Leading off today: With competition heating up in the media race to attract young viewers and readers, the price has gone up in New York City.
The PSAL has instituted a $750 fee per game for cable outlets desiring to broadcast live events, The Advance reports. The policy is limited to PSAL-sanctioned league games on school grounds, an organization spokesperson said.
The new policy chased Time Warner Cable off last weekend's football game between Erasmus Hall and Staten Island Curtis; the fee does not apply to camera crews shooting action for highlights shows and nightly newscasts.
"The PSAL is stating that whatever cable (or broadcast) organization wants to do a game, a financial arrangement must be made," Curtis AD Eric Ritzer told the paper.
Department of Education spokesperson Margie Feinberg said the PSAL is just following the marketplace.
"We did this because basically it's been a policy that was instituted throughout the rest of the country," she said. "We then as part of that decided to go out with an RFP (Request for Proposal) for exclusive broadcast rights, which we're in the process of now. We use a portion of the fee for PSAL programs. The other of course is any kind of maintenance required for the field."
The PSAL actually mapped out its policy a year ago but didn't attempt to enforce it until the football championship game last November. The metro area's CHSFL and CHSAA are in the second year of a non-exclusive, three-year contract with MSG Varsity, available primarily to Cablevision subscribers in the tri-state area.
New York State Public High School Athletic Associations routinely charge for broadcasts of postseason games, but such a policy is virtually unheard of during the regular season.
Football rankings: The New York State Sportswriters Association unveiled its first weekly football rankings today.
Monroe-Woodbury rules the roost in Class AA, with four defending New York State Public High School Athletic Association champions -- Sweet Home (Class A), Hornell (B), Southwestern (C) and Randolph (D) -- also starting at No. 1 in their respective classifications.
The complete rankings can be found here.
Class AA No. 2 St. Anthony's of the CHSFL sits at No. 5 this week in the MSG Varsity ratings for the tri-state area and 14th in the larger East Region according to ESPN RISE. Sweet Home is No. 11 on the ESPN RISE list.
