Pete Rozelle is wearing a headband that says "Goodell"
Jul 5, 2007 Bad Idea Jeans, Inanity, Is Roger Goodell gonna have to choke a bitch?, Johnny Fisterbottom, Legal stuff, Pacman Jones' gunrack, Tank Johnson's gunrack
If you read Deadspin or Fanhouse, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the NFL’s new video policy. Stephanie sums up the rule thusly:
In sum, the rules limit videos to 45 seconds of footage for interviews, practice footage, just about everything. The videos can’t be archived and have to be removed in 24 hours.
As I am generally opposed to stuff that is asinine, I am not in favor of this rule. Oh, sure, I understand the idea behind it–the NFL wants people to have to go to official team websites to view video. More people to those websites, in theory, generates more revenue from those sites. (I picture Roger Goodell rapping in his office. “Cash rules everything around me–C.R.E.A.M.–get the money, dolla dolla bill, y’all.”)
I also understand that the NFL can do whatever they want with their product. But, to (again) quote Ms. Stradley, “just because something is legal to do, doesn’t mean that it is right, smart or advisable.” That is a concept that seems to escape the NFL here. Yes, you can tell all of us what to do vis-a-vis your product…but you can’t make us like your product.
As of now, everyone loves the NFL. (Well, anyone I would want to be around.) We love it despite the insane cost of tickets and parking and memorabilia, despite the abhorrently bad television announcers, despite the inability of most fans to get NFL Sunday Ticket, despite the positive steroid tests, despite the continued legal trouble of Tank and Pacman and 48% of the Bengals, and despite a number of other things that might make us turn our collective back on a lesser organization.
It is this love of the NFL’s product that makes Joe Fan practically insatiable when it comes to NFL news and coverage. Yet, instead of reveling in this adoration and keeping up with our football jones, they are now trying to take away some of what we already had. We are begging for more (see, e.g., the whole thing about people wanting to end DirectTV’s monopoly on the Sunday Ticket) and they are trying to give us less.
What. The. Fuck? How does this make sense?
Do you really think that making us go to the team sites to watch video clips is going to raise your revenue that much? I love the Texans as much as the next guy, but I can only sit through so many homogenized, team-produced fluff pieces on TexansTV before I want to put a thumbtack in my left eye. I can’t imagine watching those clips and then suddenly being inspired to order a jersey or a koozie or a window sticker from the team website. It’s just not going to happen. At least not as long as ordering from the official site is the most expensive way in the world to get a jersey.
Besides, this rule is more than likely going to make people spend less time watching NFL videos as a whole. Once I watch whatever is on the Texans’ page, I am not going to some other team’s site to watch their videos; I’m moving on to read about my team on other (read: non-official, non-pandering) websites. So, congrats, you have effectively reduced the average fan’s exposure to your product. That makes total business sense.
Don’t get me wrong–I have nothing against people making money (though I don’t think this new rule will increase revenue). If I had a product that millions of people clamored for, I’d try to maximize my profitability, too. But I would also try to make sure that I remained as popular as possible. You don’t remain popular for too long if every move you make is a big sandpaper fist right in your customer’s shitter. (Unless that is actually your business, in which case such a move would ironically make you more popular.) When every move you make is designed to line your pockets and you blatantly disregard what your customers want, you cannot be surprised when one day many of those fans move on to something else. This video rule might not be the cliche that broke the camel’s back, but it is another step in that direction.
