The future of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference faces a big issue this week that could have a transformative effect on the league.
That issue, which MAAC commissioner Rich Ensor said they would talk about in league meetings this week, is the MAAC’s expanded package with ESPN3 and the future that it might hold over the conference’s 11 members.
In five or so years, Internet TV will probably put a major dent in cable. It won't get a casual watcher though. FU and the league should be advised by the Dolans on this. We don't necessarily need to take their suggestions but it would be good to get them. I have little trust in Ensor to make a well thought out decision.
Some parts of the article that I thought were interesting:
...After going to the Final Four in North Texas, Ensor said he received data on viewership on ESPN3 which said that the average viewership for unique viewers was over 27 minutes, a fact he was very satisfied with. “This is the first time we’ve had real hard numbers and I was very impressed,” Ensor said. “We’re above the nationwide average for college basketball on digital and on ESPN3 by far.”... ...The growth of ESPN3 might endanger schools that are part of the conference’s digital package MAAC.TV, which is run in affiliation with Neulion and features live streaming for eight of the 11 member schools. Only Siena, Niagara and Quinnipiac do not participate in the service. When asked about the future of the MAAC.TV product, Ensor said that the service will remain as part of the conference’s “broadcast strategy”, which he emphasized was games on ESPNU, ESPN3 and MAAC.TV. “We have our second tier digital which is the MAAC.TV and that’s anything else that falls within our sports offerings,” Ensor said. “As ESPN3 grows, I think you’ll see some of that migrate over to ESPN3 because it’s just a better brand and better distributed, but there’s always going to be a place for MAAC.TV because there will be at some point, some limit to what ESPN3 will take on that digital platform. They can easily take eight broadcasts at a time, but at some point you just start cluttering too much into ESPN3′s taste. We’ll see, but I think those three tiers are going to be our strategy as we move forward for the next five to 10 years.”
this has the potential to be an irrelevant event...........ESPN3? who is kidding who? most folks don't get ESPN3, or if they can, don't. And MAAC.TV......what is that??? I chose to look at this thread out of curiosity, but reading about Ensor (getting sick) and the rest of this low level broadcasting issue.....it's like.....wow!!!!! Stags, please return to bball relevance and get the heck out of the morass called the Ensor MAAC.
Post by brokenboat on Apr 15, 2014 19:57:42 GMT -5
I happen to work in the cable/ telecom industry. This is a terrible move by the league. Mobile viewership is up as a whole but not for sports. Sports is still dominated on traditional TV and is a major reason why conferences have split up to get part of the TV revenue.
Taking the ESPN3 deal is akin to taking a deal from the devil and will further make the MAAC irrelevant.
Last Edit: Apr 15, 2014 19:59:09 GMT -5 by brokenboat
I happen to work in the cable/ telecom industry. This is a terrible move by the league. Mobile viewership is up as a whole but not for sports. Sports is still dominated on traditional TV and is a major reason why conferences have split up to get part of the TV revenue.
Taking the ESPN3 deal is akin to taking a deal from the devil and will further make the MAAC irrelevant.
Yes, terrible move. Which is why Ensor will do it. And the school presidents will just stand back and take it. They extended this guys contract. What a joke.
MAAC.TV is not compatible with iPad / Apple without an app to convert it. In the end even with this solution it is choppy and hardly watchable. I would not buy a season "package" again until they fix that.
At least ESPN has recognized there are a lot of Apple products out there.
MAAC.TV is not compatible with iPad / Apple without an app to convert it. In the end even with this solution it is choppy and hardly watchable. I would not buy a season "package" again until they fix that.
At least ESPN has recognized there are a lot of Apple products out there.
MAAC.TV works for me on my iPad. However, I agree that some of it is choppy. But I think that is due to the equipment that is being used to record the games, and that depends on each school.
ESPN3 is the future, but its not the present. So that is why the league must continue the games on regular TV like ESPNU, SNY and others. As far as I know, all the regular TV coverage will continue. Whats nice about ESPN3 is that it can Broadcast more than 1 game at a time. So expanding in that area is great.
MAAC.TV is not compatible with iPad / Apple without an app to convert it. In the end even with this solution it is choppy and hardly watchable. I would not buy a season "package" again until they fix that.
At least ESPN has recognized there are a lot of Apple products out there.
MAAC.TV works for me on my iPad. However, I agree that some of it is choppy. But I think that is due to the equipment that is being used to record the games, and that depends on each school.
ESPN3 is the future, but its not the present. So that is why the league must continue the games on regular TV like ESPNU, SNY and others. As far as I know, all the regular TV coverage will continue. Whats nice about ESPN3 is that it can Broadcast more than 1 game at a time. So expanding in that area is great.
who is kidding who? most folks don't get ESPN3, or if they can, don't. And MAAC.TV......what is that?
