Attention Coaches and ADs: With the fall playoffs rapidly approaching, this is a good time to remind member schools of the GHSA broadcast policies. During the regular season, the HOST school owns the rights to its events and must give permission for the visiting school to produce a broadcast (audio or video). The host school can use any platform it chooses to broadcast its own regular season events.
But the NFHS Network (and any other media entity the GHSA has a postseason agreement with) owns the rights to all state playoff events and anyone wishing to produce an audio or video broadcast MUST secure a contract from the GHSA and pay a right’s fee. This includes any streaming of the event, whether it be by the school, a parent or an outside media entity, and no matter what platform it is streamed on (even personal YouTube, Facebook, etc. channels).
No streaming of a state playoff event in ANY sport is allowed without first securing a contract from the GHSA. Email Media Director Marvin James (marvin.james@ghsa.net) to request a broadcast contract.
The only exception to this rule is if the school is a member of the NFHS School Broadcast Program (SBP). All schools participating in the SBP may live-stream any contest their team is participating in during the state playoffs (without a contract or fee) with the exception of any neutral-site event, but it must be streamed exclusively on the NFHS Network.
A school hosting a state playoff event must allow the visiting school to stream the event without a fee if that school is an SBP member. In addition, if the visiting school is uploading the stream to the NFHS Network, the host school is prohibited from originating a separate stream on another platform. The NFHS Network has exclusive rights to any state playoff events it wishes to put on its network. If the host school is also an SBP member, then it also may stream the event.
If a school is hosting a playoff event and an outside entity wishes to broadcast or stream the event, but does not have a contract from the GHSA, the host school should not allow the broadcast.
Please contact Marvin James (see above email) with any questions about the GHSA broadcast policy.
If you need to contact your NFHS Network Customer Success Manager, email success@playonsports.com.
For technical support, go to https://help.nfhsnetwork.com.
