Did NFL clamp down on highlight footage usage?
A very minor observation, but if you’ve been watching highlights on ESPN and FOX Sports (and their Internet counterparts) you might have noticed a dramatic decline in use of highlight footage.
For as long as I can remember, any mention of an NFL player would warrant a run of highlights. Now, we’re treated to zooming in and out of still photos of said players.
Could the NFL be enforcing their 2007 policy decision, limiting media outlets to “45 seconds per day of video shot at a team’s facilities, including news conferences, interviews and practice-field reports”?
ESPN seems to have no problem showing footage of Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford after he announced he was staying at school:
…yet in this piece about Matt Cassel and the franchise tag, we are limited to still photos.
The only live-action footage ESPN is showing, interestingly, is via a direct link to NFL.com:
Same situation at FOX Sports, where the some NFL action—in this case, a Larry Fitzgerald vs. Asante Samuel preview—yup, only stills.
How about this airing of a Cardinals press conference, where FOX is showing still photos of the Cards-Falcons game—a game FOX broadcasted on their own network.
I couldn’t even find a video at CBS Sports’ website that had any kind of game footage in it, video or still shots. (PS—CBS Sports shows a 30-second commercial before every video. Very annoying. We’d get the picture after one, thank you very much.)
The only video I found with any in-game media at NBC Sports’ website (after watching a couple of mandatory 15-second commercials) is this “Mad Dog Minute” with Chris Russo, which showed still-photos of the Titans’ playoff loss to the Ravens.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Over at NFL.com, it’s Pro Bowl and Super Bowl highlights galore, to your heart’s content.
Do you think the NFL sent a friendly reminder to the major media outlets to cut the highlights, or what?
The clips you’re showing are from the internet, and there’s a whole different set of rights when it comes to showing video on there, which basically means you have to pay a crapload more to use NFL video on the internet. That’s why you never see any Fox, CBS, NBC or ESPN features from pre-game shows on the network-sponsored sites. The only place you’ll see them is on YouTube.
If you look at ALL FOXSports.com NFL vidoes all you will see, with the exception of Training Camp footage, are moving stills. They have never shown NFL game footage. As for ESPN, when you saw NFL footage on ESPN.com it was them linking to NFL.com.