Concord TV Gets to Record Crimson Tide Football on Saturday

If you can’t make the championship football game on Saturday afternoon, you’ll get to see it on cable, on rebroadcast, after all.

ConcordTV will be allowed to record the Concord High School Crimson Tide’s game on Saturday after it was first banned from doing so by the NHIAA.

According to emails from Concord TV, the cable access channel was unable to record the playoff and championship games due to contractual agreement the NHIAA made with PlayOn Sports, a streaming broadcaster, R. Patrick Corbin, the executive director of the NHIAA, told Concord TV last week.

“This is also part of a larger contractual agreement with the NFHS National High School Sports Network,” he wrote in an email that was then sent out by Concord TV to viewers and the media. “I am sorry but there are no options in terms of these agreements. This is an NHIAA event and we control the broadcast rights and decide who we can offer them to which in this case is our national news network. We are stock holders in this network and are obliged to adhere to the contract. I am sorry. If people wish to stream this broadcast they can obtain subscription information on our web site."

However, a week later, after outcry from the community about the inability to see the games on cable access, Corbin reversed the decision: PlayOn Sports will now allow ConcordTV to record the game and play it on a delayed basis it.

Corbin also told Concord TV in an email, “PlayOn may contract them and pay them for a copy of their production materials rather than bringing in a separate crew in the future.”

Charlie Russell and Peter Burgess will be doing color commentary for the game.

“In the end a win/win for everyone I believe,” Corbin noted.

Doris Ballard, the executive director of Concord TV, agreed that it was a win-win and also thanked Russell and Burgess “for the thousands of hours that they dedicate to getting local school sports on ConcordTV. We couldn’t do it without them.”