Federal copyright law allows sports bars to show NFL games on screens larger than 55″, but churches are not extended the same luxury, says the Washington Post:
“There is a part of me that says, ‘Gee, doesn’t the NFL have enough money already?’” said Steve Holley, Immanuel’s executive pastor. He pointed out that bars are still allowed to air the game on big-screens TV sets. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
The Super Bowl, the most secular of American holidays, has long been popular among churches. With parties, prayer and Christian DVDs replacing the occasionally racy halftime shows, churches use the event as a way to reach members, and potential new members, in a non-churchlike atmosphere.
“It takes people who are not coming frequently, or who have fallen away, and shows them that the church can still have some fun,” said the Rev. Thomas Omholt, senior pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in the District. Omholt has hosted a Super Bowl party for young adults in his home for 20 years. “We can be a little less formal.”
The NFL said, however, that the copyright law on its games is long-standing and the language read at the end of each game is well known: “This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience. Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL’s consent is prohibited.”
The league bans public exhibitions of its games on TV sets or screens larger than 55 inches because smaller sets limit the audience size. The section of federal copyright law giving the NFL protection over the content of its programming exempts sports bars, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said.
The issue came to a head last year after the NFL sent a letter to Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis, warning the church not show the Super Bowl on a giant video screen. For years, the church had held a Super Bowl party in its auditorium, attracting about 400 people and showing the game on a big screen usually reserved for hymn lyrics.
The letter “was really a disturbing thing,” said Marlene Broome, a spokeswoman for the church.
Hmmm. Anyone know how to legally transform a church into a sports bar?
NFL Pulls Plug On Big-Screen Church Parties For Super Bowl [Washington Post]
(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
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This is like when Disney issued a “cease and desist” order to a Kindergarten teacher for showing “The Little Mermaid” video to her class.
@axiomatic: Fool! I’m going to record the broadcast, and skip the game so I can watch the comermcials! Take that NFL!
@choinski: That’s my question, too. I don’t understand why the NFL is protective about where and how their free broadcast is viewed — is it not supported by advertisers who might pay more for a larger audience without all these viewing restrictions?
Am I missing something?
And Jesus wept.
Because he couldn’t watch.
uh oh, the NFL better sue my school too. last year we brought out the projector and a bunch of ppl in my dorm watched the superbowl on about an 80″ screen. sily us thinking we could watch a television broadcast however we wanted…
[www.flickr.com]
…further proving we are a country of morons.
Anybody with even a small bit of sense would tell the NFL to go pound grass. Instead we line up to purchase NFL-approved clothing (at unbelievable prices), NFL tickets (at even more inflated prices, in stadiums YOUR TAX DOLLARS helped build), and discuss this game (and, heaven forbid, the commercials) as if it were actual life and death.
What happened to the good old days when radio stations could say SUPER BOWL and all we had to talk about was the latest sign that Britney is on the fast track to permanent psychosis?
We’re having our usual super bowl party too: great food and Monty Python movies. If this is a problem, I want John Cleese to show up and tell me himself.
Bread and circuses.
So… how does a sport bar get permission to show it?? And why? Because they sell Budweiser which is probably a major endorser of the Super Bowl?? I don’t get it. Oh well. Don’t care. I’ll be able to go out and not have to wait in lines on Sunday! Best part of Super Bowl Sunday.
The church should counter sue the NFL. Doesn’t the NFL use Church or God in their games on Sunday? They should get a royalty every time the “Hail Mary Pass” is used. Or team prayers or any time a player makes a religious reference they need to add to the collection plate.
What if it was a church of scientology event and the NFL tried to sue? That would be funny. Scientology lawyer to NFL lawyer: “What are your crimes?”. The NFL lawyer tackles the Scientology lawyer. A fight breaks out. More lawsuits.
@B: Without going into a big song and dance about your comment, the short answer is that most churches understand how important the big game is for some folks. So they will accommodate. Besides, pastors want to watch the game too.
@synergy: I think that’s exactly it…people are coming in droves to drink beer. That’s how they are making their money.
I bet if the church offered piss-water Budweiser (Seriously, how can any one drink it?), Tostito chips, Pepsi products, it would be exempt.
@laserjobs:
Rick Warren needs that 11-bedroom house.
Laws are laws, no matter how restrictive and capricious. A church, of all businesses, should try to uphold the law of the land. And YES, churches are BIG business. BIG!
On one hand you have copyright. It’s important for them to be able to retain rights to their work.
However, on the other hand they are broadcasting the game over OUR public airwaves and making millions by selling advertising during the game.
So yeah, screw ‘em. Show the game on as large a screen as you want.
I am amazed at how this discussion became (for some people) a “churches shouldn’t need money or resources that make them relevant to today” issue.
People expect people who go to church to be backward and awkward people who are clueless about what is going on in the world, but as soon as we start doing things that just might be “normal” for people we’re told that we should be doing “you know, church things on Sunday.”
While I’m not a fan of churches using it as an opportunity to preach at a captive audience it is an opportunity to provide a place for people who don’t want to go to a crowded sports bar but want to watch it in a group with others – there are a lot of awkward and lonely people in every city that would just LOVE a place to watch the game in a group.
All that being said, I appreciate that the church I attend here in DC is showing the game and has jumped through the hoops to do it legally because we want to serve the community.
Oh, and Sunday isn’t the sabbath anyhow…
@DMDDallas: With new members who, in turn, pay “penance” to the church they are making a profit. It’s not directly related to this, and the NFL really shouldn’t care, because they already got paid for the money advertisers spent on their spots and whatnot, but it’s the legal confines that they have put in place and it runs before every game, so you have to abide by them.
In-home use I’m sure they don’t care if you have a HUGE TV, because they wouldn’t have a way to know other than one is a residence and one is a church/business. If you’re a business, and someone finds out you’re working outside the legal parameters, then they have the right to go after you. I do know of a couple sports bars in my area that have screens that are nearly the size of movie screens, they would likely get in a lot of trouble if Johnny Law were to come after them for this.
@jaysonwhelpley: It’s usually arrogant atheists who scoff people who have any religion. Mostly because they have no sense why anyone could possibly have a personal belief or faith different than what they find to be factual.
They find it increasingly difficult to just let others live their own life without putting them down.
i thought Christmas was the most secular holiday. People pray for their team to win the superbowl.
Shhh! Our church had a superbowl party. We even called it a superbowl party. The screen was bigger than 55″. There were about 300 people there. Jesus was there too.
Hmm church and fun- does not compute. I thought church was meant to be a torturous experiance where you wish you would get smited. You know just to have something to do other than listen to the mindless drivel the preacher spews….
@fett387:
Who was Jesus rooting for? Did he fall asleep during the halftime show? And did he play some role getting that e*trade baby to talk? And making the lizards dance?
So many questions.
@Consumerist Moderator – ACAMBRAS: He did fall asleep! But we woke him up for the last five or ten minutes of the game. So I guess there are more praying giants than praying patriots.