Amidst all of the recent discussion of men's college hockey television rights, one deal has been reached that will allow for unprecedented access to Penn State's women's program - including the ability to watch all home games and conference away games.
College Hockey America and America One have announced a three-year partnership to show every game of the league’s regular and post season on the revolutionary broadband broadcasting network. All College Hockey America home games will be seen starting with the 2011-12 regular season and throughout the playoffs.
“This is a great opportunity for College Hockey America and its members,” states Bob DeGregorio, Commissioner of College Hockey America. “We are excited to show fans, family, alumni and current students at our member institutions the game of women’s ice hockey. It is a great game and if fans, family and alumni cannot be in the arena, this gives them another avenue to be a part of their institutions program.”
“This the first regular season conference-wide broadcasting agreement for women’s ice hockey and America ONE is honored to be the broadcast solution,” said Preston Bornman. “With our ONE Vision Plus player, College Hockey America’s parents, fans and alumni can enjoy all the live and archived games online and in high-quality.”
Fans will be able to watch all College Hockey America home games on their home computer via the new ONE Vision Plus Video Player. This player provides fans the ability to switch from live game to live game, as well have video on demand access to archived games for one price. The pricing for the 2011-12 season is as follows. A day pass, which includes going back and watching games from the previous 24 hours is $8.00. A monthly pass is $30.00, while a full-season’s pass is $120.00. The purchase of a season pass gives the fan an opportunity to go back and watch every College Hockey America conference games and home non-conference games played from the start of the season.
Three years, of course, means two years where PSU is a likely CHA member. With no Big Ten women's hockey in the immediate future, Big Ten Network's involvement with the women's game will probably remain pretty minimal, underscoring the importance of this agreement. While pay-per-view webcasts aren't necessarily ideal, they're roughly infinity times better than the Lady Icers' present broadcast arrangement and should be tremendous for fans (not to mention TYT's coverage).
One other quick and unrelated CHA observation, although not one that qualifies as news just yet. Lindenwood has released its 2011-2012 schedule, and it contains ten CHA games - just two fewer than full conference members, and including the full allotment against conference members Robert Morris and Mercyhurst. Numerous scenarios to re-populate the current four-team league have been kicked around, including one where Ohio State moves from the WCHA to CHA with Lindenwood sliding into the empty WCHA slot. But the schedules indicate a slightly different story. Could the Lady Lions be trying out for CHA membership starting in 2013-2014 when full NCAA membership is anticipated following a two-season provisional period?
That's a pricy package when you consider the all year streaming package for BTN is about $115.
ReplyDeleteNot bad, thanks for the knowledge! My only real context other than that are other college hockey games done by America One/B2 (UNO and Alaska were probably my two favorite teams before PSU came along and both used that platform), which carry an identical price tag.
ReplyDeleteI have to imagine that "the first regular season conference-wide broadcasting agreement for women's hockey" is in response to the new conference structure and TV deals on the men's side, which will cost them some business.