I have been fairly critical about the NFL’s lockdown policy on their video content. In short, it seems to me the NFL has everything to gain and very little to lose by allowing embedding of the league’s online video content.
But with the launch of the league’s new channel, NFL RedZone (which, by the way, is fantastic), it appears that policy may be eroding. In order to build awareness of the channel and drive demand, the NFL has launched the NFL RedZone Re-Cutter. The Re-Cutter is an online tool that lets users mash up video, photos and music into their own custom-made NFL highlight reel.
Most importantly, though, you can embed your creations. Here’s mine:
While this is a significant development, it feels cautious. As I’ve said, it hasn’t been widely promoted and, as you can see from the video above, they are not giving just anyone the ability to embed the video: Just the creators. So you, dear reader, cannot grab my wonderful Vikings highlight reel and paste it into your own blog.
Time will tell but the NFL RedZone Re-Cutter feels a bit like a temporary tool for temporary promotional purposes. Let’s hope otherwise.
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