MSHSL and KSTC extend contract through 2021

hockeydad · Post by **hockeydad** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 11:22 am

OR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

League TV contract extended; Webcasting of additional tournaments planned

The Minnesota State High School League and its television partner KSTC-TV, Channel 45 have extended their agreement for the live broadcast of select state tournament events through 2021. In addition, the agreement expands the scope of live coverage of League state tournaments via free Web streaming. The new agreement also provides for KSTC-TV to expand marketing opportunities that will benefit both the League and the television station.

“We are extremely excited to have earned the faith of the League’s Board of Directors to allow us to extend our contract and expand the coverage of state tournaments with the advent of free live Webcasting,” said Susan Wenz, Station Manager of KSTC-TV. “Our partnership with the League to date has been fantastic and the extension of the contract, with the accompanying commitment to expanding coverage via the Web, as well as additional marketing opportunities at these events, will assist the station in our branding as the exclusive source for high school sports and will assist the League in providing additional live coverage of events that are not currently televised.”

Beginning with the current school year, four state tournaments will be available free of charge for viewing on the Web, produced by KSTC-TV in partnership with GrandStadium. The 2009 State Girls’ Volleyball Tournament, the 2010 State Wrestling Tournament, the 2010 State Girls’ Softball Tournament and the 2010 State Baseball Tournament will be Webcast live on 45.GrandStadium.tv. In each of the subsequent three years through the 2012-13 seasons, additional events will either be Webcast live or taped for later special highlight presentation on the 45.GrandStadium.tv Web site.

“As most everyone can imagine, there is an increasing interest in adding additional League-sponsored tournaments to the existing live coverage for football, hockey and basketball,” explained Dave Stead, executive director of the Minnesota State High School League. “In order for a television station to be interested in providing live coverage, there has to be an interest on the part of advertisers to support the broadcasts, which are quite an expensive undertaking. The evolution of video applications to the World Wide Web offers an exciting opportunity to provide similar live coverage at a fraction of the cost while at the same time giving fans anywhere with access to a computer the chance to follow the event live – and at no cost to them.”

The League, KSTC-TV and GrandStadium will continually monitor the interest in the tournament Webcasts and consider expansion of coverage to section tournaments and possibly even select regular season contests.

Post by **karl(east)** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 6:26 pm

Free web streaming? Excellent!

ACTUALFORMERPLAYER · Post by **ACTUALFORMERPLAYER** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 11:08 pm

I'm OK with this as long as Hill lets Stillwater go to state, then Phil can't help with the broadcast.
Well I'm dreaming maybe Fletcher will sign Darby too.

PuckRanger · Post by **PuckRanger** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 3:24 am

karl(east) wrote:Free web streaming? Excellent!

This doesn't include hockey though...

This binds us to the to the current absolutely poor state tourney broadcasts we have seen for the past several years for way too long. This is NOT good news for hockey.

MNHockeyFan · Post by **MNHockeyFan** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 8:10 am

I don't mind the broadcasts so much, and in fact I think they do a very good job in some ways, but they need to find a way to televise the games in high definition. Same applies to Gopher hockey on FSN.

Gopher Blog · Post by **Gopher Blog** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:03 pm

MNHockeyFan wrote:I don't mind the broadcasts so much, and in fact I think they do a very good job in some ways, but they need to find a way to televise the games in high definition. Same applies to Gopher hockey on FSN.

Sounds like Hi-Def broadcasts are expensive so I can see why they wouldn't do it.

The only thing I don't like is the rehashing of the same few between period video pieces over and over and over...

Post by **east hockey** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 3:10 pm

Gopher Blog wrote:
MNHockeyFan wrote:I don't mind the broadcasts so much, and in fact I think they do a very good job in some ways, but they need to find a way to televise the games in high definition. Same applies to Gopher hockey on FSN.
Sounds like Hi-Def broadcasts are expensive so I can see why they wouldn't do it.

The only thing I don't like is the rehashing of the same few between period video pieces over and over and over...

Agreed. They need to either come up with new features or drop them altogether.

Lee

Post by **karl(east)** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 4:59 pm

PuckRanger wrote:
karl(east) wrote:Free web streaming? Excellent!
This doesn't include hockey though...

This binds us to the to the current absolutely poor state tourney broadcasts we have seen for the past several years for way too long. This is NOT good news for hockey.

Yay, I once again fail at reading fine print.

You'd think hockey would be the one the advertisers would want to get online. But I suppose that would just be too logical.

summer · Post by **summer** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 9:02 am

karl(east) wrote:
PuckRanger wrote:
karl(east) wrote:Free web streaming? Excellent!
This doesn't include hockey though...

This binds us to the to the current absolutely poor state tourney broadcasts we have seen for the past several years for way too long. This is NOT good news for hockey.
Yay, I once again fail at reading fine print.

You'd think hockey would be the one the advertisers would want to get online. But I suppose that would just be too logical.

Hockey is just a cult sport to those who look only at the numbers, the advertisers would like anything but hockey, except maybe soccer, they could probably televise the races at Shakopee and Elko, or the card games at Canterbury and get more viewers!