Sports broadcasters are steaming and one state senator is threatening legislative action because of a proposed University policy to limit the length of sports highlights on television newscasts.
Although broadcasters statewide believe the proposal violates their freedom of speech rights, they are waiting until it becomes actual University policy before deciding how their stations will cover Duck sports events in the future.
The proposal aims to restrict broadcasts to 20 seconds of game highlights and 20 seconds of interviews during the 48 hours after any Duck game. Special shows outside a daily sports report during news broadcasts would receive 30 seconds of each.
The Athletic Department held a public hearing last week and is still talking to broadcasters statewide before making a final draft of the policy, which is projected to be ready by August.
But Sen. Rick Metsger, D-Welches, a former Portland sportscaster, has already threatened legislative action if the University’s final draft isn’t in stark contrast to the current proposed limits.
Bill Johnstone, the president of the Oregon Association of Broadcasters, said his organization may also seek legal action if the proposal goes through.
Contention over who has dibs on Duck highlights started last fall. ESPN Regional Sports, in the middle of a five-year exclusive contract with Duck sports, allows footage to be aired on KEZI, Eugene’s ABC affiliate.
Both ESPN and ABC are owned by the Disney Corporation.
But CBS affiliate KVAL, which had the University sports contract until the 1999-2000 school year, continued to show Duck football game footage on its “Inside the PAC” show, which highlights all teams in the Pacific-10 Conference.
Assistant Athletic Director Dave Heeke said ESPN complained that KVAL’s show infringed on the national network’s rights.
“We have a disgruntled rights holder in this market,” Heeke said. “We have a responsibility to protect the rights they hold.”
But KVAL General Manager Dave Weinkauf said that during the last two years of its contract, KEZI aired a Duck football show after Monday Night Football. Weinkauf said KVAL asked the University to examine whether the show violated the contract, but never asked the school to adopt restrictions for other stations.
The proposal has also sparked a philosophical debate between the University and broadcasters over whether it violates First Amendment rights or simply protects the rights of the school’s primary contract holder.
Susan Kelley, the general manager and vice president of KTVL in Medford, said the proposal will likely keep the station’s sportscasters from coming to Eugene at all. She said a seven-hour round trip and another three or four hours filming wouldn’t be worth the drive.
“The likelihood and reality is that the Beavers will get more TV time by virtue of the University’s actions,” Kelley said.
She added that the proposal would violate broadcasters’ First Amendment rights against prior restraint by restricting the free ability to air footage.
“This is over the line as far as we’re concerned. You just can’t go there,” she said. “This really isn’t about the video.”
But University General Counsel Melinda Grier said that as long as the school only restricts access and not the content of the footage sportscasters choose to run, Kelley, Weinkauf and other TV journalists’ First Amendment arguments don’t hold water.
“This is a venue where access can be and is restricted,” Grier said. “What we’re saying is you can choose what to show, but there’s a limit on how much.”
Heeke agreed that the University can and must honor ESPN’s contracted status to carry the games and keep other outlets from having the same level of access.
“I do think [broadcasters] have confused the general public to the issues,” he said. “But this wouldn’t be a problem if KVAL stopped doing special programming.”
Weinkauf said he thinks the University, not his station, needs to make the next step to resolve the issue.
“The next move is in the University of Oregon’s court, and we’ll see what they have to say,” he said.