Daddy D in the News!

In the Sunday edition of the Shreveport Times, there is a story about the NFL banning local TV cameras from the sidelines (first called to your attention on Daddy D's storytime). You will see quotes from me, Daddy D:

NFL limits local television coverage
New league policy bans TV stations from sidelines April 9, 2006
By Brian Vernellis bvernellis@gannett.com

A recent decision by the NFL has local television sports directors and national journalism associations questioning the league's motives and, in the end, may cost local NFL fans coverage of their favorite teams.NFL team owners voted unanimously at their spring meetings on March 31 to ban local television crews from videotaping from the sidelines and rely on the NFL and its broadcast partners for game footage. Local publication photographers are still allowed on the sidelines however.
The terms of the policy have not been finalized, but the NFL is expected to explore its options in more depth on Monday.NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the policy was passed so the league can protect broadcast rights and alleviate congestion along the sidelines."We need to limit the sources of video of our game action that is quite often used illegally on Web sites and otherwise," Aiello told The Times."We have to protect our intellectual property rights and be consistent with what other major sports organizations do when it comes to their major events."The ban includes preseason games which are broadcast nationally, like the Aug. 21 New Orleans Saints-Dallas Cowboys game at Independence Stadium that will be broadcast on ESPN.Under the new resolution, local stations KTBS, KTAL and KSLA may tape pregame and postgame events, including postgame locker room interviews, but will not be allowed on the Independence Stadium sidelines to shoot the Saints and Cowboys.Instead, the only game footage the three local crews will be allowed is from ESPN, which will televise the game for a national audience."Here's something that we've been counting on and looking forward to and it's a great thing for the city, and we're not going to have any way to historically document it five, 10 years down the road," said Tim Fletcher, KTBS sports director.The NFL isn't sympathetic."It doesn't impact the fan in any significant way because the game highlights are all fully available as they always have been," Aiello said. "Local stations can use highlights from the game telecasts which is the highest quality you can get, including multiple replays of key plays."But it isn't always about the highlights.The league's decision makes local stations' job in covering local athletes in the NFL all the more difficult with no game footage of the athlete. Instead they would have to rely on postgame interviews and any game footage shot by a national network, if there was any.For example, if KTBS, KTAL or KSLA wanted to do a story on Philadelphia Eagles running back Ryan Moats, a former Louisiana Tech star, it could not include game footage it videotaped, only national footage -- if there was any."In a way it makes the job easier because shooting games is hard work, but we can't do our job anymore," KTBS sportscaster Clif Cotton said. "We're limited to whatever FOX decides to give us."What I don't think (the NFL) understands is it affects people in markets like ours more than the guys in New Orleans and Dallas. We may go to a game in New Orleans and we might shoot four stories and that's all the airtime that they would be getting because we do a feature on someone that would air on Tuesday when we might not even talk about the Saints on Tuesday otherwise."The Society of Professional Journalists and Radio-Television News Directors Association have requested the NFL and the 32 team owners to reconsider its actions and reverse the policy."The NFL proposal is not in the public interest," said SPJ national president David Carlson. "It is bad for the public, bad for the news media and bad for the NFL."The NFL isn't the only professional league to ban local television crews from the sidelines. The NHL, Major League Baseball and the Masters golf tournament already have policies in place that limit local coverage.The NCAA also doesn't allow local stations to tape the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments."It's not uncommon (to ban local TV stations), but it's normally done for something that's perceived as a special event, not a run-of-the-mill regular season game," said former KTAL sports director Darrell Rebouche."I don't think the local stations have much strength. The NFL is so big and popular that the local stations have to cover it even on (the NFL's) terms to be successful, particularly in NFL markets. During the fall, that's the lifeblood of those sports departments."Local television stations hope this action isn't the start of sweeping changes in the future."Where does it stop?" asked David Schwartz, KTAL sports director. "Now we can't go on the sidelines, are we eventually not going to be able to go into the locker room?"Are we only going to get pool seats at a press conference because we're cluttering up the press room and the players are complaining? Are we not going to be able to go into practice? It's going to keep going."

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