WASHINGTON — If you’re not able to be at the game, you could miss out on some exciting moments. Sports fans at Leff’s Lucky Town in Wauwatosa outside of Milwaukee had a lot to say about how frustrating it can be to watch the Brewers or Bucks on TV.

What You Need To Know

  • Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s For the Fans Act would ensure local sports fans always have a free way to watch their team

  • Sports fans at Leff’s Lucky Town in Wauwatosa complained about how expensive it can be to watch sports and how difficult it can be to find games on TV

  • It’s unclear if Baldwin’s bill has any chance of becoming law

  • Charter Communications, the parent company of Spectrum News, provides cable television, among other services

“When it’s game time and you can’t turn the game on, it’s kind of a big deal,” said Tyler Earle of Wauwatosa.

“You have to jump around from app to app, depending on the sport, depending on the day of the week. It’s awful,” said Paul Jordan of Wauwatosa.

“You don’t want to have to pay extra just to watch TV at your own house,” said Melody Neuroth of Milwaukee. 

Enter Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin.

“My bill will stop this web of subscriptions. It’ll stop blackouts, and it will give power back to the fans,” she said.

Baldwin’s For the Fans Act would ensure that local fans always have a free way to see their team play. It would apply to teams in the NBA, NFL and other pro leagues.

“I just paid, just this weekend, for the Milwaukee Brewers package,” said Scott Gastrow of Franklin. “I had to. It’s about 100 bucks. Not too crazy about it, because we used to get all those games on local television stations.”

Baldwin said the need for the legislation was clear in January when the Green Bay Packers played the Chicago Bears, and some Packers fans in Wisconsin could not watch the game unless they bought a subscription to Amazon Prime Video.

“The streaming services are a new pool of money for them to draw from,” said Michael Mirer, an assistant professor of communication at UW-Milwaukee. “But they want exclusivity. So if a game is on a streaming service, the fan, in order to access the game, in many cases, will have to buy or get a free preview to the streaming service in order to to watch it… That’s the basic issue.”

For years, teams have moved their games to paid channels, like Brewers TV in Milwaukee and the YES Network, owned by the Yankees. But the more recent migration of games to streaming services like Amazon Prime Video and Peacock has forced fans to pay for additional subscriptions to watch their teams. Mirer predicted legal challenges should Baldwin’s bill ever pass.

“The right to be able to collectively sell television rights is something that has been granted by the government, so, presumably, the networks and the streamers will have a say,” said Michael Mirer, an assistant professor of communication at UW-Milwaukee.

But Mirer added, “There’s an argument to be made that making sure that local fans can watch your games creates demand down the road, right?”

Charter Communications, the parent company of Spectrum News, provides cable television, among other services. We reached out to the NBA, NFL and MLB for comment and did not hear back.

“One of the last bastions of getting away from all the stresses of today is watching sports,” Gastrow said. “So, I would hope that they remain at a low cost for the fan base.”

It’s unclear if Baldwin’s bill has any chance of becoming law.

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