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The DOJ is coming for the NFL.

The Wall Avenue Journal reviews that the U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into whether or not the NFL has “engaged in anticompetitive ways that hurt patrons.”

The “nature and scope,” per the legend, isn’t at the moment identified. Each the DOJ and the NFL declined comment.

The article specializes in the Sports Broadcast Act of 1961, which provides the league an antitrust exemption in phrases of the negotiation of TV rights.

The bolt comes at a time when both the FCC and Congress have made a good deal of noise referring to the viability of the antitrust exemption as the NFL moves more video games from free, over-the-air networks to streaming platforms.

And it’s likely no twist of destiny that the Wall Avenue Journal bought the news. It’s finally owned by Rupert Murdoch, who additionally owns Fox.

Final week, the Wall Avenue Journal published an editorial that brazenly questions whether or not the NFL quiet “deserves” the antitrust exemption.

With out it, the NFL would have a valuable direct. The TV rights could be offered by each and each personnel. Some groups would salvage so much. Others wouldn’t. The salary-cap system could implode. The league could potentially wreck.

The full effort could be nothing greater than a political energy play by Fox to salvage the NFL to encourage off in its effort to study out to salvage more cash from its varied broadcast companions in the last years of contracts that will likely be terminated after the 2029 season. (The ESPN deal will likely be scrapped by the league after 2030.)

The course of has already begun. Many imagine CBS will rapidly agree to pay dramatically greater than the $2.1 billion per year it previously agreed to pay. Then, as the pondering goes, the NFL will bolt on to Fox.

Final month, John Ourand of Puck raised the quiz of whether or not the networks will refuse to pay more for the last four years of potentially the most in vogue contracts. If that’s the play, what happens next? If the networks are intelligent to blueprint a line in the sand at the chance of sooner or later losing their NFL provides, where will the NFL bolt?

The antitrust exemption makes that a thornier quiz for the league. And it makes it severe for all events to search out a approach for the NFL to expose victory and retreat.