SoCon and ESPN enter into a new 6 year deal

[The Cats]

The Southern Conference and ESPN have reached an agreement on a six-year contract running through the 2020-21 academic year, when the league will celebrate its 100th anniversary. Over the course of the six years, the SoCon and its member schools will have an opportunity to produce nearly 2,000 live events that would receive national coverage on ESPN3.

As part of the new pact, all 10 SoCon schools will develop production capabilities by 2017 that will be showcased on ESPN3. Previously, Mercer and Furman produced content during the 2014-15 campaign.

A minimum of 1,900 live events will be produced by the league and its members. In the final four years of the contract, a minimum of 45 SoCon football games and 200 league basketball games will appear on ESPN3 each season.

The men’s basketball championship will continue to air live on either ESPN or ESPN2, and the conference will receive several men’s basketball exposures on one of ESPN’s linear platforms (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPNEWS) during the contract.

http://www.soconsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=21983&SPID=1790&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=210228396&DB_OEM_ID=4000





All told, the SoCon will have a minimum of 58 exposures across five different linear and digital platforms during the 2015 season, and a total of 22 conference games will air either on ESPN3 or the American Sports Network this fall. Additional games and broadcast outlets will be announced during the season, while all Southern Conference home games that are not on ESPN3 or ASN will be available through the SoCon Digital Network (SDN), which launched in 2014.

[Daytripper]

FCS is on a broadcast roll....xthumbsupx

[FCS_pwns_FBS]

Good, but how do you show 45 football games in a season when there are only 28 games?

[The Cats]

Good, but how do you show 45 football games in a season when there are only 28 games?

45 home games will be played in the SoCon this season, which includes OOC games, of course. I'd suppose that's how they will reach that target.

[walliver]

We can thank GSU, ASU, and that other team that left for financing this for us.

I have heard that the conference buyouts have financed much of this.

All we need now if for ESPN3 to be as easily accessible as Netflix and HBO-GO when trying to watch on a television. It can be done, but not as easily as the others.

[BearDownMU]

We can thank GSU, ASU, and that other team that left for financing this for us.

I have heard that the conference buyouts have financed much of this.

All we need now if for ESPN3 to be as easily accessible as Netflix and HBO-GO when trying to watch on a television. It can be done, but not as easily as the others.

God bless Xbox One.

[FUBeAR]

Good, but how do you show 45 football games in a season when there are only 28 games? 8x8 = 64/2 = 32 conference games in 2016, which means only 13 additional games need to be broadcast...8x3=24 OOC Games...so, if about 1/2 of those OOC games are at home (which I imagine they will be), then they are 'all good' with the 45 game number...unless my cipherin' is off.

[walliver]

8x8 = 64/2 = 32 conference games in 2016, which means only 13 additional games need to be broadcast...8x3=24 OOC Games...so, if about 1/2 of those OOC games are at home (which I imagine they will be), then they are 'all good' with the 45 game number...unless my cipherin' is off.

Actually in 2016, there will be 9 conference teams, giving us 9x8/2 or 36 home conference games.

This year there will by 8x7/2 or 28 home conference games (your calculations assume that each team plays itself).

[RootinFerDukes]

I just bought a chromecast and I'm going to give it a whirl on games I don't have a huge interest in to test it out. It only lets you cast from a phone or tablet and not your PC.
I'm trying to rely less on TV, but an old fashioned TV channel is considerably more convenient.

[ursus arctos horribilis]

This is really good news. Wally, I get it if the departures paid for upgrades to stadiums and so forth to be able to set up easily for broadcasting...is that what you mean or is it something else?

I did project that the SoCon would start getting media deals in place right after ASU and GSU left just because it was one the main things griped about. xlolx

[ursus arctos horribilis]

I just bought a chromecast and I'm going to give it a whirl on games I don't have a huge interest in to test it out. It only lets you cast from a phone or tablet and not your PC.
I'm trying to rely less on TV, but an old fashioned TV channel is considerably more convenient.

That works pretty good and that Amazon thing is downright amazing if anyone was thinking of getting one. Had mine for a year and the amount of apps and channels you can get it damn good.

[BisonFan02]

Sooooooooooo.......its a bit easier for me to watch SoCoN football in ND than it is to ever catch a G5 game? Got it. :D

[IBleedYellow]

I just bought a chromecast and I'm going to give it a whirl on games I don't have a huge interest in to test it out. It only lets you cast from a phone or tablet and not your PC.
I'm trying to rely less on TV, but an old fashioned TV channel is considerably more convenient.


Chrome allows you to cast directly to a Chromecast if you install an addon. Search for it in the Chrome addon repository.

[ccd494]

This is really good news. Wally, I get it if the departures paid for upgrades to stadiums and so forth to be able to set up easily for broadcasting...is that what you mean or is it something else?

I did project that the SoCon would start getting media deals in place right after ASU and GSU left just because it was one the main things griped about. xlolx

I am guessing the SoCon is paying ESPN to do these broadcasts.

[ursus arctos horribilis]

I am guessing the SoCon is paying ESPN to do these broadcasts.

That's what I was wondering. Not so happy to hear if this is the case...I mean unless they are getting some ad revenue or some cut of broadcasts. Glad I can catch some either way but it's time for conferences to just start building their own webcast networks pretty soon I'd think.

[clenz]

I am guessing the SoCon is paying ESPN to do these broadcasts.
If it's anything like the newest 10 year deal the MVC (not MVFC) landed it's not a big money making deal. HOWEVER, it's a chance for thousands of events of the SoCon to be broadcast nation wide.

Part of the MVC deal was also making many of the broadcasts student produced/led. That makes it a great opportunities for students to graduate from an MVC institution in the media field with 40+ ESPN broadcasts on their resumes. Hopefully the SoCon worked something like that out.

I'm sure some schools need to make significant infrastructure upgrades, and the buy out money from ASU/GSU likely is going towards those.

[eiu1999]

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

[tenNesseeCat]

it's time for conferences to just start building their own webcast networks pretty soon I'd think.

http://www.socondigitalnetwork.com

I was really pleased with being able to watch games that I couldn't have watched before. I think it will improve with time as well.

[BearDownMU]

I am guessing the SoCon is paying ESPN to do these broadcasts.

Mercer did this independently 2 years ago and I don't think it's so much "paying" ESPN. If what I heard is accurate, ESPN gives you a list of minimum standards (for video quality, sound, editing, graphics, etc.) and the schools have to make the investment in all the gear and setup (if they need to add platforms/press boxes/cameras/mics/whatever) to deliver that standard. After that I think it's just a content agreement, meaning, ESPN is giving access the platform and reach in exchange for the content, but will also be able to run ads. I'm not sure if there is a rev share.

Also what's really great is all of our games stayed up for a while after the live event. I have season tickets and go to all the games, but I like to come home and watch them Sunday, with the commentary and instant replay and whatnot.

[ursus arctos horribilis]

We did this independently 2 years ago and I don't think it's so much "paying" ESPN. If what I heard is accurate, ESPN gives you a list of minimum standards (for video quality, sound, editing, graphics, etc.) and the schools have to make the investment in all the gear and setup (if they need to add platforms/press boxes/ whatever) to deliver that standard. After that I think it's just a content agreement, meaning, ESPN is giving access the platform and reach in exchange for the content, but will also be able to run ads. I'm not sure if there is a rev share.

Also what's really great is all of our games stayed up for a while after the live event. I go to all the games, but I like to come home and watch them Sunday, with the commentary and instant replay and whatnot.

That is what I was hoping his comments were in reference to. This makes sense and is a good deal all around. I too like the being able to re watch the games Sunday and catch games from other conferences.

[AshevilleApp2]

Awesome!

[FUBeAR]

Actually in 2016, there will be 9 conference teams, giving us 9x8/2 or 36 home conference games.

This year there will by 8x7/2 or 28 home conference games (your calculations assume that each team plays itself).

You are correct. That must be why I was a religion major. :)

[FUBeAR]

I just bought a chromecast and I'm going to give it a whirl on games I don't have a huge interest in to test it out. It only lets you cast from a phone or tablet and not your PC.
I'm trying to rely less on TV, but an old fashioned TV channel is considerably more convenient.

I've used Chromecast with my laptop. I'm not an expert, but I have a Computer Science major, who lives at my house on occasion...so I don't know the details, but it works. I think I downloaded an app and I just click it and off the screen goes to the TV connected to the Chromecast. I know a laptop is not quite a PC, but it's not a tablet either and seems to work just fine. If I'm not explaining this properly, ask Walliver, he's the mathematician / techie in this thread!

[IBleedYellow]

I've used Chromecast with my laptop. I'm not an expert, but I have a Computer Science major, who lives at my house on occasion...so I don't know the details, but it works. I think I downloaded an app and I just click it and off the screen goes to the TV connected to the Chromecast. I know a laptop is not quite a PC, but it's not a tablet either and seems to work just fine. If I'm not explaining this properly, ask Walliver, he's the mathematician / techie in this thread!

You're most likely using the Chrome browser and using Google Cast (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-cast/boadgeojelhgndaghljhdicfkmllpafd)

[RootinFerDukes]

I've used that Google cast extension that was installed with it. It just shows your browser and doesn't appropriately scale it to the screen.
Meanwhile, it is constantly choppy when play in the browser. When I use the app on my phone, it runs much more smoothly.
It seems like viewing through a browser in chromecast isn't optimized for espn3, which is why the official watch ESPN window doesn't have a casting button in the HUD. YouTube has it optimized, for example.