impact of new conference on TV broadcast

[krangodance]

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.

I hope you're right, southpaw. Although my experiences with the web feed have not been as poor as those expressed by some posters on here I have noticed that it does ocassionally pause or pixilate for short periods of time even under the current stress load. Without anything changing I would have to think that would equate to more issues once the stress load is dramatically increased.

[krangodance]

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.

Oh yeah. I forgot Midco isn't just broadcasting the feed they are actually delivering the feed so it makes sense that if CBS is bringing their own equipment when they carry a game then Midco would be completely out of the picture for those games.

[southpaw]

I hope you're right, southpaw. Although my experiences with the web feed have not been as poor as those expressed by some posters on here I have noticed that it does ocassionally pause or pixilate for short periods of time even under the current stress load. Without anything changing I would have to think that would equate to more issues once the stress load is dramatically increased.

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.

[krangodance]

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.

My expression of knowledge may be outplaying my actual knowledge but, yes, I do realize there are many points along a data packet path where bottlenecking can occur regardless of the speed and reliability of the data's origin and destination.

I also imagine If there are issues with the stream that the carrier will address them or risk losing viewers and, hence, profits.

[southpaw]

I also imagine If there are issues with the stream that the carrier will address them or risk losing viewers and, hence, profits.

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.

[Dustin]

Response from DirecTV after my sending an email to them:

"Thank you for writing about Midco Sports Network.

I understand that this channel is important to you. While we are unable to comment on future programming decisions, we are always reviewing our programming options to make sure we bring you the best possible TV experience. We value your opinions about our programming, so your comments have been forwarded to DIRECTV management. We often make changes based on customer feedback like yours."

Keep at it people!

[watchmaker49]

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.

Is there such a thing as a regional if a system that is nationwide carrying their broadcast? The games may have a regional flavor to them but they still would be broadcast nationwide. Where is ScottM when you need his legal opinion? Why would CBS pay what they did to be trumped out by a so-called regional network? The bought the rights to show the NCHC nationally.

[Ray77]

Response from DirecTV after my sending an email to them:

"Thank you for writing about Midco Sports Network.

I understand that this channel is important to you. While we are unable to comment on future programming decisions, we are always reviewing our programming options to make sure we bring you the best possible TV experience. We value your opinions about our programming, so your comments have been forwarded to DIRECTV management. We often make changes based on customer feedback like yours."

Keep at it people!

I emailed DirecTV as soon as I saw the link posted by bincitysioux this morning. I haven't received a reply yet. I'm hoping many more Sioux fans also email...

[krangodance]

Is there such a thing as a regional if a system that is nationwide carrying their broadcast? The games may have a regional flavor to them but they still would be broadcast nationwide. Where is ScottM when you need his legal opinion? Why would CBS pay what they did to be trumped out by a so-called regional network? The bought the rights to show the NCHC nationally.

It is kind of a cheat I think but, yes, it would still be considered regional. DirecTV is able to carry local channels within their sports tier and broadcast them nationally over their satellite infrastructure. Think NESN and YES. Those are both local channels in their home markets but you can watch them on DirecTV if you pay for the sports tier.

[southpaw]

Is there such a thing as a regional if a system that is nationwide carrying their broadcast? The games may have a regional flavor to them but they still would be broadcast nationwide. Where is ScottM when you need his legal opinion? Why would CBS pay what they did to be trumped out by a so-called regional network? The bought the rights to show the NCHC nationally.

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.

[mksioux]

It is kind of a cheat I think but, yes, it would still be considered regional. DirecTV is able to carry local channels within their sports tier and broadcast them nationally over their satellite infrastructure. Think NESN and YES. Those are both local channels in their home markets but you can watch them on DirecTV if you pay for the sports tier.

I think you're right. Compare it to the NHL. NBC/SN has the national contract for NHL games. The Minnesota Wild would not be allowed to go out and contract with CBS/SN to air its games. But the Wild is allowed to contract with FSN-North to carry its games becaue FSN-North is a regional network. However, if you're a DirecTV subscriber, you can buy FSN-North and watch the Wild from anywhere in the country. But it's still a regional channel and the fact that it's available nationally through DirecTV does not violate NBC's exclusive national contract with the NHL. The only games FSN-N is not allowed to air are the games NBCSN decides to air.

I believe Denver still has some sort of deal with Root Sports, and I believe you can get Root Sports anywhere in the country through DirecTV. Nevertheless, I do not think Denver's Root deal will be impacted by the CBSSN deal, except that Root will not be able to air a game that CBSSN is airing (or apparently a Friday night doubleheader game even if CBSSN is not airing it).

The bottom line is that if Midco Sports Net could somehow make its way on to DirecTV's sports tier, that would be huge. But I think it's a long-shot.

[SiouxVolley]

What I don't understand is why UND didn't negotiate some type of TV privileges as a condition of entering the NCHC. After all, the conference needed us. Denver can be on regional networks that cover millions of people in multiple western states and get paid more than Midco could ever pay because of the potential audience. That Denver-based regional sometimes can be picked up on satellite or national cable. Same with Miami and W Michigan. Those two get on regional networks that cover millions of people, which also get picked up by satellite providers well outside their regional network areas. Meanwhile, UND is limited to the Dakota's for regional coverage, when there are tens of thousands of alumni in Minneapolis-St Paul alone as well as thousands in Denver and Phoenix and other cities. In other conferences, the power teams do get exceptions. Guess the NCHC and Faison didn't consider us a power team that was absolutely needed for the NCHC to succeed? We had the leverage for bargaining a special deal, but sounds like we didn't even attempt to get it. Mn-Duluth and St Cloud St could well get better regional deals than we could ever get, not because of their popularity, but because Fox North could well need their programming and have a greater potential audience just with the Cities. UND should at least have had regional rights in the five state Upper Midwest region as well as Western Canada.

[Boy Named Sioux]

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.

This is correct. No dedicated servers on site. Matter of fact I believe Neulion doesn't have their own servers either. It looks like they partner with Akamai, Limelight and a few others to handle their streams. Akamia and Limelight are absolute monsters of streaming capacity (handling streams for Netflix and Hulu, thousands of others). I am not 100% sure on the whole arrangement, but it likely works like this:

Neulion exists as a way for their customers to monetize their streams. Think of it this way: they are a middle-man of sorts, so when UND needs a way to stream their games, UND doesn't really have to worry about the encoding,transmitting, bandwidth, etc. Instead, UND goes to a company like Neulion and tells them what they are looking for. Neulion arranges the rest and provides a link back to UND. That is over-simplified, but I think it gives a general idea.

One of the main customers for Neulion is NHL. The NHL streams every game (with few exceptions) and mostly in HD. This amount of bandwidth is only a tiny fraction of what the Akamai or Lilmelight servers provide. So you can really forget about bandwidth from UND or Neulion being an issue.

That doesn't mean there will be no problems. As with any data streaming, the real performance issues are what they call "last-mile" issues - because most performance issues originate within one mile of your home. Either with the internet service providers or (most often) with the modems,cables,pc's, laptops, etc that are actually getting the signal. These are things that are out of the providers' control. BUT - for the most part, this is getting better and better as we update our electronics at home.

You can be sure that there will be at least some people who will have some problems with watching the games "on the internet" (video lagging and stuttering etc) - but for most people, most of the time, my guess is we are going to be impressed.

You don't have to like it, or get used to it - but more and more programming is going to be available this way. It might be a while before it is as "idiot-proof" as hooking up a co-axial cable to a TV - but that ship has sailed. Technology benefits those who fight it the least. The good news is it won't be long before there won't be a need to hook up additional equipment to watch internet on your TV. For example, there are already literally millions of people watching things like NHL, netflix, hulu, HBO-Go on their TV's by using a wireless enabled "smart" tv or through a wirelss enabled DVD/blueray player, PS3, X-box, Roku,Apple TV and so on. It will be a short time before you can add Sioux games to that list.

I hate the fact that our TV contract is "going backwards" in terms of exposure or ease of use. I hate the fact that this is the last season of the WCHA as we know it. But a LOT of things changed when the BIG got formed...it sucks - but we will get past it.

[jdub27]

What I don't understand is why UND didn't negotiate some type of TV privileges as a condition of entering the NCHC. After all, the conference needed us. Denver can be on regional networks that cover millions of people in multiple western states and get paid more than Midco could ever pay because of the potential audience. That Denver-based regional sometimes can be picked up on satellite or national cable. Same with Miami and W Michigan. Those two get on regional networks that cover millions of people, which also get picked up by satellite providers well outside their regional network areas. Meanwhile, UND is limited to the Dakota's for regional coverage, when there are tens of thousands of alumni in Minneapolis-St Paul alone as well as thousands in Denver and Phoenix and other cities. In other conferences, the power teams do get exceptions. Guess the NCHC and Faison didn't consider us a power team that was absolutely needed for the NCHC to succeed? We had the leverage for bargaining a special deal, but sounds like we didn't even attempt to get it. Mn-Duluth and St Cloud St could well get better regional deals than we could ever get, not because of their popularity, but because Fox North could well need their programming and have a greater potential audience just with the Cities. UND should at least have had regional rights in the five state Upper Midwest region as well as Western Canada.

I would guess in negotiations, CBSSN made this a non-starter. The good news is, if ratings and feedback is good, I wouldn't be surprised to see the number of games shown nationally increase year to year which has positive and negative consequences whether you have access to MidcoSports or not.

[Cratter]

What's considered local? If the channel can be picked up nationally its no longer a regional channel...didn't jayson say fox sports couldn't broadcast a Wisconsin game from the Ralph even though that's a "regional" network because of the cbssn contract?

[SiouxVolley]

I would guess in negotiations, CBSSN made this a non-starter. The good news is, if ratings and feedback is good, I wouldn't be surprised to see the number of games shown increase year to year which has positive and negative consequences whether you have access to MidcoSports or not.

If UND had made this as a condition of joining the NCHC, CBSSN wouldn't have had a say. Granted, they may pay less to the conference, but with 1/8th share UND would have ,made more.

They didn't make it a non-starter for Denver's regional carrier to be in multiple states. Cable in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, New Mexico, and western parts of Kansas / Nebraska / SD, as well as Colorado have that network.

Meanwhile, UND gets apportioned ND, SD, and NW Minnesota with Midco. Big difference there.

[jdub27]

They didn't make it a non-starter for Denver's regional carrier to be in multiple states. Cable in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, New Mexico, and western parts of Kansas / Nebraska / SD, as well as Colorado have that network.

Meanwhile, UND gets apportioned ND, SD, and NW Minnesota with Midco. Big difference there.

We have the same ability as the other schools to be picked up by a regional network. The problem is Midco is that regional option and they aren't as established as Root/Atlitude are. Not sure what kind of special deal UND would be able to broker unless I'm misunderstanding what your question is?

[SiouxVolley]

We have the same ability as the other schools to be picked up by a regional network.

Is that in fact been proven to be true? Would UND have the right to be picked up by Fox Sports North, which is the NCHC may view as outside our media footprint as it is based outside our state. Denver, Miami, and W Michigan's regional networks are based in their states.

The problem is Midco is that regional option and they aren't as established as Root/Atlitude are. Not sure what kind of special deal UND would be able to broker unless I'm misunderstanding what your question is?

Would UND be able to have a limited contract with Fox Sports North, specifically when playing any Minnesota school at home. Would it be able to have a contract with a Canadian regional network? Those are examples. The elimination of Fox College Sports as an option didn't affect anyone else adversely but UND. We are the only school that gave anything up. Denver / Miami / W Michigan will all get get on satellite by default, with their regional networks (Miami and W Mich supposedly have deals to be announced with Fox Sports Detroit and Fox Sports Ohio) that will allow them to have a national satellite system.

The only way to solve it is for MidCo to get available nationally. But really, would Direct TV or Dish TV actually have interest? Other regional networks are filled with MLB, NBS, and NHL and BCS programming. Denver hockey wouldn't get picked up nationally unless it was offered on the backs of Denver pro teams.

[Cratter]

It sorta is funny how this might not affect Denver broadcasts much, but might increase their exposure. All there's games could be seen nationally because "Roots" is local!!!! Hahaha

[mksioux]

If UND had made this as a condition of joining the NCHC, CBSSN wouldn't have had a say. Granted, they may pay less to the conference, but with 1/8th share UND would have ,made more.

This has always been my thought. UND should have insisted on the preservation of its TV deal prior to the formation of the league (not just once the league entered into negotiations with television providers). But Jayson said we're being naive to think UND had that much bargaining power. He said UND did all it could to keep its TV deal. I have no basis to doubt him.

Maybe I'm just thinking like a fan when I view UND and Denver as the ringleaders in the formation of the NCHC. Maybe I'm being elitist when I think that UMD, CC, UNO, and Miami would have followed UND and Denver even if UND had insisted on keeping its TV deal as a precondition. I obviously was not privy to any of the negotiations, but it just seems to me that Denver and UND were the main schools in the creation of the league and could have set a few ground rules. But I guess that wasn't the case.

[jdub27]

Is that in fact been proven to be true? Would UND have the right to be picked up by Fox Sports North, which is the NCHC may view as outside our media footprint as it is based outside our state. Denver, Miami, and W Michigan's regional networks are based in their states.

Would UND be able to have a limited contract with Fox Sports North, specifically when playing any Minnesota school at home. Would it be able to have a contract with a Canadian regional network? Those are examples. The elimination of Fox College Sports as an option didn't affect anyone else adversely but UND. We are the only school that gave anything up. Denver / Miami / W Michigan will all get get on satellite by default, with their regional networks (Miami and W Mich supposedly have deals to be announced with Fox Sports Detroit and Fox Sports Ohio) that will allow them to have a national satellite system.

The only way to solve it is for MidCo to get available nationally. But really, would Direct TV or Dish TV actually have interest? Other regional networks are filled with MLB, NBS, and NHL and BCS programming. Denver hockey wouldn't get picked up nationally unless it was offered on the backs of Denver pro teams.

I believe that TV deal was up after this year and there was no guarantee of it being renewed, so unless someone has some information on that, it is possible that FCS may or may not have been an option next year anyway. Also, no one is aware whether UND made or even lost money with that deal.

Like most, I'm not real excited on all the aspects of the new deal, particularly the Friday night doubleheader clause, but I have faith in the athletic department to come up with solid solutions, especially being they have over 6 months to do so. They are well aware of the pride and demand of the alumni base for UND.

[Snake]

^ exactly. Everyone seems to assume the FCS deal was signed in perpetuity. Does anyone know if it was really an option for next season?

[siouxnews]

Dumb move on UND's or the conferences' part because from what I can see on DirecTV's website, I have to pay for the highest package they have ($87/mo) to even get CBS College Sports. We were the #1 most followed North American team during the lockout/ #4 globally (so I heard). Regardless, it's BS that we have crap for coverage 75 miles down the road.

if that statement is true then whoever owns the rights to UND games will air the UND games.

[sprig]

The only way to solve it is for MidCo to get available nationally. But really, would Direct TV or Dish TV actually have interest? Other regional networks are filled with MLB, NBS, and NHL and BCS programming. Denver hockey wouldn't get picked up nationally unless it was offered on the backs of Denver pro teams.

Midco definitely wants to be added to dish and directtv. I don't doubt they are counting on the outcry by thousands of Sioux fans to those satellite providers to make it happen. All we can do is continually ask dish/directv to add midco to their sports paks. If we can get Knight up to 30000 votes on the Hobey site, we can certainly overflow the satellite TV's with emailed requests. Best to start ASAP. And the number of emailed requests to those providers is not limited to one/day/computer/browser.

The absence of pro team content, however, will no doubt be a problem. While I have not yet given up totally, I'm resigned to the fact that Sioux hockey as I've had it on TV for the last 10-15 years is all but gone. Guess I could move to a city with midco

[watchmaker49]

Not true. As stated before, the NCHC deal with CBSSN prohibits UND from broadcasting any game on a national basis unless it is on CBSSSN.

I take this as meaning that even if Midco went on Direct or Dish they still could not show games. So if I am right then asking Direct or Dish to carry Midco still would not get the games on Direct or Dish. I am going to email Denver and ask them where this deal puts them with Roots.