The NFL, under Commissioner Roger Goodell, isn’t sitting back as federal scrutiny grows. Instead, the league is pressing forward with its plans, even as the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission examine its media rights strategy and the surge in streaming.

“The NFL launched a lobbying blitz on the Federal Communications Commission in recent days, sending top executives and its general counsel to meet with top advisors of Chairman Brendan Carr to discuss the NFL’s media distribution approach for its live games and how it benefits fans and local broadcasters,” Fox’s Armando Salguero wrote in his report.

The meeting took place on April 17, just as regulators were starting to pay more attention to how sports leagues are shifting their content to streaming services. Key figures from the league, such as Ted Ullyot, Hans Schroeder, and Jeff Miller, met with leaders from the FCC, including Greg Watson and Allison Howell, along with Media Bureau deputy chief Evan Morris, to share how their approach still benefits fans and local broadcasters.

Meanwhile, the league emphasized its ongoing commitment to putting fans first.

“Since its founding, the NFL has strived to put its fans at the center of everything we do,” the league stated. “Nowhere is that more evident than in the NFL’s media distribution strategy, which for more than 50 years has served as a foundation and catalyst for the league’s growth and popularity. While nothing can replace the excitement of attending a game, the vast majority of fans rely on this media distribution model to watch live games and follow the sport they love.”

However, the statistics reveal a changing landscape. The league has relied on free broadcast TV to connect with over 200 million viewers in the U.S. for a long time. Yet, their own figures indicate that traditional TV usage fell from 77% in 2015 to 47% in 2025, while streaming surged from 23% to 53%.

But the number of households with pay TV has dropped significantly, going from 99 million to 65 million. Despite this, the NFL still leads in TV ratings, with 86 out of the top 100 broadcasts in 2025 linked to its games.

The league also has a clause in its media contracts that allows it to opt out after the 2029-30 season, and it can renegotiate those terms earlier if necessary. The league also works with major partners like ESPN, NBC, CBS, Amazon, and Fox, while also teaming with YouTube for Sunday Ticket and Netflix for Christmas games.

However, as renewal talks with CBS continue, the NFL faces another layer of investigation around its TV deals.

The NFL faces an antitrust investigation over TV deals

A few weeks ago, officials began investigating whether the league’s TV contracts are pushing viewers into expensive subscription services.

“This is about affordability and creating an even playing field for providers,” a government official told ABC News.

While this was happening, the league relied on its established legal protections. The NFL continues to follow the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 for its network agreements, but courts have clarified that this protection doesn’t apply to cable or streaming services.

The league also claimed that dividing the broadcasting rights among all 32 teams would only confuse fans and drive up costs even further. But then, the NFL doubled down on its stance publicly.

“The NFL’s media distribution model is the most fan and broadcaster-friendly in the entire sports and entertainment industry,” the NFL said in a statement. “With over 87% of our games on free, broadcast television, including 100% of games in the markets of the competing teams, the NFL has for decades put our fans front and center in how we distribute our content. The 2025 season was our most-viewed since 1989 and reflects the strength of the NFL distribution model and its wide availability to all fans.”

But there’s more to the story when it comes to business.

The league makes nearly $11 billion every year from media rights, and that amount might increase with upcoming negotiations. Most contracts extend into the next decade, but the option to opt out after 2029 gives the league some leeway, especially since NFL games consistently top TV ratings year after year.

Despite that, the legal challenges are still present. In 2024, a jury in Los Angeles decided against the NFL regarding its Sunday Ticket package and awarded $4.7 billion in damages, although a judge later reversed that decision.

Still, the scale of that case, covering millions of subscribers, shows why the DOJ’s investigation now carries real weight.