Time for BC to Look Into Better Game-Viewing Options Online

This post is inspired by a comment on a previous post this weekend by Boston College Twitter posse member @lennyesq, a good BC fan who raises a good point. Here’s an excerpt of what he said following the BC/Northeastern hockey game on October 22:

"BC/ACC so-called “All Access” was supposed to have audio [of the game]; but they did not. This happens all too often; i.e., the “All Access” feed craps out or has technical difficulties. BCAA is clueless on what to do about this.How can NU provide a free, broadcast-quality webcast, with their own announcer and color commentator, while BC relies on somebody else’s half-baked setup?We have a National Championship-caliber program in a major sport, yet BC can’t webcast its games? I don’t get it?"

This got me to thinking: Why don’t we do this? Not just with hockey, but in our other big winter sports as well? We have home hockey games where we are forced to rely on GameTracker; ditto for men’s basketball and our other teams playing at Conte Forum. A lot of times, if there is video, you have to pay for it, or try to listen to a choppy streaming radio feed. This leads to many irritated Eagles fans being SOL if the game isn’t on TV.

So, how can Boston College improve this part of the fan experience? The answer is right under their noses.

The fact of the matter is that Boston College already has a lot of the technology needed and web infrastructure in place. If you’ve visited BC All-Access, and I’m sure you have, you know that what I’m saying is true. BC has the web platform for streaming digital media, with the major issues being that (1) it’s usually audio-only, (2) the video streams they have almost always cost money, which is a deterrent, and (3) the streams are prone to breakdowns. What Eagles fans are left with, more often than not, is disappointment and/or being forced to resort to the types of websites that Homeland Security shuts down for a grainy, bootleg feed.

I have also been on the production side of these webcasts: during my days at Boston College, I was involved with WZBC Sports. We did some broadcasts in the winter and spring for ACC Select, which I’m not sure is even still in existence to be perfectly honest. The ACC was streaming the content — men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball, etc. — on one of its websites, ACCSelect.com, but the school handled production and put together the broadcasts themselves. Further, Boston College paid me for my broadcasts, not the conference, and even though it was a labor of love, our pay was pretty minimal. The only gripe people may have had with that setup online, other than it not being every game, was that, again, a fee was assessed for the privilege of listening to me blather on about BC sports.

Whether the school was compensated somehow by the ACC for doing this work and fronting that money, I am unsure (and perhaps someone can illuminate on this point), but I do know that these were Boston College people at the cameras, at the controls, and behind the mics, and the man who coordinated the production was a BC guy as well.

The technology is available for Boston College to bring you live video of Eagles games; we know this because they’re already doing it for some games and charging for it. Obviously, this means they have TV cameras and still have the production technology in place (or something very similar to it) from when I was a student working the games. Additionally, we have an AV department, now called Media Technology Services. They operate several cable TV channels, which tells you yet again that we’ve got video cameras, the ability to carry out broadcasts, and the employees on-hand to be able to execute said functions and manage any technical issues that may arise.

Clearly, Boston College also has the ability to stream, since we know they’re doing it already. The current setup isn’t acceptable, however. Northeastern, who now broadcast online in high-definition for free, use a company called Stretch Internet, and their client services look on the surface to be impressive and all-encompassing. Their streaming was virtually perfect and I can deduce that their client fees aren’t oppressive, since local schools with smaller athletics programs, ostensibly less to spend and definitely less conference payout coin coming in, like NU, Holy Cross, and Harvard, are using them. There also are other companies which handle just this sort of thing and seem to be viable options, like Streambox.

I also know that we have the manpower. We know we have cameramen, because they’re doing the games for BC now (think about untelevised basketball games where we’ve been forced to watch the jumbrotron feed online — obviously, BC cameramen are providing that imagery). I also know that when we did ACC Select games, there were production crews of BC students getting paid to man the cameras as well. The broadcasters were all internal hires as well — obviously, since I was one of them, and we didn’t ask for (nor did we get) much. Honestly, Boston College won’t have to pay the broadcasters a ton; the especially-motivated kids at WZBC Sports will usually jump at the chance to do games, especially if it becomes a regular gig. This creates a scenario where the students can get hands-on experience with broadcasting, saves money, and gets the games out to your BC audience; it’s win-win-win.

Then there’s the issue of the money. I understand the economics of why BC is charging people to view the broadcasts, but there’s an old saying which I think applies: “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.” I am definitely not the only BC fan out here who has said “$5 to watch the game? Screw it.” I’m not suggesting that BC completely abandon that potential income, however, whatever it may be. Having also worked in commercial media, I am quite familiar with the advertising model. There are two obvious avenues to explore here: one, place paid advertisements on the streaming video interface, and two, sell advertisements during the game. You could have commercial breaks during stoppages of play like a regular TV network, or, if BC isn’t getting that kind of response, have the announcers do spots throughout the game for the few advertisers we are getting. I’m not sure what kind of rate card the school would put together, but given that more people are going to watch a free broadcast than a pay-per-view (and having seen the viewership stats when I did BC games, I know what I’m saying here), you might stand to make more money selling a few in-game spots to Eastern Clothing of Watertown than you would trying to wring a couple bucks out of BC fans to watch the game, anyway. From my perspective, it’s good business sense, because when you have a bunch more people watching your free, stable, good-quality broadcast as opposed to a so-so PPV, you can get more advertisers to bite.

Even so, it’s not like poor BC doesn’t have the money to front for this. Boston College is getting a payout from the ACC of as much as $12-13 million a year, and that figure stands to remain steady or, ideally, increase if the ACC is able to successfully renegotiate their TV deal with the pending entry of Syracuse and Pittsburgh. I understand that BC Athletics’ profits are lower than other BCS-conference schools, and I know the school is embarking on a gargantuan, $2 billion redevelopment plan, but I still don’t think money is the hold-up on this issue, especially considering the smaller athletics programs already doing what I propose. We’ve already established that Boston College has a lot of the infrastructure in place to be able to pull this off. Upgrading what we have, if necessary, would not burn through the endowment or even come close to wasting BC Athletics’ revenue. Likewise, covering all of the untelevised games, as opposed to a handful (for a fee), can still be done cost-effectively and free of charge to online viewers, and clearly there are benefits to doing it.

The bottom line is that these types of broadcasts — free, high-quality, and all the hockey and basketball games at Conte Forum — are not only possible logistically, but possible logistically very soon. Almost everything is already in place, but Boston College isn’t doing it. Instead of trying to figure out why (and I have two reasons in mind), let’s just implore Boston College Athletics to do something about it now. The net result will be better exposure for Boston College sporting events, more effective pushing of our product, a more professional feel for our programs, and the thanks of your fans who are looking for something positive in their fan experience.