Tucked away in a room in Kolbe Hall on the University of Akron campus, a group sits at monitors gazing at the hardwood floors that fill their screens.
They’re there to prepare for the first of two Zips basketball games — one women’s and one men’s — they are tasked with producing.
Mike Bacon of Classic Teleproductions Inc., based in Twinsburg, oversees the action of what is now the new reality and possibly the extended future of broadcasting college sports.
As part of their television contract with ESPN, the Mid-American Conference and its members agreed to self-produce 35 events or more for the self-proclaimed “worldwide leader in sports” each year.
Given its reach, there’s a certain oddity in ESPN needing to have schools produce their own broadcasts. However, given the network’s goals, it makes sense — quite simply, it can’t be everywhere at the same time.
Perceived opportunity
When ESPN and the MAC began conversations about renewing their broadcast deal, the Disney-owned television network proposed the production portion that would mainly use ESPN3, the network’s Internet entity, as an outlet.
The MAC, receiving a significant boost in rights fees — about $1 million per year to each school until 2027, according to reports — agreed. The deal provided each school $100,000 for startup costs and a yearly stipend apart from any actual broadcast rights proceeds, said conference Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher.
A $685,000 budget for renovation, construction and equipment costs for two former classrooms in Kolbe Hall put UA in the television business. Of those funds, $500,000 has been spent with a few minor purchases still to be made.
Given the financial strife UA has endured over the past few years, that’s not a pauper’s sum of cash. It also represents a significant amount that ESPN doesn’t have to spend on producing games for its networks.
“I wouldn’t say you’re losing. I’d say you’re investing to make money in the long run,” senior associate athletics director for development and marketing George Van Horne said on Saturday afternoon as the work of preparing a broadcast took place around him.
A bigger issue is the university views it differently — and perhaps with good reason.
Keep in mind that several athletic conferences have their own outlets. When the Big 10 began the trend through a partnership with Fox Sports in 2007, widespread skepticism greeted it. Now the SEC, Pac-12 and Longhorn Network (University of Texas sports) are on the air.
Those networks allow the institutions and conferences to shape and control their messages to a general audience. For colleges such as UA — which have to compete with pro sports teams for precious airtime and space on newspaper pages — this serves a similar purpose on a smaller scale.
“We can’t rely on news stations to cover us in any sport,” Van Horne said. “What we’ll be able to do is take our New Media staff — it will meld into this staff — and hopefully there will be a full-time person or graduate assistant working with Mike and the Classic team.”
Educational benefits
Is there a use beyond raising the profile of the school’s athletic teams? It depends. The university has to buy into the operation, Bacon said.
Bacon said that once the operation is up to speed, its students — who will learn sports broadcasting behind the scenes, from camera work to graphics and, ultimately, directing a broadcast — will serve as primary staff. They currently produce not only the games, but weekly television shows and university-related material for halftime shows.
“In a lot of ways you’re like the coaches,” Bacon, who has 30 years of experience, said. “By the time you get the kids up to speed to where they can do things, they’re moving on.”
Finding prospective students who can do the job can be challenging, he said, but students currently working with him said the word is out on what the operation can offer.
Daniel Cermak, a senior majoring in communication media studies who previously worked on only prerecorded content for ZTV, the student-run station, calls it the opportunity of a lifetime because it gives him experience in live television.
“I was hoping I’d still be here while it was available,” he said, “so I was really lucky to get it in right before I graduate and at least get a start.”
Emily Kruft, a 24-year-old senior communications media studies major, agreed.
“It’s definitely helping me understand production as a whole — camera work, audio work, studio work — all of it. It’s really helping me get ready for graduation and realize, yeah, I might be able to get a job after this.”
Looking to sustainability
Whether this is a long-term scenario for the world of sports broadcasting remains to be seen. ESPN’s Brent Colborne, director of programming and acquisitions, said the network is committed to it.
Given that ESPN has taken a hit with cable subscribers, losing more than 9 million viewers since 2011, according to reports, it’s not difficult to see why that’s the case. Future growth will likely come from being mobile and flexible.
For ESPN’s fiscal year, which ended in October 2016, the sports channel averaged 8.2 million unique devices (phones, tablets, PCs and streaming devices) and 1.8 billion minutes per month, up 31 percent and 52 percent, respectively, over 2015, according to its figures.
For the network, it’s a matter of serving everyone everywhere.
“We are delivering on expectations from fans that all live events should be available on any device,” Colborne said.
And although that sounds like a challenge, the changing landscape of the vast entertainment wasteland says otherwise as the line between broadcast (traditional linear) and streaming blur, at least with respect to ESPN.
Two video providers — Comcast and most recently DirecTV — are making it easier to get access to ESPN3, the company’s streaming channel, via their set-top boxes.
DirecTV, which AT&T acquired almost three years ago, rolled out the ESPN app within the past two months. Viewers can have ESPN3, SEC Network+ and ACC Network Extra, as well as short-form, on-demand clips and highlights from ESPN.com.
Ultimately, that could benefit the MAC and UA and its students. For Cermak, the calculus is simple.
“To have an opportunity like this is incredible,” he said.
George M. Thomas can be reached at gmthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Zips blog at www.ohio.com/zips. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GeorgeThomasABJ.