At last night’s meeting, the Homer-Center School Board heard from Mark Bertig of Renda Media and Digital about an issue concerning high school sports coverage
During public comment, Bertig voiced his concern about an agreement in place with the NFHS network, but unbeknownst to some school boards, the contracts include exclusivities that would bar local media from broadcasting high school sports, especially away games. Bertig said that those exclusivities would harm local broadcasters, especially if the NFHS changes from a subscription-based service to a free service.
Bertig said he would like to see the board overturn the contract, but James McLoughlin said that there is one concern that he has, and that is the cost to break the contract with NFHS.
Bertig also said that state government is looking at a bill recently passed in Oklahoma that grants visiting teams in all regular high school sports the same rights to a radio broadcast, video stream or play-by-play coverage as the home team, but he added that the state may be stricter with its version.
Homer-Center Superintendent Curtis Whitesel said he will talk with NFHS officials next week about the issue. Bertig said further discussion is planned with other school districts, including the Indiana Area School District next week.
Comments