The National Football League’s campaign to preserve Federal Communications Commission rules that allow local TV blackouts when games aren’t sold out has descended into astroturfing, with thousands of form letters signed by “football fans” arguing on behalf of keeping rules that can prevent fans from watching home games on TV.

Former NFL player Lynn Swann last week submitted 3,300 letters to the FCC urging the commission to maintain its sports blackout rule. In all, “more than 10,500 fans” have petitioned the commission to keep the rule, he wrote.

Currently, NFL teams prevent games from being shown on local television when tickets aren’t sold out or if ticket sales don’t meet a threshold set by each team. The FCC has tentatively proposed to eliminate 40-year-old rules that enable the blackouts by preventing cable and satellite companies from importing game broadcasts from distant stations to show in local areas. The NFL argues that the rules benefit fans because they limit teams’ incentives to raise ticket prices by increasing in-person attendance and prevent games from being restricted to pricey cable packages. In practice, the FCC's blackout rules primarily affect the NFL.

While pay-TV operators have argued on behalf of eliminating the rules, consumer advocacy groups have done so as well. The NFL’s astroturfing campaign is trying to convince the FCC that only cable and satellite companies would benefit. The thousands of letters delivered by Swann read as follows:

I write as a football fan to strongly urge you to maintain the FCC’s current broadcast rules now under review. The Sports Blackout Rule has been in place for decades and keeps NFL games on free, over-the-air TV. The NFL, my local community and fans like me all win when home games are sold out. Under the current system, I have access to all of my local team’s games on free TV. I object to the cable and satellite company lobbyists who are trying to change the rules in order to charge exorbitant fees for football games that I can watch right now for free on local television. The current system works—over 99 percent of NFL games were available on local broadcast TV in 2013. Let’s keep the current rules and keep the NFL on free, over-the-air TV.

The NFL convinced people to sign the form letter through a website, Protect Football on Free TV, which claims that “pay-TV lobbyists want to change the rules to charge fans for football games that, right now, you watch for free on local television.” A story on the NFL's official site says "Protect Football on Free TV" was set up by the NFL with its broadcasting partners and the National Association of Broadcasting.

The petition to repeal the blackout rules was submitted to the FCC in 2011 by the Sports Fans Coalition, Public Knowledge, the Media Access Project, the National Consumers League, and the League of Fans. Public Knowledge and the National Consumers League are critics of the cable industry, as was the now-defunct Media Access Project. The League of Fans was founded by Ralph Nader.

The Sports Fan Coalition does have industry ties, though.

“The Sports Fan Coalition, which is the main proponent for repeal, has received funding from Dish, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon,” NFL attorney Gerard Waldron told Ars today. “Moreover, the chief lobbyist for the SFC, David Goodfriend, has close and longtime ties to Dish as their former in-house lobbyist and now is an outside consultant. Also, they have pushed this message to Congress as well. In the past year at hearings before the House and Senate Commerce and Judiciary Committees, Dish, the small cable companies (ACA—American Cable Association), and the telcos urged Congress to repeal the sports blackout rule.”

Waldron also pointed to filings by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance that support repealing the rules.

Without form letters, real fans protest blackout rule

But that doesn’t mean real sports fans all support the blackout rules. Many individuals wrote to the FCC to urge the elimination of the blackouts.

“Not all cities, towns etc have a local team and therefore access to direct game attendance is not easy, practical or even available for many people. We are lumped into geographical areas for home teams and face black outs for games that are completely impractical to attend in person. Why should we not be able to enjoy these games?” James Wolsiffer wrote.

“The sports blackout rule is an antiquated rule and should be removed. The NFLs nonprofit status is over the top. They don't need the blackout rule to protect profits,” Ed Bienkowski wrote.

“Eliminating the sports blackout rule is the true American thing to do. It's right for consumers, not for the greedy corporations,” Spencer Karter wrote.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai has been outspoken in support of ending the blackout rules. “Right now, the FCC is officially on the side of blackouts,” he said in prepared remarks at an event in Buffalo, New York, last week. “We should be on the side of sports fans like Jon Neubauer, who told WIVB News 4 ‘I can’t make it to every single [Bills] game, [but] I’m still a huge fan.’ I want the FCC to help fans like him watch the stars of tomorrow: the next Andre Reed, who was just inducted into the Hall of Fame (and who has stood up for Buffalo of late); the next Thurman Thomas, who made it to five straight Pro Bowls; and the next Jim Kelly, whose brave battle against cancer inspires us even more than all of his on-field heroics. So this afternoon, I’m asking the FCC to hold an up-or-down vote on ending the sports blackout rule. I hope my fellow FCC Commissioners will join me in voting to eliminate it.”

Elimination of the rules has bipartisan support within the FCC. Pai is a Republican, and Democrat Mignon Clyburn proposed elimination of the rules when she was acting chairwoman last November.

Unfortunately, it’s not clear whether the FCC eliminating its rules will prevent all future blackouts, Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer told Ars. “The blackout rules only kick in when games already aren't being shown on local broadcast TV,” he wrote in an e-mail. “They say that in such cases, cable systems can't import the game from elsewhere. The thing is, they probably already can't due to contracts. But the rules just provide the sports leagues and the local broadcaster (who is not showing the game anyway) a way to get the FCC to step in and enforce their private agreements.”

While pay-TV operators have advocated on behalf of eliminating the rules, Bergmayer said “they also realize that the effect of the repeal would be limited—but a teeny tiny step in the right direction.”