NFL shuts down church's Super Bowl Bash, ratings to blame
By Darren Murph 
posted Feb 1st 2007 4:59PM
posted Feb 1st 2007 4:59PM
C'mon folks, everyone and their grandmother will likely be watching the Super Bowl this coming Sunday (even across the pond), and even if you have no interest in the Colts, Bears, or large men in awkward suits, someone in your family probably feels otherwise. Nevertheless, the NFL showcased its mighty power (and terrible decision making) by condemning Fall Creek Baptist Church's "Super Bowl Bash," saying that advertising a fee-based party that utilized "license-protected words" was against regulations. Furthermore, ditching the door charge and the taboo language wasn't good enough to solve the problem, as "the law" limits Super Bowl (wait, can we say that now?) party TVs to a quantity of one, and that single set must not be over 55-inches. Needless to say, we don't doubt that good few of you fine, law-abiding, tax-paying citizens will be catching the big game with a couple of your friends on your 60-inch plasma (or 100-inch projection screen), but we'd highly recommend building an underground bunker between now and Sunday to make sure your plans are safe. Of course, bars and other eateries are somehow exempt from this bogus rule, and as expected, all the grumbling stems from Nielsen's obvious inability to estimate just how many folks are watching a single tube on this advertisers' dream night, but ratings drops or not, we wouldn't mess with Touchdown Jesus.
Well, bars and eateries can't advertise with "Super Bowl" either, unless they've paid a licensing fee. They can talk about "the big game" and the like, though. Everyone knows what they're talking about, but if their signs or ads say "Super Bowl" without permission, they're breaking the law. Does it happen anyway? Yup. Does the NFL stomp on such violations whenever they see them? Yup.
I'm really amused by the one-TV rule, and the 55" limit, though. :-)
"In the name of Nielsen's ratings, I command thee to repent of watching the S***** B*** on your projection screens in public worship places, lest ye actually have fun without getting drunk." NFL High Priest
I thought Nielsen's ratings were designed to measure our viewer habits, not to control them. What a shame.
What kind of BS is this? If the signal is coming in free OTA, then I should be able to do what ever I want with the stream as long as I am not redistributing it.
Anyway guess I will be sticking it to the NFL this weekend watching the game on my 70".
"The accounts and descriptions of this broadcast are intended for the private, non-commercial use of our audience." Sound familiar?
The NFL holds the copyright on the broadcast. If they want to prevent you from making money off their copyrighted property (and their trademarked phrase "Super Bowl"), that's their right. If they want to impose restrictions on what they'll let you get away with if your use of the broadcast is public and/or commercial, that's their right. If they want to risk adverse publicity for the sake of collecting tiny amounts of licensing fees that most people evade anway, I can't understand why they'd make that business decision, but it's their right too.
This is ridiculious....You know TV sets are getting bigger and more ppl are opting to watch big events at home or in the community i.e bars, churches, etc. The NFL better start looking at their policies real hard b/c its not hard for them to slip into the boxing category. PPl dont watch boxing b/c the fighters are bad, its b/c boxing dont want ppl to watch its sport w/ all their overbearing regulations. You know the NFL aint going to every community setting up superbowl parties for ppl. Throwing a superbowl isnt cheap either, and to get the full NFL experience now u gotta have surround sound, HD, etc. all very expensive equipment. This incident wont be the one, but one day they'll make a mistake and sit back and say u know we lost the American ppl's support b/c we decided to give more respect to money than to our own ppl. I dont attend church regularly but I feel that this is total disrespect to SB fans.