Leagues and owners
When it comes to digital strategies, sports leagues are all over the map.
The NFL gives a lot of autonomy to let individual teams take advantage of their digital rights locally. But it’s the most restrictive when it comes to online video highlights, keeping them exclusively for NFL.com. MLB also is one of the more restrictive leagues when it comes to online highlights. It set up its own dot-com infrastructure in MLB Advanced Media, controlling all digital content that comes out of the league, including online highlights. It licenses highlights to a few companies, such as ESPN.
The NBA also licenses online highlights to TV partners such as ESPN. It decided to partner with Time Warner to help build up its digital properties, including NBA.com, NBA TV and NBA League Pass. Similarly, Turner operates NASCAR.com. NASCAR gives online rights of races to the broadcasters that air the events but it keeps the bundle of highlights for NASCAR.com.
The NHL’s online highlights are the most widely distributed of all the big leagues. The league has cut deals with TV partners and nonpartners and YouTube, believing that wide distribution of its content translates into good promotion for the NHL.
Networks
Life was easy when the networks would cut one check for TV rights. Now, they have to enter into a separate negotiation for digital rights. The problem is that nobody can pinpoint the precise value of those digital rights. Networks today are reticent to cut any deal that does not contain some sort of rights to online, broadband and mobile content. Those that are not rights holders, however, are finding life in the digital age to be more difficult. For example, the NFL limits sideline access and puts strict conditions on how much video those that are not rights holders can use on their Web sites.
Athletes
The rise of blogs has helped athletes speak directly to fans, with stars like Curt Shilling (38pitches.com) and Gilbert Arenas (on NBA.com) writing two of the more popular sites. On the other extreme, nonaffiliated bloggers make their mark with stories about athletes behaving badly. They write stories and post pictures that would not make it into the mainstream media. Athletes are finding they have less control over the use of their names and likenesses, especially as it concerns fantasy sports.
— John Ourand
