Flo Sports

[WUPHF]

In this just posted 25 minute ODAC Podcast, most of the final nine minutes (and a few seconds) is devoted to the conference's partnership with FloSports.

Thanks for sharing! The podcast illustrates the points that have fascinated me from the beginning, the promise of the promotion of the athletes...

I have wasted more time than I care to admit, looking for evidence of this on Twitter and YouTube and I am surprised how little content Flo Sports is providing.  Maybe the content is on other platforms or is also behind the paywall (I still need to subscribe), but that makes no sense if the goal is the promotion of the athletes.

This podcast is interesting in that they also suggest that the Flo Sports platform will diversity the viewership.  That is to, fans from other colleges and universities that subscribe to Flo may watch other contests because they are in the Flo ecosystem.  I do not buy that...  Please correct me if that is not what they were saying.

[Ralph Turner]

That is to, fans from other colleges and universities that subscribe to Flo may watch other contests because they are in the Flo ecosystem.  I do not buy that...  Please correct me if that is not what they were saying.

I agree.  FLO Sports won't change my viewing habits favorably for D3.

[y_jack_lok]

In this just posted 25 minute ODAC Podcast, most of the final nine minutes (and a few seconds) is devoted to the conference's partnership with FloSports.

Thanks for sharing! The podcast illustrates the points that have fascinated me from the beginning, the promise of the promotion of the athletes...

I have wasted more time than I care to admit, looking for evidence of this on Twitter and YouTube and I am surprised how little content Flo Sports is providing.  Maybe the content is on other platforms or is also behind the paywall (I still need to subscribe), but that makes no sense if the goal is the promotion of the athletes.

This podcast is interesting in that they also suggest that the Flo Sports platform will diversity the viewership.  That is to, fans from other colleges and universities that subscribe to Flo may watch other contests because they are in the Flo ecosystem.  I do not buy that...  Please correct me if that is not what they were saying.

That sounded to me like what they were saying. I don't buy it, either.

I will say, though, that I decided to give Flo an early tryout, so on Thursday I watched part if the first half of a D1 women's soccer game. The home team, Stony Brook (Long Island, NY), plays in the CAA (C is for Coastal). Not sure what conference the other team -- UMass Lowell -- plays in. Anyway, it was just a basic broadcast, like hundreds of D3 games I've watched. The announcers were fine, but there was nothing special about the camera work. Since it was soccer, there were no timeouts (one water break due to heat) so no ads, no athlete profiles, etc. I didn't watch halftime, so maybe they had some special content then. Also, the game was on a multi-purpse field (football, soccer, maybe field hockey) in a nice stadium, though not huge. The game was very sparsely attended.

[Ron Boerger]

UM-Lowell is a member of America East, a non-football D1 conference.

[Pat Coleman]

Flo isn't producing the games, even for these D-I games. It's just a streaming service when it comes to game day broadcasts.

[jekelish]

Flo isn't producing the games, even for these D-I games. It's just a streaming service when it comes to game day broadcasts.

Yep. And on the same note: it's important to realize that ESPN+ streams are not produced by ESPN, either. They're produced by those schools and made to look uniform within the ESPN ecosystem, but the responsibility is on the schools.

[Gray Fox]

Flo isn't producing the games, even for these D-I games. It's just a streaming service when it comes to game day broadcasts.

Yep. And on the same note: it's important to realize that ESPN+ streams are not produced by ESPN, either. They're produced by those schools and made to look uniform within the ESPN ecosystem, but the responsibility is on the schools.

Then why do they need Flo? Not even an incremental gain?

[Kuiper]

Flo isn't producing the games, even for these D-I games. It's just a streaming service when it comes to game day broadcasts.

Yep. And on the same note: it's important to realize that ESPN+ streams are not produced by ESPN, either. They're produced by those schools and made to look uniform within the ESPN ecosystem, but the responsibility is on the schools.

Then why do they need Flo? Not even an incremental gain?

There may be some logistical production/site storage benefits behind the scenes and some very minimum tech standards imposed, but the fundamental reason is that Flo pays the schools for it and the viewers didn't (or groused when the school charged them for it like Rochester did).  Schools create content and Flo needs content to attract subscribers.

[WUPHF]

Flo isn't producing the games, even for these D-I games. It's just a streaming service when it comes to game day broadcasts.

His point was that the broadcast he watched was basic, similar to the many Division III streams that he has seen over the years.

Every league other than the Little East has stated that the Flo Sports arrangement will enhance overall production quality.

In the ODAC podcast, they explained that as better cameras and microphones among other things.

[jekelish]

Flo isn't producing the games, even for these D-I games. It's just a streaming service when it comes to game day broadcasts.

Yep. And on the same note: it's important to realize that ESPN+ streams are not produced by ESPN, either. They're produced by those schools and made to look uniform within the ESPN ecosystem, but the responsibility is on the schools.

Then why do they need Flo? Not even an incremental gain?

I mean, you could say the same about schools/conferences that are on ESPN+. Obviously not like, the ACC Network or anything like that, but for example America East. You get the branding without actually having Vermont and UMass Lowell on Big Monday, and Flo is trying to create a similar brand for schools outside of that ESPN/ESPN+/Power 4 dynamic, is what it feels like to me. I've long been skeptical about Flo but, upon learning more, I'm starting to get why schools/conferences are making the switch. I'm still not 100% sold but I'm getting it more, the more I learn.

[y_jack_lok]

Flo isn't producing the games, even for these D-I games. It's just a streaming service when it comes to game day broadcasts.

Exactly. Which seems to be what everyone is wondering about. The conferences and their member schools get some money. Viewers (who choose to) now pay for something that was once free, with no discernable improvements. I didn't find the explanation on the ODAC Podcast   https://odaconline.com/podcasts/the-odac-podcast-episode-15-three-cheers-to-50-years-/55 convincing or revealing as to any benefit to viewers. If you know something that hasn't already been said here, please share.

[Kuiper]

Flo isn't producing the games, even for these D-I games. It's just a streaming service when it comes to game day broadcasts.

His point was that the broadcast he watched was basic, similar to the many Division III streams that he has seen over the years.

Every league other than the Little East has stated that the Flo Sports arrangement will enhance overall production quality.

In the ODAC podcast, they explained that as better cameras and microphones among other things.

In the ideal world, schools are getting more money from the Flo contract than it cost them to livestream the games in the past and they spend that extra money on better cameras and microphones.  In the SCIAC, Pomona-Pitzer started using a drone for overhead second camera angle footage (at least in men's soccer) after they signed the FloSports deal, which seemed to me like a very tangible improvement in the broadcast.  La Verne, by contrast, still had the exact same poor, hard to see, stream from the top of the bleachers with no announcers.  My guess is that Pomona didn't really need the money, but agreed to go along with others in the conference that did, and used it to add some extras to the broadcast, while La Verne needed the money for other things and so its stream stayed the same.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Flo isn't producing the games, even for these D-I games. It's just a streaming service when it comes to game day broadcasts.

His point was that the broadcast he watched was basic, similar to the many Division III streams that he has seen over the years.

Every league other than the Little East has stated that the Flo Sports arrangement will enhance overall production quality.

In the ODAC podcast, they explained that as better cameras and microphones among other things.

In the ideal world, schools are getting more money from the Flo contract than it cost them to livestream the games in the past and they spend that extra money on better cameras and microphones.  In the SCIAC, Pomona-Pitzer started using a drone for overhead second camera angle footage (at least in men's soccer) after they signed the FloSports deal, which seemed to me like a very tangible improvement in the broadcast.  La Verne, by contrast, still had the exact same poor, hard to see, stream from the top of the bleachers with no announcers.  My guess is that Pomona didn't really need the money, but agreed to go along with others in the conference that did, and used it to add some extras to the broadcast, while La Verne needed the money for other things and so its stream stayed the same.

It will be interesting to see if LaVerne (and all the other schools) improve their broadcasts as the contract requires in year 2 and 3.  The contract details I know about from other conferences require soccer PBP eventually.

[ziggy]

In this just posted 25 minute ODAC Podcast, most of the final nine minutes (and a few seconds) is devoted to the conference's partnership with FloSports.

Thanks for sharing! The podcast illustrates the points that have fascinated me from the beginning, the promise of the promotion of the athletes...

I have wasted more time than I care to admit, looking for evidence of this on Twitter and YouTube and I am surprised how little content Flo Sports is providing.  Maybe the content is on other platforms or is also behind the paywall (I still need to subscribe), but that makes no sense if the goal is the promotion of the athletes.

This podcast is interesting in that they also suggest that the Flo Sports platform will diversity the viewership.  That is to, fans from other colleges and universities that subscribe to Flo may watch other contests because they are in the Flo ecosystem.  I do not buy that...  Please correct me if that is not what they were saying.

The last three minutes of the ODAC podcast hits on what I *think* is largely this additional promotion component and even acknowledges that much of this is yet to come and not even particularly pinned down yet. (concerning if the conferences are really hinging on this being a key part of the agreement yet have no contractual terms holding Flo to much of anything...)

It seems the vision is that Flo will be producing additional content that adds to the kind of work many school athletic sites are already doing and maybe allows for some additional storytelling or highlighting that a conference office might like to see but doesn't have content staff to produce on their own.

Flo has already been providing some web content, though I can't say that I have seen anything that I would consider substantive. It's mostly thin cookie-cutter preview/"how to watch" articles (example) or a summary of a newly released Top 25 poll. (example)

Unfortunately, these read like content from some of the sports blog content farms you'll find around the internet who are adept at using surface level stats and team records to pump out a large volume of content - a far cry from the "documentary" style features suggested in the ODAC podcast.

For example, one last basketball season's articles following the release of a D3Hoops.com Top 25 in early February contained this gem (link):

Trine dropped five spots after the inexcusable loss to them 11-6, Calvin

The need for an editor aside, this very much reads as someone who tried to offer analysis based on records and previous rankings alone rather than really knowing the ins-and-outs of the D3 basketball season. The article doesn't even recognize it as the D3HOOPS.COM Top 25, much less provide a link. I know the #d3hoops community did roast the Flo twitter accounts about this and they did start (kind of?) giving acknowledgement.

Maybe we start seeing something of higher quality and value when fall sports gets underway. Maybe.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Flo did some video promo work for the Landmark early on; I'm not sure how much of that has continued.  Obviously it's more and more difficult as they add conferences.  There is something to say about engagement, though.  If a fan from one conference isn't used to jumping from app to app to watch different teams, they might be more likely to click on a Flo game from another conferences than whatever is next in their netflix queue?