Free Access Or NewsSelect?
Web surfers are increasingly concerned that their access to news content is being limited. The advent of TimesSelect invoked the ire of many Web users when what was once free became $49.95 a year. That got us wondering: do news networks’ Web sites offer enough access to the video content that is on television? In particular, we wondered why none of the networks carry any free video of broadcasts online in their entirety.
At CBS News, “the reason is that we have agreements with affiliates that entitle them to exclusivity of the product -- including entertainment, news and sports -- and that agreement stipulates specifically under what circumstances we can ‘repurpose’ previously broadcast material on other platforms” such as the web, said Preston Farr, senior vice president of affiliate relations at CBS. The exceptions within those agreements stipulate that the network can use pieces of news broadcasts, but not entire programs.
At CBS News, “the reason is that we have agreements with affiliates that entitle them to exclusivity of the product -- including entertainment, news and sports -- and that agreement stipulates specifically under what circumstances we can ‘repurpose’ previously broadcast material on other platforms” such as the web, said Preston Farr, senior vice president of affiliate relations at CBS. The exceptions within those agreements stipulate that the network can use pieces of news broadcasts, but not entire programs.
