Those perky Sunday night sports wrap-up segments on local TV news are going to look vastly different this year. The National Football League, renowned as the most controlling and despotic of the sports leagues, has decided to ban local TV crews from the sidelines during games. Local crews will be allowed on the field before and after the games, but there will be no more of that homegrown, low-angle video of the games for the local newscasts.
The move was made, in part, out of concerns about overcrowding on the sidelines – a safety issue, according to the league, drawing hearty laughs from many in the media. If Kid Rock and Pam Anderson want sideline passes, observers are guessing that they will be accommodated, despite the dangers. More likely, the NFL is simply moving to clamp down on what it views as unauthorized coverage of games. League officials don’t like the idea that the local news operations post video to their Web sites and use it over and over again on newscasts without paying for it.
The new policy also allows the NFL to stop local photographers from shooting video that might be a tad embarrassing for the image-conscious league. If the network cameras cut away from, say, Terrell Owens simulating a sex act in the end zone after a touchdown – a wild, sci-fi concept – local photographers might provide the only video of the incident.
Local stations around the country, including in Austin, are petitioning the NFL to reconsider the policy, but so far there’s been no movement. Local station executives said they are reconsidering whether they will even bother to send crews to Cowboys and Texans games. “Unless we have the video of the games that we can use, to me [sending a crew to the game] is not beneficial,” said Fox-7 general manager Danny Baker.
This article appears in August 18 • 2006.