league wide streaming package?

On the Horizon

Plenty of people who follow the Ivy League acknowledge the financial expenditure involved in putting a national television package together. Often times, their next question is this: What about a leaguewide online streaming network?

The Horizon League is renowned among mid-major conferences for its broad (and free-of-charge) online streaming package. Lots of games from lots of sports are available online for fans to watch from anywhere.

Whether the broadcasts are free or not, there's still a a considerable financial cost to set the productions up. There is both a physical capital expenditure - cameras, replay equipment, etc. - and a human capital expenditure. Not every team in the Ivy League has made that investment yet.

"We want to move in that direction," Harris told me. "We have schools that have invested different amounts to date. All our schools are doing some form of streaming and we are definitely moving in that direction - the question is the timetable and when we will have an Ivy League network online."

Harris added that any leaguewide streaming setup will include all sports, not just the big ones.

"We know we have to start with a few sports, basketball or football, but we think it has to be all sports," she said. "We think digital streaming has the ability to reach more people internationally. Our base is overseas as well in the U.S. It’s the wave of the future, and it’s where people are used to getting our content."

The international fan base in the Ivy League is not something you might initially think of as a factor, but it is definitely there. There are plenty of students and alumni from many countries in Asia and Europe, and their numbers are increasing across every Ancient Eight campus.

Harris told me that "everyone’s willing and ready to move forward" to put together a leaguewide streaming package. "The question is the pace and how do we implement it."

And there, as Harris pointed out, is where the devil resides.

"We just need to figure out what the cost is going to be to do it the way we want to do it," she said. "Are all eight willing to make that level of investment, and what is that level? We’re still trying to figure that out. It’s an equipment investment and a personnel investment."

Price put it this way:

That’s a fundamental change to the way we do business. It’s a significant cost, it adds significant needs for staffing, it adds significant changes in job responsibilities for people who already work there. It’s not something that can be done on the cheap if it’s done right.

I spend a lot of time thinking about how we get from here to there, and as of now I don’t know how we get from here to there at this point.

Bilsky said that the expense of creating a leaguewide streaming package "would have to be matched by revenue which would be generated ourselves," whether through sponsorship or subscriptions.

"It’s the Ivy League, so it’s not going to come from the presidents," he said. "I think the initial investment would have to come through the individual schools, and every school’s way of doing business is different. In our case, we raised the money to buy the equipment and do this."

As far as finding sponsors goes, there are plenty of major companies out there with Ivy League alumni in their board rooms. But Bilsky said he doubts any deals will be made based on loyalty to alma maters.

"Even though we have Ivy League alumni who are CEOs at major companies, usually these decisions are made by their marketing folks," he said. "They will look at it as a pure business decision and say how many subscribers do you have, how many people are looking in... But I think that if we’re on the ground floor of this, the future for the Ivy League is phenomenal."

phillysportsfan
The whole article just sounds like a lot of empty talk as Harris as been referring to this plan for a few years now so I guess I will believe when I see it

Robb
What is the market for an all-Ivy package? I consider myself a pretty big hockey fan - Cornell first, obviously - but even I have no interest in streaming a Brown-Dartmouth game. The number of people who are interested in all of the games is not equal to the number of people who are interested in any of the games.

That said, if the service had better quality than Redcast at an equivalent price, I wouldn't complain about having to browse past all those other games to get to Cornell's.

Robb
The number of people who are interested in all of the games is not equal to the number of people who are interested in any of the games.

jkahn

Robb
What is the market for an all-Ivy package? I consider myself a pretty big hockey fan - Cornell first, obviously - but even I have no interest in streaming a Brown-Dartmouth game. The number of people who are interested in all of the games is not equal to the number of people who are interested in any of the games.

That said, if the service had better quality than Redcast at an equivalent price, I wouldn't complain about having to browse past all those other games to get to Cornell's.

It would get us our road games at Ivy opponents.

Scersk '97

jkahn

Robb
What is the market for an all-Ivy package? I consider myself a pretty big hockey fan - Cornell first, obviously - but even I have no interest in streaming a Brown-Dartmouth game. The number of people who are interested in all of the games is not equal to the number of people who are interested in any of the games.

That said, if the service had better quality than Redcast at an equivalent price, I wouldn't complain about having to browse past all those other games to get to Cornell's.

It would get us our road games at Ivy opponents.

Which would seem to be the chief benefit of any collective streaming package. One wonders (1) why the ECAC(HL) hasn't gone this direction already, and (2) why we have never seen "reciprocal" arrangements negotiated through which teams would share feeds for home and aways.

Of course, another part of me wonders how much a schedule fully available via internet streaming would decimate the already dwindling Traveling Faithful, turning the ECAC(HL) into another boring-ass WZHA.

PS Good on the pep band for road tripping to Clarkson and SLU this next weekend. Great trip: I suggest the Canton movie theater and anatomically correct snowmen on the village green.

Scersk '97

Of course, another part of me wonders how much a schedule fully available via internet streaming would decimate the already dwindling Traveling Faithful, turning the ECAC(HL) into another boring-ass WZHA.

Chris '03
As for helping attendance of travelling fans, move the Friday start times back again! The games shouldn't start before 7:30 on Fridays.

Chris '03

Scersk '97

Of course, another part of me wonders how much a schedule fully available via internet streaming would decimate the already dwindling Traveling Faithful, turning the ECAC(HL) into another boring-ass WZHA.

I think decimate is a strong word there. I'm sure some people would choose to stream rather than travel. I also think that a robust streaming package would allow alumni the better opportunity to keep up with the team and increase the chance they feel connected enough to travel when the team comes to their relative neighborhood.

Scersk '97
One wonders (1) why the ECAC(HL) hasn't gone this direction already, and (2) why we have never seen "reciprocal" arrangements negotiated through which teams would share feeds for home and aways.

billhoward
If the original meaning of decimate (as KeithK notes) means to reduce by a a tenth (not to one-tenth) then, yes, it could happen to fan participation.

Decimation (Latin: decimatio; decem = "ten" was a form of military discipline used by officers in the Roman Army to punish mutinous or cowardly soldiers. The word decimation is derived from Latin meaning "removal of a tenth"