Sports surcharges on cable (tie ins)

[davesax1]

The current college admissions scandal involves in significant part the business of sports. Cable networks have long facilitated these behaviors through the outsize payment of broadcast rights. There is an antitrust connection known as a tie in wherein consumers are required to pay for networks such as ESPN in many packages as well as paying mandatory "regional sports network fees." It may have seemed harmless or de minimis in the past. No more. Its time to end these practices by ending "mandatory sports fees" as well as the removal of "sports networks" from standard cable packages - or in the alternative a credit for consumers requesting exclusion.

[CRobGauth]

Verizon does offer packages you can get without sports channels.