Flo Sports

[Hawks88]

I just discovered yesterday that North Carolina Wesleyan games are on FloSports. While all the pub has been about conference broadcast rights the streamer has been acquiring, it appears they will also do deals at the institution level, which apparently happened with NCWU beginning a year ago: https://ncwsports.com/sports/2024/8/26/flosports.aspx

I'm not sure of another example of this, but then again I wasn't aware this one existed until yesterday. Only other exception to the conference all-or-nothing deals I'm aware of is when we saw the SCAC deal with FloSports announced with a couple schools opting out.

Thanks for that explanation. I was watching that game as well (poor Averett) and wondered if it was a conference-wide arrangement or not.

Yes, NCW was on Flo last season. I can't speak on last night or any of their other games but for the Huntingdon game last year, the production was miles ahead of what they had previously been putting out. I was told last year that the conference as a whole likely would join Flo sooner rather than later and all had committed to improving their productions. I didn't realize until late in the season that Huntingdon had added a play-by-play announcer, so the commentary isn't coming from the top row fans any more.  

[y_jack_lok]

The broadcast of the RMC/Dickinson game was fine, but the replay has buffering/freezing problems at many points throughout the game much like Ron Boerger describes with the live Trinity/TLU game.

[Ron Boerger]

The broadcast of the RMC/Dickinson game was fine, but the replay has buffering/freezing problems at many points throughout the game much like Ron Boerger describes with the live Trinity/TLU game.

nteresting.  I only watched the live game which was pretty much perfect (and what a fine broadcasting crew from R-MC). 

[y_jack_lok]

The broadcast of the RMC/Dickinson game was fine, but the replay has buffering/freezing problems at many points throughout the game much like Ron Boerger describes with the live Trinity/TLU game.

nteresting.  I only watched the live game which was pretty much perfect (and what a fine broadcasting crew from R-MC).

Yes, Rob Witham and Marty Wilson do a wonderful job.

[Kuiper]

Here is a report from Bob Quillman on X of data provided by a D3 SID as to pre- and post-Flo viewership (I assume it is pre and post-Flo as opposed to last year's Flo and this year's Flo viewership).  I think it is for a single school

Regarding @flosports, this is from an SID at a major D3 conference school...

"Here are very early numbers of viewers on Flo compared to last year's average.

Volleyball - down from 292 to 38
Soccer - down from 583 to 91
Football - down from 1421 to 442"

The interesting thing about these numbers is that these are pretty good numbers from Flo's perspective.  Assuming they are all paid subscribers, there is no or minimal overlap, and they average $100 per subscriber, they are getting ~$57K, which is almost double what they paid to the school and that's only from three fall sports.

Of course, from the school and SID's perspective, these numbers are bad because of reduced exposure. It's so early in the season, though, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of the loss of viewers is fans of the opposing team that is part of a conference that doesn't use Flo.  I'm sure what the school wants to know (but is hard info to get) is who the lost viewers are since not all exposure is the same.  I know other SIDs have said that the lost viewers were very short duration "look-ins" to check score etc.

[WUPHF]

Volleyball - down from 292 to 38
Soccer - down from 583 to 91
Football - down from 1421 to 442

The interesting thing about these numbers is that these are pretty good numbers from Flo's perspective.  Assuming they are all paid subscribers, there is no or minimal overlap, and they average $100 per subscriber, they are getting ~$57K, which is almost double what they paid to the school and that's only from three fall sports.

It would be interesting to know which school and how many look-ins are represented in those numbers.  Part of the appeal was the additional look-ins, right?  If those numbers were from Chicago, for example, then I account for three of those unique views.

[WUPHF]

Just adding, I think do think the look-ins are rare and that most of those views are unique subscribers.

Also, I was surprised how one broadcast was taking quick commercials breaks during short breaks in the action.  Breaks that most broadcasters would have talked through, in my experience.

It would be interesting to know the contract details on commercial breaks.

[Ron Boerger]

Since all Flo is doing is rebroadcasting the school's streams, contracts are most likely on a school-by-school basis. I noticed them pre-Flo.

[WUPHF]

Since all Flo is doing is rebroadcasting the school's streams, contracts are most likely on a school-by-school basis. I noticed them pre-Flo.

I'll be surprised if that is the case.

I believe the Flo Model is to earn revenue from both subscribers and advertisements.

The ads were for Google Gemini, Toyota and such, the type of advertisers that are running massive campaigns on YouTube and such.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Since all Flo is doing is rebroadcasting the school's streams, contracts are most likely on a school-by-school basis. I noticed them pre-Flo.

I'll be surprised if that is the case.

I believe the Flo Model is to earn revenue from both subscribers and advertisements.

The ads were for Google Gemini, Toyota and such, the type of advertisers that are running massive campaigns on YouTube and such.

As I've been watching the past two years, it seems to be a mix of clearly Flo added content and local stuff from the schools.  I'm not sure how that all worked out in negotiation, because some streams don't seem to have any ads at all.  Maybe that varies by conference/contract?

[WUPHF]

As I've been watching the past two years, it seems to be a mix of clearly Flo added content and local stuff from the schools.  I'm not sure how that all worked out in negotiation, because some streams don't seem to have any ads at all.  Maybe that varies by conference/contract?

This makes sense.  CWRU has run ads for Cleveland-area businesses and I imagine that will continue, but they will provide for an interesting test case.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

As I've been watching the past two years, it seems to be a mix of clearly Flo added content and local stuff from the schools.  I'm not sure how that all worked out in negotiation, because some streams don't seem to have any ads at all.  Maybe that varies by conference/contract?

This makes sense.  CWRU has run ads for Cleveland-area businesses and I imagine that will continue, but they will provide for an interesting test case.

Case has always had a pretty robust ad presence with lots of local sponsors.  I'm sure that's a pretty lucrative income stream they weren't interested in giving up.

CWRU was one of the schools I spoke with for my initial Flo article.  They have an institution-wide on-site vendor for all video production - I suspect the Flo money just supplements what the athletic dept was already paying out for broadcasts.  As long as the vendor can meet tech specs (which shouldn't be an issue), CWRU should gain the most with the least effort of any school moving to Flo, especially if they can keep all their ad revenue (who knows how that might change with a decrease in viewership) - although I suspect a lot of that is just goodwill payback for institutional donors over specifically sold ads.

[WUPHF]

Case has always had a pretty robust ad presence with lots of local sponsors.  I'm sure that's a pretty lucrative income stream they weren't interested in giving up.

CWRU was one of the schools I spoke with for my initial Flo article.  They have an institution-wide on-site vendor for all video production - I suspect the Flo money just supplements what the athletic dept was already paying out for broadcasts.  As long as the vendor can meet tech specs (which shouldn't be an issue), CWRU should gain the most with the least effort of any school moving to Flo, especially if they can keep all their ad revenue (who knows how that might change with a decrease in viewership) - although I suspect a lot of that is just goodwill payback for institutional donors over specifically sold ads.

That is all interesting and logical.  I do think CWRU has one of the best multi-camera live streams in Division III.

[jekelish]

Since all Flo is doing is rebroadcasting the school's streams, contracts are most likely on a school-by-school basis. I noticed them pre-Flo.

I can say that I know part of the contract is that the schools are obligated to run, minimally, ads for Flo. Any additional ads are up to the school, but they are required to run a certain number of Flo ads during each broadcast.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Since all Flo is doing is rebroadcasting the school's streams, contracts are most likely on a school-by-school basis. I noticed them pre-Flo.

I can say that I know part of the contract is that the schools are obligated to run, minimally, ads for Flo. Any additional ads are up to the school, but they are required to run a certain number of Flo ads during each broadcast.

That's definitely true for some conferences.  I'm not sure it's true for all.  There are definitely streams without ads, but that may be a tech issue more than a contractual one.  It's very hard to know, and even harder to confirm.