CHSAA TO EXPERIMENT WITH SUBSCRIPTION BASED BROADCASTS
The Colorado High School Activities Association has joined with several other states to experiment with consumer subscriptions, commonly referred to as Pay Per View, to its state playoff broadcasts. Costs for the events will range in price depending on the length of the playoff offerings.
“Play On! Sports has asked us to participate in an experiment with subscription service. For comprehensive, quality coverage of high school sports to become a viable product, we need to research reasonable dual revenue models like other sports properties,” CHSAA Commissioner Paul Angelico said. “Live events have limited shelf life, are expensive to produce and advertising revenue alone cannot support the expense involved in that production. We need to experiment with this now to determine its viability.”
Play On! Sports, which is the parent company of CHSAA.tv, has developed a simple pricing structure for Colorado and will begin with the CHSAA’s first state championship event – Girls State Swimming & Diving Championships. That will be followed up by all other winter and spring playoff broadcasts, including the State Wrestling Tournament and State Basketball Championships.
“We expect some of our constituents to be concerned, but at the same time we know that in order to develop a sustainable product, we have to find a way to make these broadcasts affordable for those producing them as well as for the consumer,” CHSAA Assistant Commissioner Bert Borgmann noted.
The pricing structure for the Winter State Championships is:
Day Pass - $3.95
Weekly Pass - $6.95
Monthly Pass - $9.95
While this is an experiment for the next two sports seasons, Play On! Sports will determine its success and how future broadcasts on CHSAA.tv will be delivered. Games aired on the CHSAA.tv linear partner s, such as ROOT Sports, are not included in the PPV sampling. The attached is a question & answer document from Play On! Sports for your information.
CHSAA Winter Playoff Events
February 8-9 – 4A Girls’ Swimming Championships – VMAC (Thornton)
February 8-9 – 5A Girls’ Swimming Championships – EPIC (Fort Collins)
February 14-15 – State Skiing Championships – Winter Park Ski Area (NO CHSAA.tv)
February 21-23 – State Wrestling Championships – Pepsi Center, Denver
February 28 – Ice Hockey Semifinals, DU Magness Arena, Denver (2 games)
March 1 – Ice Hockey State Championships – DU Magness Arena, Denver (1 game)
March 7 – 5A Girls Elite 8 Basketball – Denver Coliseum, Denver (4 games)
March 8 – 5A Boys Elite 8 Basketball – Denver Coliseum, Denver (4 games)
March 9 – 4A Boys & Girls Elite 8 Basketball – Denver Coliseum (8 games)
March 14-16 – 1A Boys & Girls State Basketball Championships – Budweiser Events Center, Loveland (22 games)
March 14-16 – 2A Boys & Girls State Basketball Championships – Massari Arena, CSU-Pueblo (22 games)
March 14-16 – 3A Boys & Girls State Basketball Championships – Moby Arena, CSU-Fort Collins (22 games)
March 14 – 4A/5A Girls Basketball Semifinals – CU Events Center, Boulder (4 games)
March 15 – 4A/5A Boys Basketball Semifinals – CU Events Center, Boulder (4game)
March 16 – 4A/5A Boys & Girls State Championship Games – CU Events Center, Boulder – ROOT SPORTS (4 games)
March 16 – Inaugural Unified Exhibition Game – CU Events Center, Boulder (1 game)
Comments
I presume this means we must now pay to watch what had been free live webcasts.
Play On! Sports / CHSAA.tv needs to make significant quality improvements in its technology before the webcasts are worthy of pay-per-view subscriptions. For those without super-fast internet connections, the webcasts would often freeze and need to be restarted. Why would anyone choose to pay for such an erratic inconsistent video streaming system? We all might as well spend a couple of extra dollars and watch the events live at the site.
Other points need further clarification. Is the paid subscription only for the live event, or does it also include watching the archived replay of the event starting the next day? If I want to watch a game replay on two different days, would I have to pay double? If I start watching a game at 11:30 PM and continue past midnight, does that count as one day or two? Is the monthly pass valid for 30-31 days, or just until the end of the calendar month?
Unusual questions, I know -- but necessary to fully understand this new era of pay-per-view Colorado high school sports coverage.