The NFL is looking to make a big splash in policies for 2015 and they've certainly done so with this ruling. The NFL announced that they're suspending the television blackout rule for 2015 for the season as part of an experiment for the future. Each game will be shown in the local area.This is good and bad news for the league. Really though, this is more of a positive step. Some teams like the Oakland Raiders, St. Louis Rams, Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had issues in the past with the blackout rule. The blackout rule was as follows: "The policy stipulates that a home game must be sold out 72 hours in advance of kickoff in order to be televised locally. Often, that deadline is extended to ensure sellouts if a club believes it can meet the criteria for lifting the blackout." Finally, oddly enough there has been no blackouts since 2013 and only two that year. Most likely because the teams were buying surplus amounts of tickets in order to avoid this.
The history of the NFL blackouts dates back to the 1950's. In 1973, two games were blacked out because the teams didn't sell the required amount of tickets per game. 1973 though was when this policy really started to be in effect.
There's legislation that wants the blackouts removed altogether in the NFL. Here's a quote from one of the senators urging the blackouts to be abolished, "This decision to suspend the blackout policy for the upcoming NFL season is a victory for the millions of sports fans and consumers across the country," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), "and it brings us one step closer to eliminating this anti-fan measure once and for all. This antiquated, anti-consumer rule has for too long served only to protect the NFL's bottom line at the expense of sports fans. I urge the FCC to take action to permanently remove the rule so that sports fans have the opportunity to cheer on their favorite teams, regardless of where they are watching."
Finally, the NFL took a poll and the Cincinnati Bengals were the only team to vote in favor of ending the blackout completely. The president of the Bengals, Mike Brown, had this to say in favor of abolishing the blackout, "There is no reason to tie this into lifting the blackout," Brown said. "They are apples and oranges. If you just had the blackout rule standing alone, we would have voted to lift it."