I guess ESPN is skipping the Ocho.
I'm at UNF and my students produced today's tennis event, the first live content on ESPN+. They shouldn't of, but they did and they did well in spite of the circumstances that led to this match being on ESPN+.
When I returned home from BEA/NAB yesterday this event was supposed to be a Facebook live practice run to prepare to do the ASUN conference finals on Sunday 4/22 on ESPN+ or 3/Ocho. When ESPN says jump the ASUN and most non-p5's says how high... and all of a sudden this is an ESPN+ priority event.
At 4pm on Thursday's many students at UNF have class, as do I. Tennis anyone?
I was working with students producing our monthly news magazine for airing on the JAX CW affiliate with three of the top students who would normally be at an ESPN3 event in the class working on the show. It's the capstone and they hope to graduate in two weeks so they needed to be there.
FYI, ESPN doesn't have an airworthy graphics project for tennis... it's a beta being sorted out in the ACC. It was like downloading software on Napster. It's the last week of the conference regular season schedule in tennis. What a joke. I'm sure it will be ready for the SEC Network and ESPNU's coverage of the NCAA finals.
I was on a panel with folks for Ball State and Toledo in Vegas. I know that ESPN+ is going to hurt the ASUN viewership numbers and they were feeling similar thoughts about the MAC. At least the MAC has the linear network weekday football fest in the fall. It's great to have the technology in the hands of students, and all of these events streaming for alums in particular, but the non-P5's are nothing more than a mass scaling revenue opportunity for ESPN to bank on and now there throwing in a paywall.
Schools only get 3 minutes of commercial inventory per game and with conferences and schools wanting to run their promo ads that leaves 90 seconds for a school to sell. Beyond what the conferences get, it just doesn't allow for any individual school revenue of note.
If I wasn't helping provide student support through academics to produce what is now approaching 60 events this year, UNF Athletics would be losing money on this endeavor when you factor in equipment purchases and maintenance.
I'll be interested to follow this thread to see how ESPN+ impacts how you all consume sports content going forward.
You just got lesson number one: don't think; it can only hurt the ball club. - Crash Davis (1988)
BS Ohio '88 - MA Florida '92 - PhD Florida '10