STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 6968 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY March 18, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. VANEL -- read once and referred to the Committee on Consumer Affairs and Protection AN ACT to amend the general business law, in relation to providing local professional sports broadcasts at no cost The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as 2 the "open and unrestricted right to see team athletic displays for 3 inhabitants of unique markets act". 4 § 2. The general business law is amended by adding a new article 41-A 5 to read as follows: 6 ARTICLE 41-A 7 NO-COST SPORTS BROADCASTS 8 Section 1030. No-cost sports broadcasts. 9 § 1030. No-cost sports broadcasts. 1. As used in this section the 10 following terms shall have the following meanings: 11 (a) "No-cost broadcaster" shall mean the entity that is responsible 12 for disseminating a live athletic competition in any widely available 13 audiovisual format to the public. 14 (b) "National or international professional sports league" shall mean 15 any organized athletic league that is comprised of multiple teams from 16 multiple states or countries in which athletes are compensated by their 17 respective teams or the league and who compete against one another in 18 athletic competition. 19 (c) "Broadcast" shall mean to disseminate live content in an audiovis- 20 ual format. 21 2. (a) Every entity responsible for the broadcast rights of a sports 22 team which is part of a national or international professional sports 23 league shall ensure that every publicly broadcast athletic competition EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD09319-03-5
A. 6968 2 1 played by such sports team which is played in a facility that is bene- 2 fitting or has benefitted from state funds, tax subsidies, eminent 3 domain, or another valuable benefit that was made at a cost to the 4 state, shall be made available to view at no cost to every household 5 within the county such facility is situated in and its adjoining coun- 6 ties, or if such sports team is affiliated with New York, but the facil- 7 ity in which such team's athletic competitions are played in is not 8 located within the state, such athletic competitions shall be made 9 available to view at no cost to all households located within any county 10 within the state with a population of one million or more. 11 (b) For purposes of this section, an athletic competition shall 12 presumptively be deemed to be made available to view at no cost to all 13 households located within the area required by this subdivision where 14 the entity responsible for the broadcast rights of a sports team 15 provides one or more reasonably accessible broadcasts of the athletic 16 competition that is reasonably calculated to reach the same number of 17 households that a paid option would have. 18 3. (a) A broadcast made available to view at no cost pursuant to 19 subdivision two of this section shall be either the same audiovisual 20 broadcast of such athletic competition which is available to view as 21 part of a paid service or shall be substantially equivalent. 22 (b) An entity responsible for the broadcast rights of a sports team as 23 described in subdivision two of this section shall supply, or require a 24 third party responsible for the paid broadcast of an athletic competi- 25 tion to supply, the no-cost broadcaster with an audiovisual broadcast of 26 an athletic competition which is the same or substantially equivalent to 27 the audiovisual broadcast of such athletic competition which is avail- 28 able to view as part of a paid service. 29 (c) An entity, or an employee, agent, or another at the direction of 30 the entity, shall not impose any restriction requiring the no-cost 31 broadcaster of an athletic competition to reduce the quality of the 32 audiovisual broadcast of such athletic competition to a quality that is 33 not the same or substantially equivalent to the audiovisual broadcast of 34 such athletic competition which is available to view as part of a paid 35 service. 36 4. Wherever the attorney general shall find that an entity has 37 violated this article, an application may be made by the attorney gener- 38 al in the name of the people of the state of New York to a court of 39 justice having jurisdiction to issue an injunction, and upon notice to 40 the defendant of not less than five days, to enjoin and restrain the 41 continuance of such violations; and if it shall appear to the satisfac- 42 tion of the court or justice, that the defendant has, in fact, violated 43 this section an injunction may be issued by such court or justice 44 enjoining and restraining any further violation, without requiring proof 45 that any entity has, in fact, been injured or damaged thereby. In any 46 such proceeding, the court may make allowances to the attorney general 47 as provided in paragraph six of subdivision (a) of section eighty-three 48 hundred three of the civil practice law and rules, and direct restitu- 49 tion. Whenever the court shall determine that a violation of this 50 section has occurred, the court may impose a civil penalty that, in the 51 court's discretion, will have the effect of deterring the entity from 52 engaging in future violations of this article. In connection with any 53 such proposed application, the attorney general is authorized to take 54 proof and make a determination of the relevant facts and to issue 55 subpoenas in accordance with the civil practice law and rules.
A. 6968 3 1 5. If any provision of this section or the application thereof to any 2 person or circumstances is held invalid, the invalidity thereof shall 3 not affect other provisions or applications of the section which can be 4 given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this 5 end the provisions of this section are severable. 6 § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after 7 it shall have become a law.