Utah High School Activities Association Prevents Free Access to Football Games
It is great that SFCN is so connected to our community that we feel
residents frustration over things we have absolutely no control over. Twitter,
Facebook and our email accounts have comments from residents (some with our
cable service and some without) about our lack of coverage of Maple Mountain
football's playoff games.
We would carry every game if the Utah High School Activities Association
would allow it. We broadcast, live, the first round game against Provo and
planned on carrying the second round game. The UHSAA promptly informed us
that we could NOT broadcast the game because they had sold the rights to a
company that charges to have it streamed over the Internet. No amount of
pleading for our residents to be able to watch the game free had any effect.
Our contention is that High School Sports are NOT big business and should be
made available for free! We offer the games we produce free of charge on
channel SF17, but also on sfcn.org, Youtube, and KSL Digital streaming. So we
not only talk the talk, but we walk the walk. High School sports are different
than college sports. The students have to attend school, they have very
limited choices of where they can go, and the money made from exclusive
contracts, does not go back to the high school sports programs, but is used
internally by the UHSAA.
We treat high school activities different in our communities. We go to
great lengths to support them and the student participants. Making the
activities only available on pay-per-view hurts the connection with the
community, and in the long run hurts the high school programs. The UHSAA
should be required to make sure the programming that these student provide is
available free of charge. We have no problem not covering a game when it is
covered by someone else and made available for free. In the past, we have paid
for broadcast rights even if they wouldn't allow us to stream it on the
Internet. This time they wouldn't even allow us to broadcast the game on our
local channel.
If you don't agree with the direction the UHSAA has decided to go, then you
need to contact your local State Legislator. The UHSAA is a quasi government
entity and can only be controlled by the State legislature. Tell them
something has to be done to make sure our kids aren't exploited and that the
programs they participate in and that the community does so much to support,
should be available for free.
John Bowcut
SFCN Director
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