NHL Bans Use Of Periscope Streaming By Media During Warmups And Intermissions
from the why? dept
Anyone interested in the business of professional sports already knows how important broadcasting rights and revenues are. One needs only look at the insane amount of money generated for Major League Baseball through broadcast contracts to see how lucrative they can be, or the relative indifference the NFL has over the surprising decline of game attendance to see where these leagues think their money is made. The story with the NHL is slightly different, in part because the lucrative television contracts just aren't there for the league (except in Canada, duh), and in part because if any major sport could benefit from wider distribution to become more lucrative it's the NHL.
But that doesn't mean the NHL won't play the fun-police when it comes to theoretically protecting its product. As some journalists have recently discovered, the league is going so far as to make sure credentialed members of the media aren't using apps like Periscope and Meerkat during warmups and intermissions. The way these apps work is to allow the user to produce snippets of live-streamed video/audio, perfect for formats like Twitter. Some enterprising media members found interesting ways to use them, such as Yahoo Sports' Greg Wyshynski.
So the question then became how I could use this technology during coverage. At Game 1 of the New York Rangers’ series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, I did live Periscope intermission coverage. That seemed OK. Some of the other people in the press box that were Periscoping the pregame skate or postgame comments? That seemed a little more dicey, given the NHL’s rules about shooting video at events where big media companies held the broadcast rights.It seemed like there was a gray area. I can promise you that credentialed media members covering a sport don't want to do much to hurt the leagues they cover generally, given that's where their money is made. But you can certainly see useful ways media members could use Periscope and Meerkat to cover games in ways that could only help the league through increased visibility. Commentary and stand-ups during warmups, for instance, or breakdowns from media members in between periods. Those would be quite useful.
The NHL disagrees. Far from seeing any gray area, the league sent notice to media members that using the apps was banned completely.
We have been advised that certain individuals attending NHL games pursuant to credentialed access are streaming live footage from inside NHL arenas before, during and after NHL games using technology offered by companies such as Periscope and Meerkat. As a reminder, NHL media credentials prohibit any “unauthorized use of any transmission, picture or other depiction or description of game action, game information, player interview or other arena activity . . . without prior written approval of” NHL or the team as applicable.Without limiting the generality of the credential language, any streaming of footage in violation of the NHL’s Broadcast Guidelines (including, for example, live streaming inside the arena less than 30 minutes before the start of the game) and Media Access Policy is expressly prohibited.So live-streaming warmups and intermissions is just as banned as in-game streaming. Why? Well, because some NHL teams are also using those apps and want to retain control. Control of the footage, the message, the information that gets released and the live commentary that might go along with it. Even during times when the NHL's product is ostensibly not in play, the ban remains in place. And that's too bad. For a sport and league that I truly love, it would be nice if they could see the opportunity in all of this, if only the league would relinquish just a bit of control. Unfortunately, when it comes to forward-thinking about the consumption of its game, the NHL never seems to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: hockey, journalism, live streaming, livestreaming, reporting
Companies: meerkat, nhl, periscope
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
As the slider makes its way towards money, consumers have less and less options and more abuse.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
NHL media policy
[ link to this | view in thread ]
How can they stop it?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
closed venue
The big difference here is which way the money is flowing. If the NHL had to pay to be broadcast it would have no qualms about this. However, other corps pay money to the NHL for broadcasting rights. Thus any unpaid broadcasting is not free exposure, instead it is lost revenue because of the direction the money flows.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: How can they stop it?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Heard the one about the boxing match, where a hockey game broke out?
Zzzzzzzzzz ...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Yes, control the message which is being received by a smaller and smaller audience. I mean, it's not like they've had control over the message the whole time already, and driven viewership into the ground. If that had happened, surely they would entrust the message to anyone BUT themselves.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: How can they stop it?
They can't do much about Joe Public using these programs, other than to eject anyone caught in the act. That said, Joe Public generally doesn't have an audience so the NHL wouldn't care.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Why are they even there?
This language seems to forbid any reporting whatsoever. In which case, why do the reporters even bother to get credentials and show up in the first place?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
The same is true of play by play announcers and color commentators, though the latter often being former players themselves are less professional (read "more objective") about it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: NFL Banks Use of Periscope Streaming
At some point the NHL may want to investigate making itself relevant. But why bother. Surely they can cadge a half-dollar from someone for the right to periscope stream a zamboni scraping the ice during the intermission.
[ link to this | view in thread ]