After weeks of discussion and a successful trial run, I'm proud to announce that Bracken County HS has completed a deal with PCRO radio to broadcast their sporting events on PCRO's new Country music stream. Plans are in the works to cover volleyball in the very near future as well as football games. JT Teegarden and Mike Linville Will be bringing you all the Polar Bear action on PCRO.

 

GLAD we could finally get this hammered out. We appreciate all the patience from the good folks in Bracken County on this. Hopefully this is the beginning of a great partnership between neighboring counties and maybe the start of several more collaborations with other sister schools!

Awesome that this could all get worked out. Looking forward to the broadcast and a wonderful partnership for years too come:thumb:

Congrats to PCRO and Bracken County on working out a broadcasting partnership!

 

Is this a side effect of the demise of I-High?

 

The KHSAA sent out an E/Mail (below) earlier this week encouraging all of its member schools who broadcast over the internet to convert to NFHS (National Federation of High Schools - The National law-making game rules authority) who is now getting into the pay-to-listen subscription broadcast business.

 

Being in the "audio only" business we (Brossart) are quite happy with our arrangement with EZStream, although there are somewhat substantial costs incurred to maintain this relationship. With it we have editing capabilities as well as the ability to download our broadcasts onto hard drive or CDs and direct support at the push of a button on my cell phone.

 

Of course, anything that appears to be provided "free" and has the potential to generate revenue as opposed to lay out funds to provide what appears to be a similar service, is attractive to school administrations.

 

My gut feeling is that a school starting up from scratch might be able to get away with subscription broadcasting, but for those of us who have provided a free service over the years, it would be devestating to our listnership to suddenly be charged a fee to enjoy the services we have provided over the years. I firmly believe that if schools such as ourselves, Pendleton County, Augusta, and Bracken County can work out arrangements independent of this NFHS plan to carry and archive broadcasts, we will all be the better for it.

 

The KHSAA E/Mail reads:

 

This is being sent to the Athletic Director and Principal at all KHSAA Schools. This is being sent via electronic script and direct replies to the author may not be received.

 

Good afternoon. During 2013-14, the KHSAA partnered with the NFHS to become a member of the NFHS Network. This network, powered by PlayOn Sports, is a joint venture of nearly 40 state high school associations to aggregate content from all states and across all sports.

 

The KHSAA contributed all of the video content from the state championship events last year to this network. The events are behind a paywall, with a subscription-based model that helps ensure that attendance isn't harmed by technology. While many of us like to try "new things" and love getting our events out there, the cold, hard truth is that we can't continue expanding in new ways that provide something for free, when there should, in fact, be a charge.

 

Part of the NFHS Network is the School Broadcast Program. This program allows the school itself to originate broadcasts on the network, using a minimal amount of equipment. Similar to the program that we collaborated with iHigh to develop several years ago, this is a no-frills way to get your content out there for people to see, without spending a great deal of money. No rights fee is charged to the school to get content online. It has also proven to be a great venue to show other events (not just athletics) such as other school activities (plays, band competitions, graduation, etc).

 

The network has a very successful model where the paying subscriber (the end user) to the network purchases a pass (daily, monthly and annual plans are available), and has unlimited access to content for that period. For events produced by the school, the producing school receives a large portion of that subscriber fee (50% for 2014-15). For regular season play up to the state finals, the KHSAA receives NO portion of any webcast revenue from subscribers for these broadcasts.

 

NFHS Network School Broadcast program participants are also exempt from broadcasting fees for postseason contests for the early rounds of postseason play while all other entities will be subject to required rights fees to be paid for webcasting.

 

We are not asking you to make a commitment with this email. We are only asking that your school make a few minutes to talk to the folks at the network about joining in. The KHSAA will be using the network to stream championship play this year, and likely using it exclusively. The new HD capability of the network makes it a very attractive source to get your (and our) product out on the internet, but with the added benefit of getting back some revenue to help offset any loss of paying customers that this may cause.

 

I ask that you at least take the time to complete the survey at http://Link Omitted, and hopefully meet with these individuals. If you don't have time at your place, make time during the Annual Meeting on September 10 to visit with their staff when they are here that morning and sit in on their informative presentation.

 

Thanks for taking a look at this cutting-edge program.

Edited September 3, 201511 yr by Mustang

@Mustang- to answer your question referring to Ihigh, yes. We (PCRO) were already operating independently as of last year. After a discussion via text between myself and someone close to BC athletics occurred, we felt it was something worth looking in to. It came down to us being able to provide a better product for Bracken County at a reduced price.