Instead, TV stations were required to get sideline footage from a pool photographer or use the network television clips. Under a change in policy, the NFL now plans to allow up to 10 local TV cameras generally five from each teams media market on the sidelines of games for its 2007-2008 season. The change was approved last week by NFL teams at a conference in Phoenix and announced at a Missouri Senate hearing on legislation targeting the former policy.
With one camera on the sideline, it put a heavy burden on that one station to make tapes available and share it with so many other stations, Aiello said. We can do this in a more efficient way. The NFL had described the camera restrictions as a way to make the sidelines safer and less crowded while also protecting the NFL s property rights to the game video.
All of those goals are still met with the expanded number of sideline cameras, Aiello said. Legislation filed in Missouri would have forced the NFL to allow local TV cameras on the sidelines of games hosted by the Kansas City Chiefs and St. Louis Rams, on the justification they play in publicly subsidized stadiums.
An Arizona lawmaker had proposed a similar measure affecting sideline TV cameras at Arizona Cardinals games. The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which represents some journalists, also had backed the Missouri legislation. Regional executive director John Miller said the NFL s new 10-camera policy seems like a reasonable compromise.
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