More proof pro sports teams don’t want your coverage

Steve Safran March 19th, 2007

NESN, the cable channel that shows the Red Sox games - and which is owned by the Red Sox - is clamping down on TV newscasts that dare to show highlights from Sox games in progress. While rights-holders usually have the claim to do this, it’s rarely enforced and, more to the point, makes no sense. As WBZ (CBS affil) sports producer Jackie Connally said: “They are totally within their rights to do this… (but) I don’t see anyone leaving a live game broadcast to go to the local news to watch highlights. But if I’m airing partial highlights of, say, the opener, I’m sure some people are going to say, ‘Oh, I forgot about that,’ and switch over to NESN. We’ll definitely be driving people over to them.” This is consistent with major league sports’ ever-increasing bans that prohibit web news sites from showing game highlights. We’ve been saying for years how local news should shift its focus from showing highlights of the major leagues to finding great local sports stories instead. This is one more reason why: the big leagues don’t want your coverage on your terms, only on theirs. And they’ll keep changing the terms and dictating your coverage. Forget ‘em. Fans get their major league sports scores from the web and ESPN. Find the local stories they can’t get anywhere else instead. Differentiate your product. As a bonus, you won’t have the rich teams bossing you around. (Disclosure: I worked with Jackie at WBZ.)