(09-23-2022 08:00 AM)TerryD Wrote: I am intrigued by the possibility of someday ND converting Fighting Irish TV into a subscription only model streaming service for ND football home games, no networks involved.
How many ND fans will pay ten bucks a month for this in order to watch ND football, plus other content?
Two million? More? Less? How much money can ND generate from this without having to share it with....anyone?
Jack Swarbrick said this about streaming an ND game on Peacock:
"He noted it is "less about what it might lead to for us than where the industry is going."
Swarbrick: "It is moving to streaming. In some number of years ... NBC will be Peacock and ESPN will be Disney+. We can all see this in our own lives." Swarbrick also noted fans "cannot have watched the pregame programming and the postgame programming and not have embraced what we were able to do" on a non-linear broadcast.
Swarbrick: "That’s all content you can’t do on a linear broadcast. ... It’s all stuff that streaming let us do." Swarbrick also noted streaming "lets us know who’s watching the game. You can’t get that information on a linear broadcast. And if we know who’s watching the game, we can communicate with them more effectively"
He also said this about Fighting Irish TV:
"If Irish fans truly embrace football independence, they should embrace the possibilities of Fighting Irish TV."
I think that ND is very interested in streaming versus linear networks in the future.
Yes. Yes. YES
This is what I’ve been harping about.
1- Why should large brands be tied to a conference for their broadcast/streaming package if they can make more money on their lonesome, offer a more personalized fan experience, and even start covering away games like radio?
* btw, didn’t ND on NBC used to have much more homer announcers? I actually liked that because it reminded me of sports radio, which I still listen to cutting the grass, in the car etc. Sometimes you want to watch the game with your pals that know everything about the team!
2- Streaming a football game is super cheap (relatively speaking) and makes a lot of money. This is obviously where the industry is headed. I wouldn’t be surprised if universities started offering this within their curriculum as hands-on classes. Seminar In Streaming Athletics in the College of Media Presentation.
3- This isn’t a new concept! I’d have to dig up the info, but I’m positive UPenn had a lucrative TV contract back when they played a national schedule and the NCAA shut it down because they weren’t making money.
4- Which brings me to my last point: the NCAA is weakened to the point they have hardly any control over anything. This means we’re going to get back to where we used to be: the UPenn model, aka the current Notre Dame model without the peacock middleman. One other difference: conference allegiance can still be maintained. I see no reason why we can’t have independent deals with teams in conferences. That’s evolution. You end up with a great schedule featuring regional rivals, the weak sisters, and round it out with a few national matchups of interest. The great thing about the Little League WS is that we see teams play each other that usually don’t. That’s what made the Rose Bowl special, or bowl games in general. THAT should be the goal of the expanded playoff.
