Amazon, Netflix and YouTube have teamed up on a new policy group, the Streaming Access and Choice Alliance (SACA), Axios reported on Monday, Sept. 14. The coalition is run by TechNet, a trade group representing Big Tech, and it launches as federal regulators take a closer look at sports rights shifting to streaming.
That scrutiny has been building for about a year as leagues sell more of their games to streaming platforms. It pushed the streamers that don’t own a broadcast network to start lobbying together.
In a statement, TechNet said SACA will push for “technology-neutral policies that encourage innovation in entertainment.” According to the group, those rules would let streamers invest in a wide range of programming, including live sports.
Sports is the flashpoint. Earlier this year, the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened an inquiry into whether the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 should be revisited. The law lets leagues pool and sell their TV rights collectively and shields them from antitrust rules in the process. FCC Chair Brendan Carr has questioned whether that exemption is sending too many sports rights to paywalled streaming services. The NFL believed Fox Corp. was behind a pressure campaign on the issue, Axios previously reported.
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This isn’t the first time the streamers have tried to speak with one voice. Netflix, Amazon and YouTube’s parent Google were all members of the Internet Association. That trade group dissolved in late 2021, once it became clear its members’ interests had drifted too far apart.
Netflix joined the Motion Picture Association (MPA) the same year, a sign that on some issues it had more in common with Hollywood than with Silicon Valley. It also competes with those studios for content: Netflix was among the contenders that eyed Xbox movie rights. The MPA represents the film interests of Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Paramount and others. But it only advocates for streamers’ policy goals when they line up with those of its member studios.
There’s still no single trade group for streaming in the US, since the biggest services mostly belong to parent companies with sprawling interests. Instead, streamers form coalitions around specific lobbying fights. In 2023, Netflix, Paramount+, Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max, Comcast’s Peacock, Disney, TelevisaUnivision’s ViX and others launched the industry’s first major coalition, the Streaming Innovation Alliance (SIA). The SIA helped streamers push back against local broadcasters, which had urged the FCC to close a regulatory loophole they said threatened their distribution on streaming services.
