WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan is examining the antitrust exemptions that professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey teams enjoy in sports broadcasting deals that include home-market blackouts.

The Champaign County Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee sent letters Monday to the heads of the National Football League , Major League Baseball , the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association that seek briefings on their sports broadcasting markets and “blackout” exemptions.

At issue is a 1961 law called the Sports Broadcasting Act, which was adopted to let professional sports leagues coordinate their broadcasting decisions as a way to protect less lucrative teams and the leagues as a whole.

The SBA exempts “any league of clubs partici

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