UND Sports TV Options

[nodak651]

2 hours ago, R_Schneider_4 said:

It’s because CBS wanted him to do football games, instead he chose the Pod. 

Which sucks because he could have called our Utah State game!

[siouxfan512]

9 hours ago, nodak651 said:

Which sucks because he could have called our Utah State game!

That would have been so awesome! .... for a quarter.

No need for anyone to comment on this. I'm not putting down the football team. I'm a big fan, and was super excited during this game, it was just too bad it had to fizzle out.

[nodak651]

https://www.inforum.com/sports/mcfeely-blog-und-opening-its-athletic-tv-rights-to-bids-expects-competition-for-them

The University of North Dakota will open its athletics television rights to bids, meaning there is potential for Fighting Hawks hockey, football and basketball to be carried by someone other than Midco Sports for the first time in a decade.

"We expect competition," UND associate athletic director for external operations Kyle Doperalski said. "We are expecting that there will be multiple responses."

[The Sicatoka]

So, who would be televising suitors ...

Midco, obviously. They've built up the franchise. 

WDAY-TV. But they just spent the bankroll to get NDSU away from KVLY. WDAY-TV did recently acquire KVRR-TV so might they want programming there? And KVRR has nice OTA coverage. 

KVLY-TV. They just lost NDSU Football. Are they good with network feeds on Saturday afternoons. 

Bally Sports North (formerly Fox Sports North) could be the wildcard. 

Radio broadcast?

iHeartMedia Grand Forks, the current radio home. 

Might Flag Family Media take a run at it? Scott Hennen (the REA PA guy before Darrin Looker) is an executive there. They have both WZFG-AM and WDAY-AM in Fargo now, but no Grand Forks presence. 

Would KNOX-AM Grand Forks, radio home back in the way back day, make a bid? 

 

All interesting.
I'm sure of almost nothing in this crazy world.

What am I sure of?
Whoever gets "radio" will be mandated to have this person as play-by-play. 

[The Sicatoka]

1 hour ago, nodak651 said:

https://www.inforum.com/sports/mcfeely-blog-und-opening-its-athletic-tv-rights-to-bids-expects-competition-for-them

The University of North Dakota will open its athletics television rights to bids, meaning there is potential for Fighting Hawks hockey, football and basketball to be carried by someone other than Midco Sports for the first time in a decade.

"We expect competition," UND associate athletic director for external operations Kyle Doperalski said. "We are expecting that there will be multiple responses."

Another link ...  

https://darik.news/northdakota/mcfeely-blog-und-opening-its-athletic-tv-rights-to-bids-expects-competition-for-them-inforum/202203504743.html 

[SiouxHawkGuy]

1 hour ago, nodak651 said:

https://www.inforum.com/sports/mcfeely-blog-und-opening-its-athletic-tv-rights-to-bids-expects-competition-for-them

The University of North Dakota will open its athletics television rights to bids, meaning there is potential for Fighting Hawks hockey, football and basketball to be carried by someone other than Midco Sports for the first time in a decade.

"We expect competition," UND associate athletic director for external operations Kyle Doperalski said. "We are expecting that there will be multiple responses."

Bally Sports please

[gfhockey]

What this means is I’m assuming midco and und couldn’t agree on how much und should be paid 

 

Bally probably won’t pay much fornus

 

und is thinking we are going to hold the deck of cards and give us your best offer

[gfhockey]

The biggest is who can handle hockey almost every weekend 

 

Kvly won’t do tape delay broadcasting almost every weekend

 

wday will be busy with ndsu basketball in winter

 

so assuming midco will get it back probably cheaper then their first offsr

 

stupid chaves 

[nodak651]

2 hours ago, gfhockey said:

The biggest is who can handle hockey almost every weekend 

 

Kvly won’t do tape delay broadcasting almost every weekend

 

wday will be busy with ndsu basketball in winter

 

so assuming midco will get it back probably cheaper then their first offsr

 

stupid chaves 

Interesting take.  Not in a bad way. 

I would think the likely outcome is that UND remains with Midco, but I have a TON of questions running through my head, but first off, UND badly needs to improve it's radio network.  There's zero UND sports talk and I'm sick as hell of having to sit through Dom Izzo's BS.  PLEASE somebody start a new panel-style show that is roughly 50-50 UND/NDSU centric, that also discusses regional sports, as well as local/regional non sports topics... something like Dan Cole level of sports content.  It's impossible to find anything that discusses UND to listen to, though, so even like a daily 30 UND focused show would be amazing. 1440 TheFan in Grand Forks doesn't stream any of it's locally produced shows - I think Hennessy still has a morning show and the coaches shows are all there is?  I've been wanting to listen to Tim's show, but TheFan in Grand Forks can't be streamed, as any of the stream now links that I can find just air TheFan's broadcast out of the Twin Cities, and there's no podcast format for shows shows either.  Hopefully UND can work to get something, anything, on the radio, and at a radio network that can be listened to out of just Grand Forks.  If I have to listen to any more of Chaves podcast or Dom Izzo I'm gonna lose it... For the record, this isn't me bitching, this is me being hopelessly optimistic about new radio programming.

I've heard that Bally is starting a stand alone streaming service like ESPN+.  If that's the case, UND could potentially stand a chance at getting a decent offer from them if they think UND could help them with subscribership with their new platform.  In the unlikely event that they are seriously interested in UND's rights, the biggest issue would probably be that they don't have the ability to air all of UND's games like Midco can, given that Bally also airs professional sports and they don't have enough TV channels.  Perhaps they would potentially be interested in something like Football only, if UND is willing to split up the TV rights like NDSU did.  Is UND willing to split up TV rights between sports?  Would the NCHC allow games to be streamed on a Bally streaming service?  Does the NCHC allow games to be streamed to Streaming TV Services that carry Bally, but not to a dedicated Bally streaming service?  MidCo's streaming platform is not allowed to stream MidCo's UND hockey games, for example, but if MidCo Sports channel was on something like sling, that would be ok, correct?  If Bally bought the rights, with their new streaming platform in mind, what would happen if the Summit Leage and Fenton decided to start up a stand alone streaming platform like NCHC.tv?  Fenton has stated that this possibility with the Summit league interests him.

If Bally offered a substantial offer to UND for something like football and 1/2 of hockey games, would Midco be willing to pay anything to produce the other half?  
With Augi hockey coming online, and in an important market for Midco, how much does that affect MidCo's desire to pay for and air all UND hockey games.  Is MidCo interested in airing Augi hockey, and if so, how many games?  Does the added supply of college hockey games to MidCo reduce UND's negotiating leverage?  Will the presence of a new D1 hockey program in Sioux Falls bring more awareness and interest to college hockey and help to increase UND's hockey's TV ratings on MidCo?  What are Midco's TV ratings for UND hockey and football?  How does UND's ratings compare to USD and SDSU?

[Kevin G]

Somewhat related: does anyone know what percentage of NCHC.tv subscribers are UND fans? 

My uneducated hunch is that NCHC.tv is only viable because of the UND fanbase. I realize I wear Kelly-green glasses, but it wouldn't surprise me if more than half of all NCHC.tv subscribers are Sioux fans. 

[gfhockey]

I’ve been told by the head guy at midco pat or whatever his name was when he was suite level one game und hockey dwarfs all average

 

when usd play sdsu in football or ndsu vs sdsu in football those games come very close 

I do think a lot of people in forks and surrounding area only have midco for the sports 

 

if they lost und they would lose lots of subscribers

but they called chaves bluff

 

[gfhockey]

Just now, Kevin G said:

Somewhat related: does anyone know what percentage of NCHC.tv subscribers are UND fans? 

My uneducated hunch is that NCHC.tv is only viable because of the UND fanbase. I realize I wear Kelly-green glasses, but it wouldn't surprise me if more than half of all NCHC.tv subscribers are Sioux fans. 

Mcizzo or one of the ndsu guys had a convo with Fenton about this at the summit league he just laughed and said what do you think. E

 

eafh school gets a cut of what their fans subscribe too but have to pick their fav school at start of season

[The Sicatoka]

3 minutes ago, gfhockey said:

I do think a lot of people in forks and surrounding area only have midco for the sports 

... more specifically, UND Athletics, and more specifically UND Hockey should the roads not be viable (or when Midco contracts an away game). 

[Kevin G]

Also, to my knowledge, Bally still isn't on Hulu, which is the only reasonable way some folks could get Bally. 

#theyareallgreedybastards

[The Sicatoka]

REA has one of the best production rooms around.
They used to run the football feed over to REA and send it out from there. (Do they still?) 

Does any collegiate athletics department ... manage its own rights and and its own streaming service? 

[Langster019]

It's too bad this is for UND's rights and not league rights. Uniformed production across the league would be awesome. One can wish.

 

As for this, regardless of who gets the rights, I'd be willing to bet it'll still be forced through NCHC.tv, which hurts the local market the most if it's pulled from local tv. I wouldn't think the university would go with a provider that isn't locally broadcast.  I don't see how Bally and NCHC can get on the same page for this bc you know UND won't be able to make a call for this without NCHC approval. Just don't know enough about behind the scenes details to have valuable input here.

[Langster019]

2 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

REA has one of the best production rooms around.
They used to run the football feed over to REA and send it out from there. (Do they still?) 

Does any collegiate athletics department ... manage its own rights and and its own streaming service? 

Would the Longhorn network count? All I hear are bad things regarding that one.

[The Sicatoka]

11 minutes ago, Langster019 said:

Would the Longhorn network count? All I hear are bad things regarding that one.

Kinda-but-not-really? It was still ESPN. 

LHN served a purpose: It prevented a "Pac-16" from forming and kept Texas with ESPN. 

Quote

 

Texas going to the Pac-12 to form a Pac-16 would have weakened ESPN’s position in college sports television and strengthened FOX’s position. Longhorn Network was a device used to leverage a situation in ESPN’s favor… and that’s what it did.

No one in Bristol cares if no one could find the channel or thought much of its programming. That was never the point.

 

 

[gfhockey]

17 minutes ago, Langster019 said:

It's too bad this is for UND's rights and not league rights. Uniformed production across the league would be awesome. One can wish.

 

As for this, regardless of who gets the rights, I'd be willing to bet it'll still be forced through NCHC.tv, which hurts the local market the most if it's pulled from local tv. I wouldn't think the university would go with a provider that isn't locally broadcast.  I don't see how Bally and NCHC can get on the same page for this bc you know UND won't be able to make a call for this without NCHC approval. Just don't know enough about behind the scenes details to have valuable input here.

How’d midco and nchc get in same page when Bally can’t?

 

remember the FSSN

Fox college sports would pick that up!

 

[The Sicatoka]

Join the B1G, get on B1G Network, get games tape delayed over 48 hours, and replayed at 0400 on a Tuesday. 

[Kevin G]

12 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

Join the B1G, get on B1G Network, get games tape delayed over 48 hours, and replayed at 0400 on a Tuesday. 

Another awful aspect of the B1G model for hockey is simply game times. Saturday-Sunday afternoon series? No thanks. And that's done to please the TV people. 

[nodak651]

52 minutes ago, Langster019 said:

It's too bad this is for UND's rights and not league rights. Uniformed production across the league would be awesome. One can wish.

As for this, regardless of who gets the rights, I'd be willing to bet it'll still be forced through NCHC.tv, which hurts the local market the most if it's pulled from local tv. I wouldn't think the university would go with a provider that isn't locally broadcast.  I don't see how Bally and NCHC can get on the same page for this bc you know UND won't be able to make a call for this without NCHC approval. Just don't know enough about behind the scenes details to have valuable input here.

34 minutes ago, gfhockey said:

How’d midco and nchc get in same page when Bally can’t?
remember the FSSN
Fox college sports would pick that up!

There's no issue between NCHC and Midco, because Midco doesn't stream the hockey games on their MidcoSN streaming service.  NCHC has streaming rights only, while Midco has the TV rights.  I don't recall any issues between FSN/Bally and NCHC.tv either, back when those channels were found on most of the streaming TV platforms, such as Sling, Fubo, Youtube TV, etc.  So NCHC games can technically be streamed if the TV channel the games are aired on are packaged with other channels and marketed as some type of streaming television package -I'd guess there may be some type of industry standard that defines this.  Companies like Midco and Bally that have or will have streaming services for their own networks wouldn't be allowed to stream the games (MidcoSN's streaming app for example).  CBSSN must have some type of tier 1 deal that supersedes Midco and NCHC.tv's rights, as I believe they can select to broadcast whatever games that they want, and those games aren't included with NCHC.tv.   Edit: I pretty much agree with Langster, in that there will be no change with NCHC.tv.  Without any changes with the NCHC.tv contracts, Bally wouldn't be able to stream hockey on their new stand alone streaming service, but hockey could be streamed on an online TV streaming service if Bally was in the channel lineup.  Bally would however be allowed to stream other sports, such as basketball and football (both are on Midco's app AND espn's app).  In regard to a uniformed production accross the Summit league, Fenton has said in interviews that this is important, but he also said there could be hangups or delays if they tried to do something like the NCHC.tv app, because they would have to deal with each schools existing broadcasting and streaming contracts.  He also also mentioned Midco as well, and how well they did the NCHC pod.

My prediction is that Fenton works out an agreement with Midco for a league-wide streaming deal, because Midco would pay for it and ESPN would pay much less, if anything.

[The Sicatoka]

Why isn't there something on FightingHawks.com about seeking RFPs for media rights? 

[jdub27]

39 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

Why isn't there something on FightingHawks.com about seeking RFPs for media rights? 

Most RFP's are sent out directly to those who someone is seeking a proposal to.
If one wanted to get their hands on it, FOIA would be the ticket. But I would be surprised if they put the actual RFP out for public consumption.
Unless of course you're just talking the basic info that is up for bid similar to what was in McFeely's article. In that case, probably looked at as a minimal concern to put the info out there until (if?) any change is made.

[nodak651]

38 minutes ago, jdub27 said:

Most RFP's are sent out directly to those who someone is seeking a proposal to.
If one wanted to get their hands on it, FOIA would be the ticket. But I would be surprised if they put the actual RFP out for public consumption.
Unless of course you're just talking the basic info that is up for bid similar to what was in McFeely's article. In that case, probably looked at as a minimal concern to put the info out there until (if?) any change is made.

UND also built a website that makes finding current proposal requests super easy: https://bids.sciquest.com/apps/Router/PublicEvent?CustomerOrg=UND

This is the official state website, which is also very good.  You can sort proposal requests by organization and date, and this one includes more archived and expired proposal requests, and it is also easier to find the associated documents/descriptions.  https://apps.nd.gov/csd/spo/services/bidder/searchSolicitation.htm

I wouldn't be surprised to see it show up here, as UND seems to do a good job of actually posting this stuff publicly.  This is how I found the non finalized plans for phase two of the HPC.  Proposal requests for things like football championship rings, athletics charter flights, and uniforms suppliers have also been posted there.