SHSU to partner with ESPN3 for select games
7/29/2016 4:20:00 PM | Athletics
Sam Houston State athletics will have a new home for live streaming video this season. Beginning in September, select Sam Houston home events can be viewed on ESPN3.
Every home football game that is not part of the weekly Southland Conference broadcast schedule will be live streamed by Sam Houston State on ESPN3. Also throughout the year, other select games will be featured on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.
“We are very excited to be able to partner with ESPN to bring Sam Houston athletics to a larger viewing audience,” said director of athletics Bobby Williams. “We started last season by committing to televising all of our football games for the first time in school history, and we feel like this is the natural next step, and we are happy to be able to take that step with such a recognized television brand like ESPN.”
The first game for Sam Houston that will be broadcast on ESPN3 will be the season opener for the football team against Oklahoma Panhandle State. Also, Sam Houston will produce the Oct. 29 Bearkat Family Weekend game against Texas Southern for ESPN3.
For the second straight year, the broadcast plans for all Southland Conference football games will be decided 12 days out from the game as part of the league's broadcast agreements with both ESPN3 and the American Sports Network. The league has already announced the Oct. 1 game against Stephen F. Austin will be shown on ESPN3.
“While last year the focus was getting the football games televised, we are extremely happy to be able to extend this to our other sports as well,” Williams said. “The Bearkat Sports Network has done a tremendous job producing our other sports for streaming on GoBearkats.com and we are excited to be able to take them on a national platform as well.”
The production for the games this season will be handled by a mix of third-party contract production companies, SHSU Online, the Bearkat Sports Network as well as students from the new sports broadcasting class in the Mass Communications department. Last season, the sports broadcasting class produced 13 baseball and basketball games for the Bearkat Sports Network and will expand that partnership in the second year of the program.
SHSU Online also began a partnership with Sam Houston Athletics and the Bearkat Sports Network last season, producing the live production for the new video board at Bowers Stadium and assisting with the streaming productions for Bearkat basketball and baseball. SHSU Online is currently in the process of building a new mobile production unit with brand new audio and video production equipment, as well as brand new cameras required to meet the high video standards set by ESPN.
Later this fall, the Bearkat Sports Network will announce a list of games from the other sports in the department that will also be included in this first year streaming agreement with ESPN3.
ESPN3 is ESPN's live multi-screen sports network, a destination that delivers thousands of exclusive sports events annually. It is accessible on computers, smartphones, tablets and connected devices through WatchESPN. The network is currently available to more than 99 million homes at no additional cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection or video subscription from an affiliated service provider. It is also available at no cost to approximately 21 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via computers, smartphones and tablets connected to on-campus educational and on-base military broadband and Wi-Fi networks.
