Netflix, Amazon, YouTube Form SACA Lobby Group — SkimNews
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- Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube formed the Streaming Access and Choice Alliance (SACA), a new D.C.-based lobbying group announced Monday and led by trade association TechNet.
- SACA said it will advocate for "technology-neutral policies" that enable streamers to invest in live sports and other programming, framing streaming as a way to reach "wider, more diverse audiences."
- SACA's founders reported that sports content on major global subscription streaming services has increased 52% since January 2024.
- Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) introduced a bill to end sports blackouts and require leagues to offer local fans all their teams' games in one free location, calculating that Wisconsin fans currently pay over $1,500 per year to watch the Packers, Brewers, and Bucks across multiple services.
- The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee held a June hearing on the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 and released a report calling the NFL's antitrust exemption "a special-interest antitrust exemption gone awry."
- SACA is separate from the Streaming Innovation Alliance launched in 2023, whose members include Netflix, Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery, Peacock, the Motion Picture Association, and TelevisaUnivision.
Why it matters: By launching SACA, Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube are directly confronting bipartisan scrutiny — Sen. Baldwin's bill mandating free single-location game access and the House Judiciary Committee's report labeling the NFL's antitrust exemption as "gone awry" — over how the fragmented streaming-rights system is saddling fans like Wisconsin's with $1,500-a-year bills to follow their local teams.
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