Netflix, Amazon and YouTube have formed a new Washington, D.C. lobbying group called the Streaming Access and Choice Alliance, announced Monday, as the three tech giants brace for mounting federal scrutiny over sports programming locked behind subscription paywalls. The alliance is led by TechNet, a trade group representing major technology companies, and arrives at a moment when lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and multiple federal agencies are questioning whether streaming exclusivity for live sports has gone too far.
The new coalition was first detailed by Variety, which reported that Netflix, Amazon and YouTube founded the group to push back against criticism of rising streaming costs for sports fans. The alliance says streaming brings sports programming to wider and more diverse audiences across the country, and that it enables streaming services to invest in a wide range of programming, including live sports. It has launched a website promoting what it calls technology-neutral policies that encourage innovation in entertainment, along with features like multi-game viewing options, analytics-focused feeds, and creator-hosted companion shows.
Mike Ward, TechNet's senior vice president of federal policy and government relations, framed the group's mission around consumer choice. “Americans want flexibility in watching their favorite programming, including sports and other live events,” Ward said, according to the Variety report. Ward also said streaming and digital entertainment companies offer audiences better features and value for their money, arguing that sports content on major global subscription streaming services has increased 52% since January 2024, according to the alliance's own founders.
A Political Fight Years in the Making
The migration of sports from broadcast television to streaming platforms has become a hot-button political issue, and the new alliance is entering a landscape already crowded with federal action. The U.S. Department of Justice launched an antitrust investigation in April into the NFL's broadcast rights practices, examining whether placing live games behind subscription paywalls violates antitrust law or exceeds the protections of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, according to The Indiana Lawyer. That 1961 law grants professional sports leagues, including the NFL, a limited exemption from federal antitrust laws that leagues use to collectively sell their media rights.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr opened a related agency inquiry into sports broadcasting fragmentation in February, and by March he revealed that thousands of public comments had come in overwhelmingly favoring keeping major sports events on free broadcast television rather than behind paywalls, per AP News. Around the same time, Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, sent formal letters to the DOJ and FTC requesting an antitrust review of the NFL. Lee calculated that fans had to pay nearly $1,000 across cable and streaming subscriptions during the 2025 season just to watch every game.
Congress Turns Up the Heat
The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee released a report in June calling the Sports Broadcasting Act's antitrust exemption a special-interest exemption gone awry, titled “The Sports Broadcasting Act: A Special-Interest Antitrust Exemption Gone Awry.” The committee held a subcommittee hearing on the law that same month, and Chairman Jim Jordan invited NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to testify on the league's media rights deals.
Fragmentation has become a defining feature of NFL viewing. During the 2025 regular season, game distribution was spread across 10 different broadcast and digital outlets, including 20 regular season games and one playoff matchup available exclusively on subscription platforms Prime Video, YouTube, Peacock and Netflix. Long-term media rights contracts held by major pro leagues, including the NFL's multi-billion-dollar agreements with traditional networks and tech platforms, contain early opt-out provisions that would allow the league to reopen media negotiations as early as this year or after the 2029-30 season, according to TheWrap.
Wisconsin's Blackout Sparked a Senate Bill
Much of the political urgency traces back to a single blacked-out playoff game. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) introduced the For the Fans Act after a Green Bay Packers playoff game streamed on Amazon Prime Video in January was available over the air only in the Green Bay and Milwaukee home markets, as detailed by FOX6 Milwaukee. Hoodline previously reported on how that blackout fueled Baldwin's bill against sports blackouts. Baldwin has calculated that Wisconsin sports fans would need to pay more than $1,500 per year to watch all Packers, Brewers, and Bucks games across multiple services. Her bill would require leagues to provide local fans access to all of their teams' games in one location for free.
The Streaming Access and Choice Alliance is not the only trade group representing streaming interests in Washington. It is separate from the Streaming Innovation Alliance, which launched in 2023 and includes Netflix, Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal's Peacock, the Motion Picture Association, and TelevisaUnivision, and which advocates for federal and state policies supporting a competitive and pro-consumer streaming video market.
Streaming's Growing Market Share
The new lobbying push comes as streaming's dominance over traditional television continues to grow. According to Nielsen data from July, cited by Media Play News, YouTube captured a record 14.2% share of overall U.S. household television usage, while total streaming reached an all-time high of 49% of domestic TV viewing. Netflix, Amazon and YouTube are separately reported to be preparing to compete against traditional TV networks for U.S. broadcast rights to the 2030 and 2034 FIFA World Cups, with media executives budgeting between $1.5 billion and $2 billion per tournament, according to CNBC reporting cited by industry outlets.
Netflix, Amazon and YouTube's parent company Google were previously leading members of the Internet Association, a Washington tech lobbying trade group that dissolved in December 2021 after divergent member priorities made a unified agenda unworkable, per Quartz. The Streaming Access and Choice Alliance launched Monday as another shared policy advocacy group in D.C.
