Privacy Digest

Under NFL Rule, Media Web Sites Are Given Just 45 Seconds to Score: Thanks to a new NFL policy, something will soon be in short supply on news-media Web sites: video of almost anything related to the NFL or its players.

In a move designed to protect the Internet operations of its 32 teams, the pro football league has told news organizations that it will no longer permit them to carry unlimited online video clips of players, coaches or other officials, including video that the news organizations gather themselves on a team's premises. News organizations can post no more than 45 seconds per day of video shot at a team's facilities, including news conferences, interviews and practice-field reports.

The policy, announced last month with little fanfare, has frustrated journalists, who say it constricts the public's access to information about the nation's most popular spectator sport. A coalition of news organizations has been quietly lobbying the league for months to change the rule.

At the heart of the dispute is a collision between sports leagues and the news outlets that cover them. As the Internet becomes a premier source for video reports, teams are increasingly competing with the news media's Web sites for viewers and advertisers. By limiting access to news organizations, the teams hope to drive fans to the teams' sites for exclusive information and clips.

The NCAA, for example, recently generated controversy by booting a reporter out of the press box at a college baseball playoff game. The reporter was producing a live "blog" account of the game -- a violation, the collegiate association said, of the NCAA's monopoly on live coverage and an infringement on its lucrative contract with sportscaster ESPN. (The NCAA recently relented and said it would henceforth permit non-video blogging at its championships.)

The Washington Redskins have been at the center of this conflict for several years. The team has long denied access to independent videographers, including those from washingtonpost.com, to any of its practices or facilities. The team permits local television stations to reuse footage the stations shot for their news broadcasts on the Web, but that's the only exception. Other reporters cannot create original videos of the team for their sites. This has meant that the Redskins' Web site (Redskins.com) is the exclusive Internet source for longer video clips, including such newsworthy video as news conferences with players and Coach Joe Gibbs.

"There are a number of reasons for [barring videographers], but it's basically a content issue," said Redskins spokesman Chris Helein. "I won't hide . . . the fact that the NFL and everything that surrounds it is valuable content" that enhances a team's Web site.

Legal experts say the policies do not violate any laws, because the NFL is entitled to establish the terms of access to its privately owned facilities.

(Read Original Article - Via washingtonpost.com - Technology.)