Brooklyn Sports activities & Leisure Legislation Weblog

On Friday, November 11^th the Brooklyn Leisure and Sports activities Legislation Society and the Mental Property Legislation Affiliation hosted the second annual Brooklyn Legislation Faculty Sports activities Legislation Symposium. The symposium theme was “Sports activities Mental Property in a Time of Disruption” and had many college students, college, practitioners, household and buddies in attendance. The occasion was a fantastic success and BESLS and IPLA are already excited for subsequent 12 months!

The third panel of the day, “The Way forward for Sports activities Broadcasting,” offered perception into streaming companies, artistic improvement, and broadcast licensing. Anthony Iliakostas (Supervisor of ABC Information Rights and Clearances; Adjunct Professor at New York Legislation Faculty) moderated the panel and was joined by Michelle Torres (Senior Counsel at NBC Sports activities), Bretta Oluyede (Counsel at Youtube), and Laurie Curnes (Senior Director in ESPN’s company technique group).

The panel was kicked off with a common dialogue on the enterprise of sports activities content material licensing, and Anthony highlighted shopper frustrations with blackouts and geographical limitations. Regardless of the clear frustration and hurt to shoppers, the panelists articulated how such constraints are important for content material high quality and the trade’s survival. With out blackouts, unique licenses, and geographical limitations, the networks and streaming companies wouldn’t have the ability to extract the mandatory promoting income to maintain producing and buying high-quality content material for shoppers.

Subsequent, the panelists mentioned the connection between sports activities leagues, manufacturing corporations, and broadcast networks. Since leagues personal the copyright to important footage however lack the manufacturing and broadcasting capabilities, they want manufacturing and networks to additional their product. General, networks want the league’s mental property, and the leagues want the producer’s experience and the community’s content material outlet. This working, mutually helpful relationship is the behind-the-scenes to the various sports activities documentaries we’re seeing at this time.

Lastly, the panel concluded with a dialogue on the evolution of the sports activities broadcasting trade. Whereas the trade and content material licensing are nonetheless dominated by rights to recreation broadcasts (NFL Sunday, NBA on TNT, School Gameday, and many others.), there was a rise in different types of sports activities tv leisure. From Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” to HBO’s “Exhausting Knocks,” followers and networks aren’t simply looking for the video games being performed. Such distinctive broadcasts present leagues and groups with elevated income stemming from their mental property. Additional, networks and streaming companies not have to depend on stay recreation rights as their sole sports activities content material. This evolving trade has offered new types of enterprise for leagues, groups, networks and streaming companies, and new types of leisure for sports activities followers.

BESLS, IPLA, and everybody in attendance wish to thank the panelists and moderator for an insightful dialog on the world of sports activities broadcasting.

Written by: Daniel Erber
Daniel is a 2023 J.D. Candidate at Brooklyn Legislation Faculty