A District of Columbia Circuit Court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could not prohibit internet providers from blocking or discriminating against traffic to lawful websites. The ruling which impacts “Open Internet” (aka net neutrality) may mean issues for the UFC Fight Pass and WWE Network in the future.

In Verizon v. Federal Communications Commission, the Court held that the FCC is not able to impose “anti-discrimination” and “anti-blocking” rules on Internet providers. The Court ruled that, “…even though the Commission has general authority to regulate…it may not impose a requirement that contravenes express statutory mandates. Given that the [Federal Communications] Commission has chosen to classify broadband providers in a manner that exempts them from treatment as common carriers, the Communications Act expressly prohibits the Commission from nonetheless regulating them as such.”

CNET breaks down the ruling:

In plain English, the court rejected Verizon’s argument that the FCC had overstepped its authority to regulate broadband access, instead acknowledging that the FCC has general authority to impose regulations on broadband and wireless service providers. But because the services these providers offer are classified differently from traditional telecommunication services, the justices reasoned in their decision that they are not subject to the same statutes, which guide the agency in forming its regulatory policies.

The general theory of “Net Neutrality” regulation is to keep a public right of way to access certain services. As stated in the CNET article, for the internet, it means that the infrastructure used to deliver web pages, video and audio-streaming services is open to anyone accessing or delivering the content. It would thus be illegal for an ISP to block a competitor’s internet traffic simply because they are competitors. With the Court ruling, it would seem to imply that blocking competitors may be an option.

If you are a proponent of “net neutrality” what may happen as a result was recognized by the Court in its opinion:

“…broadband providers might prevent their end-user subscribers from accessing certain edge providers (those providing content (i.e. UFC and WWE)) altogether, or might degrade the quality of their end-user subscribers’ access to certain edge providers, either as a means of favoring their own competing content or services or to enable them to collect fees from certain edge providers.”

There was no immediate word whether there would be an appeal of this decision.

Payout Perspective:

So what does this mean from a combat sports perspective? With the UFC Fight Pass and WWE Network relying heavily and essentially depending on internet streaming services in order for its services to be viable, we could see internet providers being able to regulate the bandwidth and streaming of these services. ISP providers may affect UFC and WWE subscribers as identified in the Court opinion. The UFC and WWE might have to “play ball” with these ISP providers in order to obtain the best access to the end-user.

With the ruling occurring today, it’s still too early to know what may happen but MMA Payout will keep you posted.