Investing.com -- Shares of Fox Corporation are trading higher on Thursday following a Wall Street Journal report that the U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the NFL.

The DoJ is examining whether the NFL has engaged in anticompetitive tactics that harm consumers, according to the report. FOX Class B shares rose 3%, while FOXA Class A shares gained over 4%.

Media companies, regulators and members of Congress have raised concerns in recent months about consumer difficulty in watching sports games due to rights deals in which leagues offer smaller packages of games to streamers.

When the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 was passed, consumers were largely able to watch NFL games over broadcast television. Games now appear across multiple different channels. Any action by the DoJ to limit the distribution of broadcast rights outside of TV may benefit major networks like Fox.