flrunners.com

Just so you all know... we will be pulling all of the high school state meet videos off of the site. So if you want to watch them, watch them now. They'll be all taken down within the next 24-48 hours.

They informed us that they have signed an exclusive video deal with PlayOn Network, which did the live stream. It was never explained to us (nor our friends at Flotrack who are pulling their video as well) that this was the case; I was under the impression that PlayOn had the LIVE streaming rights... but that we could post our videos after. Apparently not.

I'm trying to gain a full understanding of what we can and can't do. We can show interviews (with some race footage behind it) and highlights... but not entire races.

It's very disappointing to us and Todd is really bummed about it. We put a lot of work and money for staff into producing them. And you all want to see them. I am not happy with the user experience that this will create... now you have the entire 6 hour broadcast and you have to skip around in it to try to find your race. Rather than what we offered... being able to pull your race up exclusively. But it is out of our hands.

Sorry y'all.

Sorry to hear that. The videos were very well done. I don't know the law in this area but it does seems very restrictive in this case.

That sucKs jason:(
I know how hard you guys work.
On the same token, it doesn't suprise me that fhsaa don't have their ducks in a row.

Totally ridiculous and in poor taste. First the "no water bottles" rules and now this. You guys did an excellent job, sorry about that decision. These discussion boards relating to the feedback from the state meets this year should be printed and hand delivered to the FHSAA so they can wake up and smell the coffee.

I will be glad to give a copy to Coach V and send one to the FHSAA (or get one to Coach Halliday. Maybe we can get some movement on these issues!

I was there for all 4 of the meets beginning to end. I was in the press box and the media/locker room repeatedly and never once did I see or was I told about this. Glad I don't have to take down the photos!

@jason I'd stake my reputation as a lawyer on the fact that... wait, I'm not a lawyer. Anyway, I'm pretty sure you have no problem as long as the videos are on the free portion of the site. They can ASK you all they want, but I dont believe they can compel you to remove the videos unless you are "selling" them. They are essentially personal videos displayed for personal use (again, unless you are selling them).

@dugco As part of being a credentialed member of the media for an event like the FHSAA (or Olympics, USATF Championships, etc, etc) meet you agree to the rules they place on you. You can read those rules here: www.fhsaa.org/sites/default/files/at11_media_0.pdf

Failure to abide by their rules can (and has - I've seen USATF do it) prevent people from being credentialed for future events.

It doesn't shock me that the FHSAA poorly communicated this need but that's how they roll.

An example: As part of my agreement for credentials for the US Olympic Marathon Trials back in January I (I work for another running website) had to agree that any and all video we shot at the event be removed from our website before the Olympics begin in late July. Yes, even interviews - we didn't even have race videos. It's ridiculous that even interviews have to be removed but those were the rules laid out by NBC and the USOC.

Are you allowed to keep up videos of the interviews? since they were not actually part of the competition?

@cnick Thanks, that is a thorough policy there... replays indeed must be in their entirety - interesting. I shall withdraw my legal advice. I guess its the whole media outlet deal thats the kicker.

@floridapolevault Interviews as I understand are not part of the competition and therefore can stay posted.

Two factors may be involved here. The first is money. The FHSAA is selling DVDs of each meet on their website. Jason's videos are competing with their revenue. The second is that I and others have pointed out some problems with the meet that you can observe when watching the videos. Some would say that they are "destroying the evidence".

Just my $.02

@coachemorris Actually... a little true, but not really. So what happened is PlayOn Network paid the FHSAA a large sum of money for ALL of the state championships. They have the exclusive right to every sport. Most likely, they don't really care about track. They mainly bought it for football, basketball, etc... but they get all the other sports lumped in as well.

The rules of what we could and could not do and post were clearly designed for sports that were a "game"... not "events". But we get lumped in with them. I am disappointed but not surprised... this is the way things are going. We have seen it at other meets. New Balance Outdoor Nationals, for example, they have had similar restrictions on this in the past.

If someone has exclusive rights and do a good job and provide a good product... I still wish that we could do it for our sake... but as long as the need is being served well. But in this case I really resent it because the niche sports are getting screwed over and covered rather poorly (since it's not broken down by event) all because of getting lumped with sports with balls.

@coachemorris P.S... This company (PlayOn) has already bought out similar deals in 15 other states.

@jason

I watched a Sherlock Holmes movie on PBS last night and that probably helped me hatch my "conspiracy theory"! LOL

Thanks for the info!

@jason Have you contacted Play On sports to request their permission to show your videos?

While I certainly agree with the sentiment expressed in this thread, I feel a need to play devil's advocate and show the validity of the 'other side'. PlayOn paid money to have exclusive rights to the video. Even if Jason only showed the videos on the 'free part' of flrunners, he is still denying them the ability to market THEIR product with no competition. Plus, Jason's ads are seen by people coming here to watch State videos, so he IS profiting by their presence.

Capitalism, by its very nature, needs to 'beat' the competition in order to be profitable, so denying PlayOn its exclusivity is actually rather anti-American ( to push it to the extreme).

I do, however, totally agree that this was done with football, basketball, baseball in mind, and as usual, Track & Field, as a 'niche sport', once again gets the short end of the stick.

FHSAA needs to understand that flrunners.com is THE BEST state resource for HS Track & Field (and XC), and as such, needs not only to be befriended and respected, but SUPPORTED, if their (FHSAA) mission is truly to serve the needs of the state's HS athletes.

FWIW, it looks like PlayOn Sports is making an attempt to put individual races on their YouTube channel here.

@cnick Thanks for the heads up... that's a positive thing. Looks like they have quite a few 1A on there... guess they're working forward.

I created my own record of a few races by e-mailing them to myself.

For those that are unaware, the videos for the entire meet 1A-4A (live feed) can be watched at: on FHSAA SPORTS At least for now, these can be watched for free. It is pretty easy to scroll to an event if you have a good idea of the order of events, and the quality of the videos is good.

@BConvey www.downloadhelper.net/

BConvey

For those that are unaware, the videos for the entire meet 1A-4A (live feed) can be watched at: on FHSAA SPORTS At least for now, these can be watched for free. It is pretty easy to scroll to an event if you have a good idea of the order of events, and the quality of the videos is good.

@BConvey

Thanks!