Wired News: Hollywood, NFL Fight TiVo Sharing. It’s not bad enough that Hollywood wants to limit our freedoms, now the idiots at the NFL are in bed with them. This is especially galling since the NFL just pushed next years Superbowl into February (a specific sweeps week) so the TV folks could gouge their advertisers with bogus numbers (duh, ok!).
As a fan who goes to live games at the stadium to get quickly disgusted by long timeouts for TV commericials, it’s now apparent that the NFL is selling out to anyone it can — especially Hollywood/broadcasting interests. It’s time to stop watching pro football with any real enthusiasm. This moment in time — I predict — will mark the beginning of the end for these greedy bastards.
STUDIOS AND NFL OPPOSE TIVO PLAN
Following TiVo’s announcement of a plan to let its users transfer recorded television shows to other devices, Hollywood studios and the National Football League filed papers with the Federal Communications Commission to block the agency’s approval of the proposed service. The opposing groups fear the illegal distribution of their copyrighted materials over the Internet. [from Educause]
DirecTV DVR by TiVo gives you the ability to be the judge of controversial plays on the field with slo-mo.
This sounds like the same crowd who claimed the VCR would rob the studios of revenue, ruin movies and destroy the theater business forever. It seems to me that digital technology will add a layer of richness to the sport, without any effort or expense by the NFL. The technology won’t take anything away from the value of the live game at the stadium. That’s not where the real dollars are made of course. The TV ad revenues are the big revenue drivers. There’s been talk about ABC trading Monday Night Football to ESPN. In the future, we may see the networks pushed out of pro football and the games will all be on pay television. It’s hard to imagine somebody webcasting an NFL game for a profit, while doing so with a pirated signal. Doing that would ensure the wrath of a swarm of NFL lawyers. In Pittsburgh, the NFL plays in a public and publicly tax funded municipal stadium, so I guess one could argue that the game is taking place in a public forum, unlike a movie which is produced in a privately owned and operated studio or set.
This matter may play out in the courts in slo-mo. My take on the whole thing is that they should purchase the stadiums and fund their own fun and games. Use the stadium for a movie set for the 350 days a year the thing sits there empty taking up space. The city of Pittsburgh is broke and it isn’t because somebody is webcasting games with a TiVo in Pittsburgh. Your tax dollars are at work, they just aren’t working that hard.
I think you are right about all this. And I’m certain that there is discussion about pay-per-view regarding the Monday night game, especially if they can pick the game at the last minute and everyone agrees. But I also think that pro football is running its course. I notice that my son and his pals don’t care a lick about football. It’s getting to be an old farts game. This isn’t helped by the fact that you have to take out a loan to actually see a game in person, AND it’s a hassle. I don’t even go when people invite me to thier box for free. When you are at the game in person the commercial interuptions make it a bad experience. And having been to one Superbowl, I don’t need to do that again either.