NYC City Councilor and Former WABC Host Calls on FCC to Protect Baseball Broadcasts
New York City council member Frank Morano (R-Staten Island) and council member Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan) are introducing a resolution calling on congress to review Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption and on the Federal Communications Commission to explore approaches that promote
the availability of professional sports programming on free, over-the-air broadcast television. The resolution comes amid growing frustration among baseball fans over the increasing number of games being placed behind streaming paywalls and spread across multiple subscription services. Morano, who previously served as host of the late-night program on WABC, New York, states, “Baseball is America’s pastime, but in New York it’s also our pastime. For generations, families could turn on the television or radio and follow their hometown team. Today, fans are often expected to juggle multiple subscriptions and streaming platforms just to watch a season’s worth of games. That’s bad for consumers, bad for working families, bad for seniors, and ultimately bad for the future of the game itself.”
