Soon, most TVs sold will be larger than 50 inches.
Our church cannot hold a Superbowl party this year because of a threatening letter from the NFL.
We could, however, show the game on this TV and the NFL would approve.
I am not joking.
Posted on 02/01/2008 5:12:40 AM PST by steve-b
For years, as many as 200 members of Immanuel Bible Church and their friends have gathered in the church's fellowship hall to watch the Super Bowl on its six-foot screen. The party featured hard hitting on the TV, plenty of food -- and prayer.
But this year, Immanuel's Super Bowl party is no more. After a crackdown by the National Football League on big-screen Super Bowl gatherings by churches, the Springfield church has sacked its event. Instead, church members will host parties in their homes.
Immanuel is among a number of churches in the Washington area and elsewhere that have been forced to use a new playbook to satisfy the NFL, which said that airing games at churches on large-screen TV sets violates the NFL copyright....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It makes a difference because ad revenue is based on TV ratings, and TV ratings are NOT calculated from the number of people watching. They are calculated by the number of sets tuned to the broadcast. Apparently it’s better for the NFL if 1 person watches 100 TV sets than if 100 people watch 1 TV set. Don’t ask me why.
Tell them to stick it where the sun don’t shine.
Yeah, but why the magic number for screen size? You can get almost as many people around the smaller legal screen as you can around the slightly larger illegal screen. This can mess the ratings up, too.
Well, pretty soon TVs will have probably have sensors that count the number of bodies in the room and report directly to the advertisers, so the problem will be solved.
That makes sense. In that respect, it does hurt the NFL because it devalues the packages they sell to sports bars. On a slightly philosophical (basically I’m being economically stupid) note, I’m becoming a little disenchanted with the NFL squeezing every last fricking nickel they can out of everyone.
Bars are not “exempt.” Bars pay money for the right to show TV to their patrons. And it’s based on the number of seats they have with a view of a TV.
That’s hardly an “exemption.” If a given church would like to negotiate a similar deal, I’m sure they could. What they can’t do is take a broadcast intended for the private viewing of a home audience and make a public spectacle of it. There’s a Commandment against that.
I know many churches that will have parties in their annexes and fellowship halls where the superbowl will be viewed on large screen TVs.
The NFL’s legal department is simply trying to justify their existence. Among their jobs is protecting the NFL from trademark and copyright violations etc., and this does technically qualify as a violation of their broadcasting rights.
Of course, suing churches and little league teams is not exactly what the NFL Board or PR folk like to see, but like any huge and wealthy bureaucracy, there are factions that are pulling in different directions all the time.
Bad Bad PR for the NFL.
I don't suppose the serving of communion wine could be shoehorned into the legal definition of a "bar".
One day the NFL, like the MSM, will ask, ‘What Happened’?
“That said, I am not sure why Churches would want to have Super Bowl parties. If there is something called worldliness as mentioned in the Bible, then there is no greater public celebration of worldliness than the Super Bowl”
The Super Bowl is a great opportunity to have a fellowship and invite people who might never otherwise darken the door of a church. I have only ever heard of churches charging a fee for the food.
My church has a youth party off-site with a projector and large screen, has door prizes, lots of food, and uses halftime to share the Gospel. This year, they will be shoing a video of Ladanian Thompson giving his testimony. Lots of kid come just to hang out with friends, even if they don’t care about football. By no means is ir a moneymaker.
It’s called evangelism. There is no reason for churches to build barriers to keep the unchurched out.
And yes, I do think that sports bars pay the same. In fact I know they do based on two bars that my friends own. They pay for their cable or dish services respectively and have no seperate agreement with the NFL.
Soon, most TVs sold will be larger than 50 inches.
Our church cannot hold a Superbowl party this year because of a threatening letter from the NFL.
We could, however, show the game on this TV and the NFL would approve.
I am not joking.
If they are going to do it churches, then the same should apply at bars. I can almost be certain that most bars in this country do not pay a fee to the NFL for broadcasts on big screen TV’s.
This is yet ANOTHER reason I love the college game a heck of alot more than the NFL. I watch the NFL, but it is becoming more like the NBA everyday as far a league control from everything to broadcasts to every team using the same company for apparel and all that stuff.
Bleep the NFL....they made a decision to air their games on terrestrial TV, and cant tell who can or cannot watch it.
If enough churches fight the NFL, the NFL will cave. The PR hit will be costly...esp in an era where sports viewership overall is on the decline
They did this last year too. It’s a really nasty thing to do.
If Anheuser-Busch gets a cut, I’m sure it could.
Au contraire, mon ami.
Nielson and Arbitron diaries are filled out by individuals. It doesn't matter where they watch something, they are supposed to log it no matter where they are.
Only the Nielson "people meter" boxes count people in their own home. But those boxes are used only for the overnight dailies. The larger quarterly reports are mostly from diaries.
It's an utterly hypocritical stance, and seems illogical, except that the actual purpose is to make massive amounts of money off selling beer while pretending they care about the youth, and the token gesture of preventing active players and coaches from advertising only costs the individuals money, not the owners.
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