The scramble for broadcast video exposure, especially for emerging sports and mid-major schools, is an ongoing battle. In a world where more and more consumers are viewing high quality video on a number of devices, is the cost and time needed to actually put games on air where only a fraction of the audience may tune in, especially against the backdrop of high level, highly marketed sporting events that the casual fan craves? Even the best of ideas to pool assets to get events on TV can come up short, as evidenced by the folding of the Mountain West Network this past week.
So is there an alternative to create quality video that reaches the right audience and is cost effective? St. John’s University thinks they have found a special sauce to solve those questions. Over the past year The Red Storm have been testing cost effective, HD telecasts via high speed internet connections, using student and freelance staff. The result has been the creation of the St. John’s TV Network, which provided an outlet for sports like baseball, basketball, fencing, volleyball at a fraction of traditional broadcast costs. The biggest test came in the last few weeks when the quality of the broadcast was accepted and the SJU Network provided three live baseball broadcasts to the CBS Sports Network. The fact that a national network accepted the broadcast…at a cost of under $4,000 per game…has opened the door for literally thousands of potential hours of cost-efficient high quality events that SJU can now provide to a host of takers as well as stream online. Those events are outside of any restrictions placed by existing Big East broadcast rules, can provide great added value for existing St. John’s partners, and will give the school’s student-athletes a well deserved home in front of the TV cameras. The costs can also now be offset with sponsors or underwritten grants from brands interested in being involved in college athletics but at a fraction of the price.
What is most interesting about the St. John’s undertaking is that it flies in the face of the huge production costs many now feel are in line to reach broadcast quality sports production. Events from the X games to MMA to many on the collegiate level are often limited by quality of broadcast and clarity of signal. The SJU situation appears to have cleared those two hurdles, and may open the door for event more digitally produced content for broadcast and viewing on secondary screens. It certainly isn’t rocket science, but it is a smart look at how a school saw a need and put in all the time necessary to effectively create a platform that adds exposure and revenue in a challenged environment. Big points for St. John’s at both a time and in a market where smart thinking is needed to develop what’s next in video and content.
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