Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Monday night Football

This is topic Monday night Football in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 11-05-2013, 11:06 AM:

Looking around on the web and facebook, I see TONS of indoor theatres and drive-ins now showing Monday night football, even Thursday night football and some college games on-screen with their new digital projectors. All of them have NO ADMISSION PRICE for watching the game, but do they need to have "express written consent from the National Football League...." in order to legally do this?

Somebody explain how this is done and what legal steps you would need to take to make it happen.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 11-05-2013, 11:26 AM:

I don't know how a traditional drive-in or indoor movie theater can get away with showing Monday Night Football or Thursday Night Football. I would think the theater would have to pay some sort of fee to ESPN or the NFL Network (or even the NFL itself).

Perhaps there's some kind of legal wiggle room theaters can exploit. Countless numbers of bars & restaurants have flat screen HDTV sets mounted all over the place showing sports programming. The programming is free to watch for the people coming in for the food and drinks. AFAIK they're not paying anything since the programming is just what happens to be playing on regular cable at the time.

Still, I wonder. A residential customer will pay around $60 for a pay per view event like a UFC title card. A restaurant or bar has to pay a LOT more for the same PPV show (I've heard prices of $1000 or $2000 from a restaurant manager friend).

I also don't know if there are different product tiers that have to be purchased. For instance does a restaurant or bar with DirecTV service pay a different fee for the NFL Sunday Ticket subscription versus what a residential customer would pay?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-05-2013, 01:47 PM:

Cable and satellite services have commercial packages that cost somewhat more than home owners pay.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 11-05-2013, 03:17 PM:

Isn't there some limit on the screen size, though? A 32" TV set in a bar (which is probably the intended market for "commercial" cable subscriptions) is clearly not the same thing as a 40' screen in a movie theatre....

Posted by Frank B. McLaughlin (Member # 6683) on 11-06-2013, 08:51 AM:

The package from the cable company does not restrict screen size.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 11-06-2013, 09:21 AM:

quote: Scott Norwood
Isn't there some limit on the screen size, though? A 32" TV set in a bar (which is probably the intended market for "commercial" cable subscriptions) is clearly not the same thing as a 40' screen in a movie theatre....

I might see an old 32" CRT TV set in some dive bar. Most places around here courting the sports bar crowd are going as big as they possibly can with their TV sets and installing as many as they can afford.

OTOH, it's interesting to see which bars & restaurants actually bother to feed all those flat screen TV sets a native HD signal. At least half or more of them pipe in a crappy SD signal and stretch it. Those people might as well have kept their old SD projection screen setups if they wanted to do that. Standard definition content only looks good on a standard definition TV set.
[Roll Eyes]

Honestly, it's 2013 now. Nearly 2014. "HD" should really be considered the new "standard definition" and the old 480i/480p stuff eliminated. At the very least the stupid cable companies need to stop charging people extra for HD and do away with separate SD/HD subscription tiers. It's bullshit. With certain electronics companies now selling 4K resolution TV sets it's just going to add more confusion, not to mention the truly shitty spectre of some idiot buying a high end 4K Ultra HDTV and feeding it a 480p SD signal.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 11-20-2013, 05:16 PM:

I see a lot of restaurants with widescreen TVs showing a 4x3 letterboxed feed of ESPN with the TV in stretch mode, so everyone is short and fat AND you still get the dreaded "black bars" on the top and bottom. I've heard of people stretching 4x3 content because they don't like the bars on the side. If I go to a restaurant that does this, I don't leave a tip [Smile]

It cracks me up that evidently the cable companies are still carrying 4x3 analog feeds of broadcast stations, even though those have been off the air for 4 years now- they're just taking the HD signal and cropping it. I gave up on cable a LONG time ago though...