The NFL’s Social Media Policy Relaxes

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Seven weeks ago, the NFL changed their social media policy to prohibit teams from posting videos and GIF of game footage. On December 2, Yahoo Finance shared a memo from the league about updated to the NFL’s social media policy.

NFL and social media

The NFL is known for being the strictest American professional sports league. They regulate everything from post-touchdown celebrations to the artwork on players’ shoes. It’s no surprise that the NFL’s social media policy would be strict as well, but they took it a bit too far in October.

 

Previous policy

The policy implemented in October prohibited teams from posting game-time video in any format, including live streams, GIFs and highlight compilations. Teams were allowed to re-share game time video if the NFL shared it on their internal server first. Teams could be fined up to $100,000 for violating the NFL’s social media policy.

The NFL wasn’t against having videos on social media. They have a Snapchat Discover tab, they have a YouTube channel and live stream Thursday Night Football on Twitter.

NFL’s social media policy updates

On December 2, Yahoo Finance obtained the NFL memo about policy updates. Here are some highlights:

  1. Giphy will host all GIFs posted by the NFL through June 2017. The NFL is calling this a “test agreement,” so it is unclear how permanent the agreement is.
  2. Teams can now post 16 videos per game day on each platform. Previously, teams could only post eight.
  3. Teams still cannot post in-game video, however, teams can now post video of anything outside of actual game time. This includes videos of touchdown celebrations, cheerleaders and fans, just no actual play time.
  4. Teams can post up to five snaps of in-game action to Snapchat per game.

 

The NFL’s social media policy still remains the strictest in the world of American professional sports. They are the “No Fun League” after all.

Liz Farrar
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