This year local TV stations are being banned from NFL sidelines during the regular season games. The league has ruled that no local TV photographers can shoot their own pictures. Newspaper, magazine and other still photographers are welcomed to snap away but we have to keep the camera's in the case when the game is going on. The NFL claims the sidelines are getting too crowded...I say bull. If that were the case they would ban ALL photographers from the sidelines. It's about control,which the NFL loves to do, trying to funnel viewers to the NFL Network, which we don't have in our market and giving the paying NFL networks more exclusivity. Without local affiliates how in the heck would CBS and NBC broadcast their games?
You may not give a hill of beans about the ban but we in TV are spitting mad. Why?? It hinders the way we do our job and we're at the mercy of someone else. At WRAL, when we go to a NFL game in addition to covering the game, we're also looking for features. When the Panthers played the Bills in the preseason (we can shoot preseason games) we did a story on former NC State defensive lineman John McCargo. We isolated our camera on him during several plays which let you see exactly what McCargo was doing during a play. The networks may show replay iso's of a certain play or player but not enough times for us to do a feature. Last year when the Cowboys visited Charlotte, we did a story on former Duke linebacker Ryan Fowler. He made a few tackles and played special teams but no way did the network show ANYTHING of Ryan Fowler. The Panthers will provide one TV pool photographer to shoot ground level and disperse the video to interested stations. Still, it's not our own high definition pictures.
The NFL says their new rule is in line with how other major sports work, like the NCAA tournament. True, we can't shoot the tournament games but we still shoot the Duke vs. Carolina basketball game during the regular season. I'd dare to say a Blue Devil-Tar Heel match-up is MUCH more in demand than a Cardinals vs. Niners regular season game.
We will continue to cover the Panthers but we won't be making as many trips to Charlotte as we have in the past. It's hard to sell to our management spending 12 man hours to drive to the game and only shoot interviews. Newspapers and the web can get away with pictureless stories...TV can't and we would like to be able to shoot our own but this year, we've been sacked by the NFL. Thanks a lot...
Jeff Gravley
