NFL is exempting its TV rights holders from the league’s controversial (read: moronic) rule prohibiting media outlets from posting more than 45 seconds a day of online video involving team personnel shot at team facilities, reports SBJ (sub. req.). This means Fox, CBS, ESPN and NBC will be subject to a different set of rules than say a newspaper website…the exact mechanics of how this will work could be announced this week, the story says.

The networks’ argument: the four have paid averaging more than $3 billion a year over the life of the contracts, and that should buy them more latitude for online video than an unaffiliated media outlet that pays the NFL nothing. So that it will be, as NFL has grudgingly recognized. But game highlights, the most coveted piece of it all, still will not be permitted on the network sites. (via LR)

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