Over the years, the YouTube channel ‘Matthew Loves Ball’ has earned a massive following by posting highlight compilations and condensed versions of nearly every college football and men’s basketball game weekly. It has become a vital resource to college sports reporters and analysts across the country. But thanks to a crusade by Fox Sports, that channel will now cease to exist.
In a message to his subscribers on Tuesday morning, ‘Matthew Loves Ball‘ shared that the account with more than 180,000 subscribers and over 8,800 videos will be terminated within seven days due to copyright strikes that the account has accumulated recently. This comes less than two weeks after the account shared that it would not be posting highlights from any college football game broadcast on Fox, FS1, or FS2 as a result of copyright strikes.
“I had very bad news,” the channel said in a message to the 180,000 subscribers. “My channel will be terminated in the next 7 days, due to copyright strikes received and accumulated recently. It is really unfortunate that I will say goodbye to this channel very soon. I want to thank you all very much for the great support given to my channel in the past 5 years.”
https://twitter.com/psc_highlights/status/1729358027965218923
‘Matthew Loves Ball’ has since created a second YouTube channel called ‘Matthew Highlights #2’ where he seems to be avoiding posting any highlights from Fox, FS1, or FS2.
In recent weeks, there seems to have been a surge in Digital Millennium Copyright Act claims filed on behalf of Fox Sports by Nick Rago, the Executive Director of Fox Sports Digital and Social Production. Last week, the popular X (formerly Twitter) account @nocontextcfb made a post calling out what they called “ridiculous and pathetic behavior” from Rago and Fox Sports for filing a DMCA claim against the account for reposting a video directly from the Fox College Football X account.
In the past, broadcast networks had made a habit of filing DMCA reports against social media accounts posting copyrighted footage, but Fox seems to be the last one still taking such an aggressive approach to its DMCA claims. Most networks have come to realize that allowing clips to be shared on social media is ultimately a benefit to all involved, allowing exposure, growth, and free advertising of whatever is being broadcast. Additionally, it typically falls under the spirit of the “fair use” exemption to copyrighted content.
In the introductory video pinned atop the ‘Matthew Loves Ball’ channel, the owner of the channel made it clear that he believes the videos posted on the account fell under this “fair use” exemption, but vowed to “take down videos immediately if there are copyright issues.”
The termination of this channel – and Fox preventing the new channel from posting future content – has wide-reaching effects across the sports media world as many reporters and analysts relied on ‘Matthew Loves Ball’ to post comprehensive replays and highlight packages, the vast majority of which Fox Sports itself doesn’t even share on its own YouTube channel.
Please subscribe to our boy’s new channel, and let me know if there’s a way for me to support him monetarily. I’ve looked and haven’t found anything, but I absolutely could not do my job without him and would gladly toss some cash his way https://t.co/glh7oVmlR2 https://t.co/leq6Hp8Naq
— Patrick Mayhorn (@patrick_mayhorn) November 28, 2023
https://twitter.com/Misopogon/status/1729515116905844804?s=20
ESPN could post highlights of every Vanderbilt game on YouTube orrrrrrrrrrrrrr they could shut this guy's account down for doing what they refuse to https://t.co/aKY1AnTD6u
— Weapons formed did in fact prosper (@anchorofgold) November 28, 2023
Genuinely one of the worst pieces of news I have woken up to. Many of your favorite writers that use video clips in their stories/columns wouldn’t be able to do it without this account. Hope you’re happy, FOX https://t.co/S8JXLBKn3W
— Will Warren (@statsbywill) November 28, 2023
Anyone who follows college sports know how invaluable MTB is. Long live Matt Highlights No. 2. https://t.co/qTWGXENWYK
— Dylan Sinn (@DylanSinn) November 28, 2023
‘Matthew Knows Ball’ has become an important resource for those who cover college sports, providing something that Fox Sports simply does not. And thanks to the DMCA crusade from Rago and Fox Sports, that coverage and analysis will suffer.
Perhaps instead of putting so much energy into combating accounts like ‘Matthew Loves Ball,’ Fox should dedicate more resources into publishing their own highlights and condensed game replays – or just hire Matthew to do it for them since he’s been doing it better than they have for half a decade.
