Rugby Officials Give Way On Video, Too

News agencies got what they wanted from Rugby World Cup officials this week for their video needs although, curiously, newspapers were denied the same privileges but the media and rugby are allegedly one big happy family again.

Fresh off their “victory” from a two day boycott of World Cup events leading up to the first game Friday, with French officials and sponsors furious with rugby officials for imposing still picture coverage rules that the media refused to accept, the last coverage item to get resolved was video, and the rugby officials climbed way down on that one, too.

The norm at most sporting events is for video news agencies to have the right to broadcast limited footage from various events surrounding the tournament – a limitation usually around two to three minutes. But in the deal negotiated with rugby officials, who no doubt just wanted to get on with their lives and make the whole problem just disappear, news agencies are being allowed to file an unlimited number of stories having video content, but there is a limit of five minutes footage from any single event. Press conferences and the matches themselves are not included.

Left out of this are the rest of the media who no doubt would like to create their own video to go with their online stories, but that is still not allowed.

Compare what rugby just gave up with what the National Football League (NFL) has imposed for this year’s US football season.  News organization websites not affiliated with the NFL are limited to just 45 seconds of video/audio clips a day of team personnel at team facilities. This includes material from interviews, news conferences and practice footage.

In Australia Telstra thought its $90 million six-year deal with the National Rugby League would limit other online sites from no more than 45 seconds of game coverage. Telstra asked the Federal Court to impose the 45-second rule but the judge refused saying that TV networks were airing up to two minutes of coverage and he saw no reason why digital should be treated harsher than that. Finally a deal was done with Fox Sports allowing 1:45 of match play online and 90 seconds on mobile phones.

Put it all together and it means the rights holders are trying to sell digital coverage rights for as much as they can and don’t want competition from non-rights holders. How far the courts will let them go, and whether media boycotts are also part of the answer, will be studied by rights holders globally considering rugby’s World Cup experience this year in France.

One thing both sides agree upon -- the fight has only just begun, but the media has proven that if it sticks together – there was a 40-member coalition to fight the rugby restrictions – the power of not writing or showing something is as powerful as the power of the pen. - September 13, 2007

Keywords: rugby World Cup, sports media coverage

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