Bulwark Takes - Pat Ryan’s Plan to END Sports Blackouts

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

Rep. Pat Ryan joins Tim to talk takeaways from big wins in New York, New Jersey and Virginia, the path to the House, and why costs still dominate. They also look at sports streaming chaos and why blackouts need fixing.

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Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. But MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Hey, everybody, Tim Beller from the Bullwark here. We are back with Congressman Pat Ryan, New York 18, a veteran. He is the bro whisper inside the House caucus doing the best that he can for the Democrats. So maybe not be needed based on the results yesterday with young men.

It seems like a little bit better than in 2024. I want to talk to him about the inshittification of sports television watching and how terrible it is to try to find the channels now and what Congress can do about. The first, man, we're taping this on Wednesday afternoon. I wanted to see if you had any big picture thoughts on yesterday's results and how that might impact your view of the party or how things look for the battle for the house next year. Yeah, thanks for having me.

And my vow today, by the way, is that I will curse less. My wife yelled at me last time I was cursing on your show. So I got myself. Just fuck that. All right. Sorry, Mrs. Ryan. Okay. We're just trying to hang.

All right? We're just trying to hang. But on a more serious, very serious note. I mean, I really think it was, like, resounding message yesterday. So I think everybody needed that, not just even politically, like just morally, a sense that when bad, wrong things are happening, both substantively and morally, like, the American people will still come out and send a message. I think that was just a super important moment. And it's in all of the above strategy, I think has to be the takeaway of authentic, punitive. crunchy, change-oriented non-status quo, younger, fresher, we get your pain, we are going to fight

really hard for you, whether that's like being able to watch a sports show and your sports team or major national health care cuts, rising costs, all of those things. But it's just the punchiness of it. And I think, you know, in my own state, we saw a version of that in New York that is very compelling and energizing my two of my closest friends in now two governors elect in Virginia and New Jersey we saw that and we need to be doing all of it I think to me is the macro takeaway it's it wouldn't be the bulwark if I wasn't just like a little bit of a rain cloud about things so everybody's riding so high on everything I have like I have a little bit of

PTSD too after the I guess would have been the 22 midterm when people were expecting a red wave you know, Democrats did better than expected. In part, Democrats are better and expected that time because Republicans put up the most insane slate of candidates in American history. And they overreached with the Dobbs decision too. Yeah, yeah, right. And the Dobbs decision. And I think that a lot of Democrats kind of took

the same deep breath that we see today, which is like, few, okay. Like, things aren't as bad as we think. We don't need to assess the things that people are not are not the things that we're doing that aren't resonating with voters you know we can kind of just move forward with status quo and we kind of in that space could happen and we saw how that turned out in 24 so i think that we can learn from yesterday all the things you're saying are right like being positive and optimistic focusing on costs all that matters but it also was like races in two states combo one and and in new york city right so you know it wasn't like it wasn't like the

skeleton key was unlocked to winning back the senate or anything last night no no just two quick points on that. One, I totally agree. We cannot revert to like a totally failed, old, tired status quo playbook. And I think in different ways, the sort of three nationally focused on candidates did not do that. So that's like the positive takeaway. But I totally agree. And, you know, when we talked almost a year ago after the 24 elections and I sort of went, I put out some aggressive thoughts at that time and said, the last thing we can do is revert to these old models of sort of left, right, moderate, progress. Like, it's just who fights for the people, who fights against the elites, calling out heroes and villains. So I think that has to continue to be the case.

I will say, though, while all the national focus was rightly on these important races, like in my district, for example, we ran up massive, massive wins in local elections. like we flipped a county legislature in Duchess County that hasn't been flipped in my lifetime. One county-wide races there by 10 points, which is unheard of. So it is, it is, I think, a national message being sent. Now, Ken condemns, you know, not fuck that up is obviously the key. So I think we can, but yeah, we can't go back to the old playbook for sure. Last thing on this is, I think that the movie to buy a more optimistic vision,

And the more positive thing that came out of last night, I think, is the House outlook. You know, the gerrymandering redistricting attempt by the White House to kind of rig the midterm elections is still ongoing, but it's looking far less successful than it was three weeks ago based on the California Ballot Initiative, the big one in Virginia. That might lead to redistricting some of these things happening in these other states. We don't need to get into the weeds. But it definitely seems like the playing field is looking a little bit more. level than I felt it could have. How are you feeling about that? Obviously, being in the house, like this is going to be the front line for the next year. Yeah, and I'm actually doing a bunch of recruiting and, you know, work on a few different, with a few different hats on. So I've been

super looking, you know, super in depth on the battlefield. Recruiting candidates, yeah. And so I've been obsessed with the map and how hard the map was even before the redistricting. So my version of your rain cloud is like yes and it's still going to be really hard like at best we we neutralize their aggressive gerrymanders but even getting back to where we were pre the Texas overreach it's still just a much smaller battlefield which just means we have we just have to execute perfectly and aggressively and I think we can do that I do think what are you trying to recruit I mean, I look at this and it's like, well, I know, obviously front line races everybody talks about. But, you know, you look at last night and it's like, I don't know, a district Trump won by 10, right kind of candidate, you know, right kind of message.

You know, maybe the Democrats could pick up there. Maybe some Republicans who are older who are in those districts decide it's not worth the hassle, right, to deal with the midterm. How is that like, how's that looking? Is there a quick example of something you're looking at in that sort of space? Yeah, I think there's like the typical races everybody focuses on and get all the. the money and attention, but I'm actually particularly focused on us going to that next ring out and making, both creating fights there where people will make mistakes, and then at worst cause, Republicans have to spend more money and resources and energy there, which opens up

other opportunities and other places. There's pretty much every House Republican is refusing to do town halls. Like, I think that's a, like, in a particular places where Republicans, in some cases they've done like multiple terms and never held the town hall. So we're looking at that variable. And then answering it with really good candidates that are locally rooted. I'm particularly focused on getting more, not just military veterans, but patriotic candidates, service candidates, teachers, nurses, firefighters, cops, veterans.

That's like, you know, and we saw that with both Mike and Abigail. I think the ability to tie an affordability and specific message on housing costs, food, health care costs to a national service, I am putting the country and community first in a credible way. Like, that's a really powerful combination. Let's make a date in like six months to talk about that because I always get people asking me, like, what candidates to focus on. And those races you're focusing on are the ones that I'm always like, if you're going to donate 20 bucks if you're hard-earned money or 100 bucks, whatever it is to a candidate. Go to those ones. Like the stretch house races are going to be the

most important ones because the other ones are going to have a bunch of money from the big, you know, national parties so anyway we'll maybe do a little briefing on some of your favorites once yeah i'll make a list and check it twice and that sounds good man okay now to the thing we're supposed to talk about i wanted to talk to you about which is um i have youtube tv um we're here on youtube right now uh and um uh i was unable to watch football this past weekend which is you know maybe not doesn't seem like the biggest deal in the world but when the world is gone to shit i you know can i have a couple hours and watch football without having to deal with two corporate of BMS, you know, being in a pissing match

over, you know, two bucks a user. It's like Google and Disney are short on cash. So they're in a pissing match. The result of that is we don't have ABC and ESPN. On top of that, because sports is where all these guys are making their money now, you know, every single random streamer, you know, peacock, Paramount, you know, Shineheart Whig company. Like, everybody's got a different streamer that has a game on

and you can't watch a game because it's airing on some other stream. You've got to have subscriptions like nine things to watch every game of your favorite team. It's stupid. You have a bill out to deal with that. Let's talk about that and kind of the broader question why you care about this. Yeah, it's called the Stop Sports Blackouts Act, very direct, very straightforward. And I, by the way, I totally agree. Like, there's a lot going on in the world.

There's a lot going on in people's lives. one of the only places of sort of sanctity and non-partisanship, frankly, left is sports. So I actually think there's a bunch of reasons it's really important to try to preserve that space materially and even sort of sociologically. And yeah, I'm a YouTube TV subscriber. I'm a huge sports fan, New York sports fan. And this is a, this latest example, by the way, of, yeah, literally multi-trillion dollar companies battling each other while the rest of us get straight up, screwed, and ripped off.

That's one story of multiple of these kind of instances that have happened where because what's called a carriage dispute, weird term, but because Google and Disney, ABC, SPN are all are battling, people are paying probably across country, millions if not billions of dollars right now and just not getting the thing. And there's no resolution for subscribers like us in that instance. And there's also no disincentive to continue to do these, have these disputes. So the bill really both punishes, well, just, I shouldn't even say punishes, just levels of playing field if we don't get the content we paid for and gets that money back to us.

But also hopefully it deters these kind of battles playing out going on into the future. You know, there was similar, there's a moment in 2023 where you had an MSG, which is like covers the Knicks and Rangers in New York battling our one of our other telecoms optimum. And there was a similar blackout moment. We also have another battle where opening day for the New York Yankees is only going to be available on Netflix this next year. So, and it's just as like. A Denver, man, where I'm from, I live in New Orleans now. but like you couldn't for three years you couldn't get the Nuggets or Avalanche games

and they were both winning championships if you had the main carrier because there's a pissing match between one of the Walt Neppo babies and Comcast. Just like seriously? Like I can't There's like there's the material element of this which is just bullshit and like a rip off and totally

wrong and on American but there's also I think this is an important window into the broader kind of lens of what's happening and has been happening in our economy in America in a bunch of sectors and industries from health care to media to energy and a lot of other things where like essentially we have just straight up vertical integration and monopolies in almost all these parts of people's lives the service keeps getting shittier the costs keep going

up there's these corporations battling it out and fans in this case or just Americans have no, like, no voice and no leverage, which is just about as un-American, I think, as you can actually get to have no competition. So I think politically right now in this moment, this is also an important opportunity and obligation to speak to a lot of people that may be less politically engaged, younger people, sports, folks who are less political, and say, like, if you're experiencing not this, not only are we working to help you, but also. So this is happening in other parts of your life and you might not fully realize it and we're working on those parts too.

I think it's an important kind of unifying issue for Democrats as well. And so far we haven't been able to get any Republicans on this bill, although I would welcome them to join it. Yeah. Because I was talking to Heidi Heikamp last week and she was mentioning this in a space that I know nothing about, which is like the beef process. I don't even going to use the right word because I don't fucking know like the beef processing. You know about this. And that's part of the reason why beef costs is up. It's like not actually the cattle farmers or the impulse.

Yeah. Yeah, like I talked to my diner. You know, we got a lot of, you know, mostly Greek-owned diners in New York. And talking to them, they're all generally pretty conservative, often Republican folks. And they are freaking pissed about the fact that there are only two companies in America that they can buy their beef from. And their prices have gone up like 10x. And then that gets passed on to everybody that's trying to just. afford like a dinner out with a family at the diner in your neighborhood.

And so I do think this is a place where, and we talked about this a while ago, like some might call this an economically populist issue, but it's just actually a broadly unjust thing that's hurting everybody where we can build a coalition politically and say, yeah, whatever you think on other issues, we're all together getting hurt, harmed. And if we don't all together fight back, this is just actually going to get worse. So the gist of the Sports Blackout Act is just these guys got to pay us back if they're not going to air the games, basically?

Exactly. If you're a subscriber and you're paying like both of us are right now on YouTube and it's not cheap, it keeps going up every few months, and you don't have that service for that time period, you have to pay back those customers. And the other thing that's happening here, by the way, is... And I'd rather watch the game, but I'll take your money if you want, Google. Well, and the goal, to be clear, is like, if... Just to have some disincentive to do this so that it doesn't keep happening.

Nobody wants to have to deal with all the rigamarole, but there's no consequences right now. And all these, and this is important to, this is super wonky, but it's important. All these companies, you know, both TV and cable companies, but increasingly these internet companies, the Googles of the world, are riding on an antitrust exemption from the 60s. And so they're not, I mean, they're technically. following the rules, but Congress needs to go back. What I'm trying to say is Congress needs to go back and say, whatever was decided in the 60s, it's not working. This is not helping people.

Let's remove this antitrust exemption and recognize this is a monopolistic kind of situation. And we need to revisit, especially given this proliferation of all these streaming services. When it started, I think we all were like, oh, this is going to be better. It'll be cheaper. It'll be easier. It's a fucking mess, right? It's just, even if you have the money to pay for it, which most people don't, but, like, just navigating all the subscription.

It's stupid. NBA, like, the NBA League Pass went to Amazon this year. So it's like, if I want to flip back and forth, if I'm there, you know, like, I watched 82 Nuggets games a year, my poor husband, you know. And so, like, it was one of those things, but at least if it's like, you know, it's halftime and the nuggets are blowing them out, you know, you can flip back and forth. He flips over to whatever he wants to watch, you know, whatever's a bravo, not to do stereotypes. I like Bravo, too.

But, like, you can't, but now you got to go, you know, anyway, you just got to go into a different system now to do it. And, like, the whole thing is just, the whole thing's crazy. It's, like, crazy that you have to have all of this stuff. And, you know, you're in a hotel room. You can't watch anything now. You know, you can't. Right. Yeah, you got to, like, log into 12 different things to watch the thing you already pay for.

Yeah, it's crazy. Like, I've run small businesses. I'm a, you know, we got to have companies that are working and providing what we need. But it's like, left to their own devices. With no guardrails, this is what happens. Like, this is, they'll just keep, multi-trillion dollar companies will keep doing these kinds of things. And it's the job of public, people with the public good at heart to say,

hey, let's zoom back out here and put some guardrails back in place. Kind of the one cheer for capitalism thing. Okay, the last thing you said sports is a non-political space now. Not here in Louisiana where our governor fired the LSU Athletic Director because he's a Democrat. we can all everybody can pretend like what you really did it but he did it because he's a democrat um good guy scott woodward who brought like i think 11 national championships to ls you in about five years through all the different sports i'm going for memory maybe it's a little less than that but this huge success gets fired by the little midget maga governor because because he's a democrat

sees an opportunity i'm about to do a hunger strike outside like a zohran style hunger strike over this if they don't get a fucking good football coach in there and so i just wonder if you're Bill can do anything to help me with Jeff Landry. That feels like a deeper need for a psychologist and lots of other things with him. And I had to say, LSU just destroyed Army so badly last year that I don't have a lot of sympathy in my heart for LSU. But I hear you. No, and I do think on a broader level, like, you can still go to whether it's college game, certainly high school games and pro games.

And no one's like, they're looking at your jersey, not your voter affiliation. Generally, I know that there's some exceptions here, which we've got to push back on. But we got to preserve and expand these spaces where your kid sports, pro sports, like, civic groups, faith groups. Like, that's the only, one of the only ways out of where we are, obviously. I know you talk about this a lot. But there's, like, bigger consequence to this. Some people are like, why are you focusing on this when there's all these big things happening? We can do multiple things and have to do multiple things.

Like we can work on the relatively smaller things that still make people's lives better and tackle the big stuff too. Yeah. Donald Trump's ruining the country and simultaneously building himself a ballroom, putting a new like, you know, a cheesecake factory logo on the outside of the Oval Office. You know, and he's able to do multiple things. Also doing a deportation regime and crushing the economy. So, you know, we can all, we can do multiple things too. Foreign authoritarian. Yeah.

Yeah. Pat Ryan, man, I always appreciate your insight on all this. Where should people go if they want to support your work, what you're up to? Oh, politically, Pat Ryan for Congress.com and or just call our office and like, we need more people involved in the bill, specifically the Stop Sports Act, Stop Sports Blackout Act. And so regardless of your partisan ID, we've been actually saying to people, hey, call your representative, whatever their party, ask him to get on this bill. So if you're willing to do that, that'd be a help. Appreciate it, man. We'll be talking to you soon. Everybody else subscribe to the feed right here.

We'll see you in a minute.