By: Joe Strupp A new online service promising exclusive video highlights of NBA, NHL, NASCAR and other sports events debuted today, with the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News as its first newspaper client.
CineSport, based in New York, has obtained licensing agreements with those pro basketball and hockey leagues, as well as NASCAR and Collegiate Images for video reports that the company is now marketing to all news Web sites, including newspapers.
"Beginning this fall, for the first time ever, video highlights of professional and college sports events will be available to all websites courtesy of CineSport, the first online producer and syndicator of sports video news and highlights," the company declared in a press release. "Because of limitations on video rights within the sports industry, such content has never before been available to websites, including those of daily newspapers, local television and radio stations."
Aaron Knox, sports channel manager for Philly.com, the Inquirer and Daily News Web site, confirmed his company had contracted with CineSport for videos, saying "it is on a wait and see basis. They have some NBA and some golf." But, he noted, the lack of NFL video limits the service's reach. "It will be a big issue moving forward," he said.
Knox pointed out that a new NFL video restriction has made use of such video online more difficult. The NFL policy, implemented last month, restricts Web sites from using more than 45 seconds of NFL video each day, requires that it be removed within 24 hours, bars archiving any of the video, and requires a link to the NFL.com site, Knox said.
Despite the lack of NFL, or Major League Baseball agreements, CineSport contends its service will be successful. "CineSport combines the power of sports content with the exploding demand for broadband video," Gregg Winik, CineSport founder and CEO, said in a statement. "CineSport will bring premium sports video with high production values to casual sports fans. This distributed content model will prove to be the wave of future."
Winik is a former executive vice president and executive producer at NBA Entertainment.
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