game.Consequently, on December 26, the NFL announced that the game would be simulcast nationally onCBSandNBC,in addition toWCVB-TV(ABC) in Boston andWWOR-TV(MyNetworkTV) in Secaucus, New Jersey (which is part of the New York City media market)—which had both acquired the local rights to the game.

Although NFL Network would later become more established, in 2014 the NFL began to sub-license the right to produce theThursday Night Footballtelecasts, and air selected games from the package in simulcast with NFL Network, to a broadcast television rightsholder (initiallyCBS). This was part of a move to help heighten the profile of the fledgling Thursday night games.

Radio broadcasts

For radio broadcasts, the NFL follows a nearly identical policy to MLB. There are no radio blackouts, but only each team's flagship station can carry local broadcasts during the conference championships orSuper Bowl.All other markets must carry theNFL on Westwood Onefeed for those games. For all other weeks, within 75 miles of a team's stadium, only stations the team or its flagship station contracts with can carry those games, regardless if the team is home or away. Thus, any competing station that carries Westwood One broadcasts cannot air those games. Like MLB, the NFL makes local broadcasts (except for those of theTennessee Titans) available on NFL's Game Pass service andSirius Satellite Radio;as a result, radio stations that carry NFL games, from any source, and stream on the Internet are prohibited from streaming games online outside of their DMA, although it seems this provision is loosely enforced in some cases;WBBMin Chicago andWWL (AM)in New Orleans regularly air live broadcasts of their teams' games over their Internet stream, as doesWTMJin Milwaukee with the Packers, though both stations went to a desktop-only streaming policy in 2015 due to the introduction of GamePass and the absorption of theNFL Audio Passstreaming system into Game Pass. Since the 2022-23 season, WXTB (the Bucs' flagship station) blacks out coverage on all devices unless in the station's coverage area, likely due to the launch of NFL+.

Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961

In order to protecthigh schoolandcollege football,the federalSports Broadcasting Act of 1961cancels antitrust protection for television broadcasts of any professional football game on Friday evenings or Saturdays by television stations within 75 miles (121 km) of the venue of a college or high school game, that had been announced in a general circulation newspaper prior to August 1 of the calendar year. This lasts from the second Friday in September through the second Friday in December.

To comply with this law, the NFL largely avoids scheduling games on Saturdays altogether until the final weeks of the regular season (which begin in mid-December), which usually feature several Saturday double- or triple-headers.A notable effect of this law occurred in the2004 NFL season,where aTennessee Titans/Miami Dolphinsgame in week 1—which had been moved up to Saturday, September 11, due toHurricane Ivan;presumably to comply with the Act, the game was only broadcast locally, and blacked out onNFL Sunday Ticket.

Indianapolis 500

To encourage local attendance, the live television broadcast of theIndianapolis 500is blacked out on theIndianapolisaffiliate of its broadcaster if the race is not a sellout. Since1992,the station that airs the race in the Indianapolis market (ABCaffiliateWRTVfrom 1986 to 2018,NBCaffiliateWTHRfrom 2019 to 2024, andFoxaffiliateWXINfrom 2025 onwards) carries the network's prime time programming in the race's timeslot under special dispensation from the network and airs the race on tape delay in prime time.

The blackout has only been lifted four times since live flag-to-flag coverage of the 500 officially began in1986:

• 2016(due to a sellout)
• 2020(due to the race being held behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic)
• 2021(due to a sellout with capacity limited to 40% due to the COVID-19 pandemic)
• 2024(due to a rain delay)

Prior to 1986,ABChad aired an edited broadcast of the race in prime time.

Until 2001, the same blackout policy applied to theBrickyard 400,aNASCAR Cup Seriesevent also held atIndianapolis Motor Speedway;at the time, television rights to NASCAR events were sold by the owners of their respective tracks,and IMS had packaged the 400 with ABC's rights to the Indianapolis 500.This policy ended in 2001 due to NASCAR centralizing the television rights to all events, and selling them in packages toFox SportsandNBC/TNTrespectively.

Non-sports blackouts

A 1963 episode of theCBStelevision drama seriesEast Side/West Side,focusing on an African-American couple inHarlem,was blacked out by network affiliates inShreveport, LouisianaandAtlanta, Georgia.