Beginning Wednesday October 12, 2016 the National Football League introduced a new Social Media policy. All 32 teams can no longer shoot video inside of their stadiums during a game and post it on any social media sites; they also cannot use Facebook Live, Periscope or any other live streaming app in the stadium during game time.
Teams also cannot take highlights of what has happened on the field and edit them into their own videos, or post highlights taken from television to their social media sites. Turning highlights into GIFs are also prohibited; the league considers a video to be anything that “moves”. “However, the league is set to further clarify the GIF aspect of the policy with teams” (Farber, 2016). Teams are not completely banned
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Essentially, the National Football League wants viewers to go through the official NFL sites, and not specific team sites to get video content.
“Violations of the policy will cost teams up to $25,000 upon the first instance, up to $50,000 the second time and up to $100,000 for each additional violation of the policy” (Rovell, 2016). In addition to the massive fine, third time offenders also could result in loss of rights to post League-Controlled Content, including game footage.
“It’s an interesting policy considering the NFL just signed a deal with Twitter in April to broadcast Thursday night football games as a way to better serve fans, rejecting bids from Amazon, Verizon, and Yahoo” (Farber,
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They have to get unusually more creative. Monday night’s football game was played between the Carolina Panthers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Most NFL teams would tweet the play and add a video or GIF to show fans what just happened. The Carolina Panthers tweeted this from their account during the game…
AndersonToBenjamin.gif
17 yard gain! #KeepPounding
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) October 11, 2016
(Yoder, 2016).
The Panthers used other non-football related images, videos, and GIFs such as Harry Potter and Chris Farley to get them through the rest of the night. On the other side of the field, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers posted multiple videos and GIFs to their account throughout the night. There is no news on whether the Buccaneers were punished for disregarding the policy.
On Sunday, October 16, 2016 more teams joined in with sarcastic content. The Philadelphia Eagles posted a tweet “EXCLUSIVE highlight of Malcolm's pick. #FlyEaglesFly
11:12 AM - 16 Oct 2016” with a GIF of mini replica football players, playing on a miniature field, with a paper football reenacting the play. About 15 minutes later, the Cleveland Browns who were playing the Tennessee Titans posted a similar GIF to the Eagles.
How will this policy affect the NFL’s 32 team’s social media accounts and the people who run