The NFL bans tweets during games – and not just from the players
By Dave Parrack
It seems that every new technology or Web trend annoys some person, company, or organization to the point at which they throw their dummy out of the pram. The latest big bad wolf is the real-time Web, which incorporates Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, live blogging, and much more besides. The latest group to have a problem with it is the National Football League (NFL).
Ever since I first ventured on the Internet it seems someone, somewhere has had a problem with the technology and how it is used. The music industry, and more recently the television and movie industries, have failed to accept the new reality of digital formats and file-sharing and change their business model accordingly.
Now it’s the turn of the real-time Web which is taking the power out of the hands of the traditional media organizations and putting it back in the hands of your average citizen. Twitter and Facebook are often now the first places to discover breaking news, with ordinary people on the scene able to spread the news quicker than ever the most organized news crew.
The real-time Web is also now affecting live sports, with people at the game (players, the media, and fans) able to give live updates on the Web. This is surely a good thing, increasing user involvement in the game and provoking interest in people seeing the updates. The NFL disagrees.
According to CNET, the NFL has adjusted its social media policy to prohibiting anyone involved in the sport from giving play-by-play updates before (90 minutes prior to kick-off), during, or after (until post-match interviews are over) a game. This ruling applies to players, coaches, league officials, and even the accredited media present.
It’s an in-house argument as to whether players and coaches should have their social media activities prohibited in this way. And although I think it’s a shame, and a mistake on the part of the NFL, I’m not too bothered. But the media? What right does the NFL have to impose those sorts of rules?
One can only assume that fans are going to be the next target. And why not? After all, this change to the rules implies that the NFL isn’t willing to lose its stranglehold on information about the game reaching a wider audience in a timely fashion. And any fan at a game with a mobile phone can bypass that wish quite easily.
I fear the NFL is going to learn the hard way that once something takes off on the Internet it’s nigh on impossible to stop its forward march.
Related:
Entry was posted
on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 12:14 am
under
Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
Stumble It!
September 4th, 2009
You have a poor understanding that control of a product and it’s distribution is granted when you are paying people to act on your behalf. It’s neither a right or a freedom for people to control a product they don’t own.
The amount of money waged on Pro Football is huge and it’s not an exercise in astronomical flux state physics to see how quickly the integrity of the product can be lost. Media access is already regulated. A cooling off period was instituted years ago to minimize the bad things that happen when a highly emotional player has microphones shoved in their face getting asked how it feels to be a loser.
It’s just bringing current tech and the potential it bestows into the situation.
September 4th, 2009
Dave, reporting on a franchised sporting event is not the same as reporting events in a public place. Learn and appreciate the difference.