Senators questioned officials from Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League on Tuesday about the state of sports broadcasting and the future of streaming live games.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation hosted the hearing titled, "Field of Streams: The New Channel Guide for Sports Fans."

The witnesses included Kenny Gersh, Executive Vice President of Media and Business Development for MLB, William Koenig, President of Global Content and Media Distribution for the NBA, and David Proper, Senior Executive Vice President of Media and International Strategy for the NHL.

Committee chair Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) opened the hearing expressing frustration with the new reality of watching live sports.

"Sports viewing has become more splintered, requiring multiple apps and subscriptions just to watch a single franchise's entire season," Cruz said. "Streaming may well be the future, but it shouldn't sideline the fans."

Lawmakers questioned some sports broadcasting practices including game "blackouts" — in which a game isn't available in a certain market due to broadcasting agreements — and the 1961 Sports Broadcasting Act.

That law gave sports leagues antitrust exemptions to sell teams' broadcasting rights together as a consortium. Without it, NFL teams for example, could sell their own individual broadcast rights.

"That would create an even bigger fragmentation," said Ryan Glasspiegel, a media and entertainment reporter for Front Office Sports. "Some of these smaller streaming networks that aren't in the game right now could conceivably get in with a one-team package."

He says given the current sports broadcasting climate, the law is outdated.

"This law was drawn up when there were three channels: ABC, NBC, and CBS, and now obviously we have all these cable channels and all of these streaming services."

RELATED STORY | Trump announces DC will host 2027 NFL Draft on National Mall

The major U.S. sports leagues now air some games exclusively on platforms including Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Max and Netflix. That means fans who want to watch every game can end up paying extra for multiple streaming subscriptions.

"You're basically clobbering the consumer, making everything more expensive," Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) told the league officials in attendance.

Lawmakers didn't lay out exactly what they wanted to see from the leagues.

While speaking with reporters after the hearing, Cruz noted the committee wasn't necessarily looking for an immediate answer.

"This hearing was meant to be informational, was meant to be a fact-finding exercise," Cruz said, according to Awful Announcing. "As for the specific remedy, I don't know right now."

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) did tout one example of a league and broadcaster reaching more fans.

"Thanks to an agreement between the (Vegas) Golden Knights and Scripps, fans across Nevada are able to watch the Knights free of charge over-the-air on local broadcast television," Rosen said.

Scripps Sports broadcasts games over-the-air for free to fans in places like Las Vegas and has limited rights for broadcasting games from the Women's National Basketball Association and National Women's Soccer League.

(Note: Scripps Sports and the Scripps News Group are owned by the same parent company, the E.W. Scripps Company).

The NFL was notably not represented at the hearing. The Senate committee said it asked NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to testify but said the league refused to attend. Goodwell was in Washington, D.C. on Monday for an announcement about bringing the 2027 NFL Draft to the nation's capitol.