Enjoy the Game, do your Job, but remember – we own your a$$. This seems to be the sentiment passed along from major league teams of the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), and many other national sports organizations. And if you’re a photographer, videographer, or reporter working for a media outlet or broadcaster, your hard efforts are being framed by some very hard line restrictions on how you can use your own work. The Wall Street Journal (free registration required) reports on the tug of war between media, content, profit, sponsorship, and ownership of materials produced on-site of these major sporting events. This ranges from limiting the number of images that can be published, the amount of video that can be broadcast, down to putting corporate sponsor logos on media jerseys.
Personally, I think the grab of rights and excessive restrictions could be taken back from league owners if all members of the media did what needed to be done; just say, “No”. Imagine a 4 week media boycott where the sports section of your local newspaper or TV sportscast had no pictures, no video, no play-by-plays, no recaps. Instead, you’d get just a list of winners, i.e., Tuesday Baseball Game Winners were Atlanta, Boston, Oakland, etc. PGA Open winner was T.Woods, and so on. Give time and space to covering local High School, College, or Minor League games. Then after a month, see if the “Big Boys” are more interested in keeping such restrictive editorial controls, or would ease off on the non-commercial restrictions in order to get back their precious coverage and reporting.
Remember, a symbiotic relationship is one that is defined as mutually beneficial and mutually sustaining.
