In an era of billion dollar television broadcasting contracts with the NFL, there is no longer a need for blackout rules regulated by the Federal Communications Commission.

Those rules, which prohibited broadcast of games that were not sold out, are likely to be lifted by the FCC as soon as Tuesday. Numbers show the blackout rule is not needed, both on the earnings ledger of the mega-profitable NFL and attendance tracking at the league’s 31 stadiums.

Last season, only two games were blacked out in local TV markets and the NFL turned a record profit of $10 billion.

Since 1975, at a time when gate receipts drove earnings for the league, the FCC barred television broadcast of NFL games that were not sold out.

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said in an editorial last month in advance of Tuesday’s vote to rescind the blackout rule that the NFL’s position that the rule remains viable is misleading.

“To hear the NFL describe it, you would think that putting a game on CBS, NBC or Fox was a money-losing proposition instead of a highly profitable multi-billion dollar business,” he wrote. “If the league truly has the best interest of millions of American fans at heart, they could simply commit to staying on network television in perpetuity.

“The bottom line is the NFL no longer needs the government’s help to remain viable. And we at the FCC shouldn’t be complicit in preventing sports fans from watching their favorite teams on TV. It’s time to sack the sports blackout rules for good.”