southpaw

I'm guessing you want UND to fire Faison because of this?

Kristo, Knight

Rocco

Which of those have "torn us apart" and which of those posted an AP story? Huge difference and a classic overreaction by you.

Got it. You think UND is unreliable. Thank you for your continued interest in University of North Dakota athletics!

If anyone is still looking for tickets for Friday, 2 sets of 2 opened up on Stubhub for $30 each. They are upper deck but it's cheaper than I've seen in a while.

Four of us are going to Dave & Busters Saturday afternoon. It's a fun time. Illegal Pete's is also great food. It's like Qdoba or Chiptole but with more options and a local flavor.

FYP

I'll be there and have heard from a lot of Colorado friends who are also going. Both games sold out fast but I was able to pick up face value tickets in the third row last weekend on stubhub. Who else plans to be there?

That is correct. The NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL and other leagues have agreements with DirecTV for airing games nationally. It allows DirecTV to sell the games at a premium, like they do with NHL Center Ice. That is why the games are blacked out because of Center Ice, not because of the regional/national debate.

I haven't seen the contract but from what I've gathered, CBSSN has exclusivity in 2 ways. 1) if they want to do a game, nobody else gets to do that game and 2) no other national networks (NBCSN, ESPN, FCS, NHLNetwork, etc) is allowed to broadcast from an NCHC arena. However, the agreement allows regional networks (Midco, Altitude, Root, FSN, NESN, etc) to air games. The conference would have been ridiculously dumb to not make sure those regional networks could air games. DirecTV is separate from this agreement. All they do is provide those regional sports networks on a tier that people can buy. Yes, the games are going around the country but that is because of DirecTV, not because of a national network. It may seem confusing, but it's important to remember that DirecTV is the one providing the games to a national audience and only DirecTV subscribers can get them. That means anyone with cable or dish outside of the regional viewing area will be forced to watch the CBSSN if they want NCHC games.

Absolutely, that's why it's important for people to express those issues with the athletic department or NeuLion when they occur. This isn't directed at you, but rather the people who think it's more productive to b*tch on a message board than work directly with the source.

That's a fair concern. However, it seems like you're pretty knowledgeable about this so you know that occasional pauses or pixelation can be from a variety of sources and not necessarily the streaming servers.

There wouldn't be an issue with blackouts for a game carried by CBSSN, because CBSSN would be the only way to watch the game. Midco would not be airing the game, even on their local channels. They wouldn't have a crew working the game, they wouldn't have a truck setup and they wouldn't be listing the UND game on their schedule.

That's why it is great that UND is partnered with NeuLion. They work with schools that have much larger fanbases and have been doing HD for several years. They know what the servers can handle. Hopefully, they anticipate the jump in viewership. Fortunately, they have access to the Insider subscription numbers, so they will be able to see a big jump in September and early October before the first game.

Because Midco is a regional network. Their main focus is to broadcast local (ND/SD) content. The reason games can't be on FCS is because FCS is a national network. They don't have a regional focus, despite their Atlantc, Central and Pacific channels. They really just put whatever they want on each of the channels. Midco is similar to Root Sports Rocky Mountain and Altitude, ecept those two are already carried by directv. If either of those companies wanted to broadcast DUor CC games, they could. If UND was in Denver, they would likely have a contract with one of those 2 companies and would have all oftheir games aired nationally. That is why it is important for UND fans to join with NDSU, SDSU and USD fans to contact directv. The more pressure, the more likely they are to pick up Midco.

Midco would still be a regional network, it would just be carried nationally on directv. There would be a channel dedicated solely to Midco content. It's different than FCS, which picks and chooses games from regional channels but is a national network.

As long as there is an online option to specifically donate to this, I'd be able to convince some friends to drop at least $20.

I doubt the streaming server itself is at UND. I would imagine it is similar to how B2 handles their streams. The host school connects to the b2 server and sends the streaming video via Flash Media Encoder. The b2 servers then handle all of bandwidth of having thousands of viewers login to watch an HD feed. It would get expensive for NeuLion to have a dedicated server at each host institution. Much cheaper and more reliable to have a server hub that all of the schools send their feed to.

That is because each school likely offers different types of streams. Like Jayson reported from Matt, UND sends 800kbps constant for games. You will notice on bigskytv that it offers streams up to 1.5mbps variable which is higher quality than what und sends. It also depends if the original signal is HD. An HD signal compressed to 1.5M looks a lot crisper than an SD signal at that rate. HD needs to be sent at minimum 3Mbps and that is what UND is doing next year for insider. It will likely be compressed to 1.5 for BSTV. It's all in the quality of the stream being sent to BSTV. My guess is that on Insider, UND will send a 3, a 1.5 and an 500k so that people with slower Internet won't have the buffering issues they have now. People with faster Internet will automatically pull the higher quality feeds.

It is unlikely they can force blackouts for a region. The reason they can restrict FSN from coming in is the same reason Midco can't do those games. CBSSN has an agreement with the conference and thus, the schools. They can control what broadcasts come out of the Ralph and other NCHC arenas. They can't control what other channels show if its at a game at UW, BC, etc.

Audio feeds are also free. You have to register but then you just select the free audio only option. There is video content for the other sports but it's not restricted. I just opened up UND Insider and looked at the features/interviews section and it's available to everyone regardless of what package you purchase.

How many non-hockey sports are streamed through UND Insider? I'm currently watching UND basketball on bigskytv. I also was able to watch many volleyball games on bigskytv. UND Insider doesn't have a ton of purpose outside of hockey and VOD.

That is correct. A game at Wisconsin could be aired regionally or nationally. However, I'm guessing that if UW were playing at UND and FSN wanted to do the game, they would not be allowed to. Here's one more update for everyone on the playoff games and Midco's HD signal. In the past, I had believed that the first round playoff games would be in HD however I was incorrect. It will still be in SD, but it will be 16x9 (Widescreen.) Midco will be bringing the HD truck up to Grand Forks for that series, however it is not completely setup to be able to broadcast HD from GF. That will change in the fall.

CBSSN will bring in their own crew, their own truck and will not rely on anything that Midco does other than getting previous highlights of UND. It's unlikely Midco will be able to broadcast the games that CBSSN does, similar to how Root was the only option for the UND/Montana football game earlier this year. That's standard information that anyone with even a little bit of knowledge about sports broadcasting would know. I know it seems like I'm an apologist for the athletic department on this deal but I also know a lot about the business. I find it frustrating and annoying when people come on here to whine about something they know very little about. The details of this deal, and the options UND still has, are not fully publicized. Additionally, Midco still has options for distributing the games that have not been publicized or fully understood. October 2013 is still a long ways away. Express your concerns with the athletic department directly. They are working on things, just hold on calling people out.