Forbes Magazine is reporting on the NFL's attempt to stifle fans from using social media to protect its TV contracts. The bad news for the NFL -- they seem to be the undergo in this matchup.
The situation reminds me of American Newspapers vs. Craigslist. It was not so long ago that the business model for city newspapers relied on the dollars provided by classified ads. Once consumers had an option to use Craigslist, the newspapers were left with a big fat hole to their bottom line. They haven't been able to recover since.
The situation for the NFL is not that different. Instead of a revenue stream from classified dollars, the NFL's revenue stream has been from network TV that pays handsomely--$4 billion annually-- to be the first ones to give sports fans the sports plays they covet.
However, social media is throwing a chink in that revenue chain. So the NFL's solution was to create new guidelines restricting fans from tweeting play by play accounts of actual games.Would that include tweeting play by play if a fan is watching it on TV?
The NFL also aims to prohibit fans attending games in person from posting large quantities of videos shot from the stands onto sites capable of hosting videos, such as YouTube, Facebook or MySpace. The NFL sells exclusive rights to television networks and radio stations to broadcast the games, says NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, and posting text or video recaps of each play could undermine the league and its broadcasting partners' efforts to make money airing the games.
Unfortunately for the NFL, they are trying to solve their problem in a pre-social media business paradigm and it probably won't work. What newspapers and now The NFL don't seem to understand and appreciate is that in this new social media business environment the rules of engagement have changed. Businesses are no longer able to dictate to consumers they way they used to. In this social media era, businesses would be smart to pay more attention to what consumers want.
Depending on your viewpoint, the NFL's approach to the problem is both archaic and laughable. Oh, and according to most experts, these new guidelines just won't hold up in court.
The NFL "has no property right over fans' tweets," says Wendy Seltzer, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Fans have the same right guaranteed by the First Amendment to publish accounts of football games, even in play-by-play form, that any news organization would, she argues.
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