It’s pretty obvious that the major sports orgs haven’t the slightest clue what it is they’re trying to protect. The value derived from having an exclusive control over footage longer than 45 seconds will get you a cup of coffee at Evil Green Dot if you contribute three bucks. Stringent controls only serve to weaken a media product’s popularity, because the popularity is sustained solely by keeping the public’s attention. No video yields no attention, no attention yields no push into the public conscious, no share in the public conscious means that nobody gives a crap.

Here’s a suggestion to the sporting league execs. Listen to your _fans_, not your bean counters. Bean counters don’t add value. Fans add value. Happy fans add more value.