When I was in Naples at the ITA Coaches Convention I heard someone mention that the SEC schools would be able to stream matches again this year after not being able to last year due to ESPN/SEC Network holding the streaming rights. I reached out to Tammy Wilson, the SEC’s Director of Communications, and she told me that the SEC schools can stream tennis this year as long as the following guidelines are met.
* ESPN shall retain the nonexclusive right to produce and distribute any SEC tennis events (regardless of whether the SEC member institution is also producing their own program) for Distribution on any SEC-ESPN Platforms (or any other media)
So basically if a school has cameras set up on each court and a way to view it on its website they are good to go. Hopefully we’ll see streaming video again in a few weeks from Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Auburn, and Texas A&M with those being the schools that streamed 2 years ago.
For schools that don’t currently have streaming video capabilities I learned at the convention that the cost to have PlaySight set up HD cameras with a scoreboard system on 6 courts is approximately $30000 and that is for a 3 year timeframe. For PlaySight to set up 6 Smart Courts it costs approximately $110000 for indoor courts and $120000 for outdoor courts.
I’d think if a school doesn’t currently have streaming capabilities it’d be wise to put something on its website seeking donations to help raise the funds. PlaySight can come in and do an assessment to see what would need to be done from a technical side to make it work and then it’d be just a matter of having the funds to do it.
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