Nosey Online

Just found a nice little article that gives a good understanding of just why the government shouldn’t be in the business of helping sports team owners.

TiVo, the company that makes the digital-video-recorder boxes that inspire such strange idolatry among their users, is in a weird spot. It's asking the Federal Communications Commission for permission to add a new feature -- the option for a TiVo user to send recorded digital TV programs via the Internet to nine other people.

Which the NFL thinks is bad. Here’s why.

The NFL says that TiVo's Internet-sharing feature will allow people to send game broadcasts to blacked-out viewers in real time (a team's home game can be aired locally only if it sells out beforehand).

"It's a question of pure ability to sell tickets," said Frank Hawkins, the NFL's senior vice president for business affairs. "Buffalo typically sells out September and October, but they've got an open-air stadium. They'll never sell out those December games if they are unable to enforce the blackout rule."

So this has nothing to do with the actual pirating of NFL games (which is what the FCC is supposed to care about). It has everything to do with helping the NFL team owners make more money.

No, the NFL is asking for help with a stadium business, one that already benefits from massive government welfare. (A December 2002 Buffalo News story calculated that the taxpayers of Erie County, N.Y., had anted up about $148 million for the Bills and their stadium over the previous decade.)

So they’re really worried that a millions guys are going all of a sudden stop their Football Sunday rituals just to download copied games onto their Tivo? Consider this…

There's also the slight problem that the NFL's nightmare -- blacked-out viewers watching a game live on the Internet -- is all but impossible. With almost every broadband connection available today, it would take hours to upload a game. A recipient would be lucky to finish watching a Sunday afternoon game before Monday, and sending a high-definition copy would take most of the week.

That my friends, is the crux of the matter. Frank Hawkin’s scenario is just laughable. Game doesn’t sell out, they implement a blackout, Buffalo guy has friend in South Carolina tape the game, friend uploads it, and then Buffalo guy spends days downloading it, all just to escape paying $60 to attend the game? Wow, I’ve never heard of such convoluted theories. That guy from Buffalo is no more likely going to be prodded into buying a ticket to the game because of TiVo restrictions then he is into buying an airplane ticket down to South Carolina just to watch the game on free TV with his buddy.

The only thing worse than corporate welfare is sports industry corporate welfare. Because, you know, spending $148 million on a stadium for the Bills is so much more important than spending it on education, AIDS, and cancer research.