On Friday, October 25, 2024, the Brooklyn Leisure and Sports activities Regulation Society (“BESLS”) held the Fourth Annual Sports activities Regulation Symposium entitled “International Sport: Authorized Classes from the Olympic Video games.” The Symposium consisted of three panels and concluded with a Keynote Dialog.
The Symposium’s second panel, “Browsing the Channels: Broadcasting & Media Rights,” was moderated by Mark Conrad and showcased a dialog with panelists Martin Edel, Christopher Chase, and Brett Goodman.
THE PANELISTS
Mark Conrad is a professor of regulation and ethics, sports activities regulation, the enterprise of sport, and media regulation, amongst different topics at Fordham College’s Gabelli Faculty of Enterprise. Professor Conrad obtained his regulation diploma from New York Regulation Faculty, an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia College, and a B.A. from Metropolis School of New York. Professor Conrad’s guide, “The Enterprise of Sports activities – Off the Discipline, Within the Workplace, On the Information,” gives probably the most complete texts on the topic.
Brett Goodman is Common Counsel on the NBC Sports activities Group. He handles all authorized issues for NBCUniversal’s sports activities companies, broadcast, cable, and digital platforms, such because the NBC Tv Community, NBC Olympics, Golf Channel, and quite a few regional sports activities networks all through the nation. Mr. Goodman negotiates with many massive sports activities organizations to craft media rights offers; for instance, he served because the lead drafter of NBC’s many Olympic rights bids, and he negotiated agreements with the WNBA, Huge Ten, Premier League, and different skilled athletic leagues. Mr. Goodman graduated from Princeton College in 1990 and later obtained his regulation diploma from Columbia College Regulation Faculty.
Christopher Chase is a Companion at Frankfurt, Kurnit, Klein & Selz, the place he practices regulation within the fields of mental property, promoting, sports activities, and leisure regulation. He negotiates model and movie star contracts, together with licensing offers, content material distribution agreements, and sponsorship and occasion promotion agreements. Mr. Chase based Frankfurt Kurnit’s Sports activities Business group, and he has represented leagues, athletes, manufacturing corporations, and types on transactional and mental property issues like sponsorship and media rights agreements.
Martin Edel is co-chair of the Sports activities Regulation Apply at Goulston & Storrs, advising universities, skilled groups, and sports activities leagues on numerous sports activities regulation issues. He’s an Adjunct Teacher of Sports activities Regulation at Columbia Regulation Faculty and an Adjunct Professor of Antitrust Regulation and Sports activities Regulation at Brooklyn Regulation Faculty. He additionally mediates for the Court docket of Arbitration in Sports activities (“CAS”). Mr. Edel has been named a Tremendous Lawyer in Sports activities and Leisure by SuperLawyer.com, and he was acknowledged as one of many prime 30 leaders in sports activities regulation by Bloomberg.
MODERN SPORTS MEDIA RIGHTS ISSUES
To start, the panelists mentioned the overarching theme of broadcasting and media rights in sports activities and leisure: media rights offers. These negotiations and contracts enable leagues just like the Nationwide Soccer League (NFL) to air their video games and different agreed-upon content material on particular channels, web sites, and different streaming and web companies.
Professor Conrad started by asking the panelists to debate the important thing points attorneys on either side of the desk will think about previous to getting into a negotiation. First, realizing one’s place within the negotiation is necessary to set expectations for the result. For instance, licensors like athletes and sports activities leagues intention to supply as little content material and rights as potential, protecting as a lot as potential for themselves. However, licensees like NBC Sports activities Group will need to acquire essentially the most quantity of content material and model rights potential.
DEFINING TERMS & SCOPE
All three panelists highlighted the significance of defining phrases throughout negotiations and contracts. Practically all contract disputes boil right down to disagreement on how a time period was outlined. Within the context of sports activities regulation, defining phrases contains detailing precisely what content material is included inside a contract for model rights.
A further concern for the panelists is to contemplate the scope of the media rights on the desk. This encompasses the place the video games will air, whether or not that’s on cable and broadcast tv or streaming companies and social media platforms. The latter technique of consuming sports activities has created a brand new technique of defining the scope of rights: whether or not to contemplate and embody new and rising applied sciences in these media rights offers. This side of the scope of rights is ever-evolving, and the panelists didn’t specify any shift towards a regular for inclusion of latest and rising applied sciences. Additionally included in scope of rights negotiations are geographic concerns. The panelists and people with whom they’re negotiating will usually talk about the related U.S. places included inside the deal in query. When the Worldwide Olympic Committee is on the negotiation desk, nonetheless, the attorneys should outline the place nationwide protection ends, and different nations’ broadcasting rights start.
The scope of media rights additionally should outline which sports activities occasions are included within the rights deal. For instance, Mr. Goodman mentioned his expertise in defining whether or not their NBC’s rights to the Olympic video games embody each summer time and winter Olympics or only one.
EVOLVING ALONGSIDE TECHNOLOGY
One of many panelists articulated “sports activities consumption is the one factor working for media corporations recently.” Many media corporations are discovering that, on this fashionable age of know-how, offering recreation content material, each within the type of quick clips posted on social media and streaming dwell matches on-line, pulls in additional viewers than different, extra conventional types of media resembling tv and information broadcasting. The struggle for brief type media has additionally opened up new exclusivity discussions inside media rights negotiations, resembling who has the suitable to submit and/or air quick type content material resembling clips from video games, when these with rights are capable of submit the clips (throughout or after the dwell footage of the sport), and on which social media platforms they’ll submit clips and movies.
Mr. Goodman talked about the difficulties regional sports activities networks (RSNs) face in regards to the present streaming-focused mannequin. Cable utilization has strongly declined and RSNs can not broadcast sports activities occasions the identical approach or on the identical channels as earlier than. The rise of streaming companies like Peacock as customers’ most popular technique to observe video games has pushed this shift. Moreover, many sports activities leagues have moved their media rights deal-making and broadcasting in-house. For instance, the NFL has taken every part in-house, and no native broadcasters have rights to their video games. Just a few leagues, just like the NHL, proceed to make use of RSNs.
When requested if know-how and simpler entry to sports activities have shifted priorities for corporations like NBC, Mr. Goodman acknowledged NBC is a most engaging accomplice for media rights now, because it’s the one platform to broadcast in a complementary method. This complementary relationship exists as a result of NBC has positioned a foot within the shrinking world of cable and broadcast tv in addition to within the on-line streaming service world through Peacock TV. By doing this, everybody, together with licensors, licensees, and customers, wins.
For instance, Peacock was the unique location to view the 2024 Olympics. Via this association, cable viewers might watch the Olympics on their regular broadcast channels whereas the “cord-cutters,” somebody who chooses to cease subscribing to cable tv, might watch occasions by Peacock’s on-line streaming service. With the rise in streaming companies and new applied sciences comes elevated competitors. Regardless of this, NBC has persevered and located methods to maintain their foothold within the sports activities broadcasting sphere, together with producing content material for different streaming platforms like Amazon Prime.
RECENT WNBA & NBA MEDIA RIGHTS DEAL
Mr. Goodman shared that the NBA, WNBA, and USA Basketball had been all on the negotiation desk for the WNBA’s new media rights deal, working collectively to create a mutually useful resolution. Mr. Goodman highlighted the significance of the NBA’s inclusion of themselves on the negotiation desk in addition to their funding within the WNBA for promotion of girls’s sports activities as effectively. NBC holds the WNBA video games’ media rights starting within the 2026 season.
The Fourth Annual BESLS’ Sports activities Regulation Symposium was an fascinating and cutting-edge occasion, and BESLS thanks all the panelists, moderators, and attendees for making the day a hit!
Lexi Svarczkopf is a member of Brooklyn Regulation Faculty’s Class of 2028
