 |
| Steve Penstone will reprise his role as Voice of Penn State Hockey. |
Just about 50 hours ahead of the inaugural NCAA Division I game in program history, Penn State has announced that video of men's home games will be streamed on Penn State's All-Access channel, while audio of all games will be broadcast over the school's radio network as well as the All-Access channel. Here's the relevant part of the release.
Thirteen [radio] stations in three states will carry Penn State men's hockey, while streaming will be available through GoPSUsports.com's All-Access channel. Video and audio streams will be produced for all home games and an audio-only feed will be available for road contests.
Penn State fans can purchase a monthly ($9.95) or yearly ($79.95) subscription that allows patrons to watch all Nittany Lion live-streamed and archived events. Subscriptions can be purchased at www.gopsusports.com/allaccess.
Steve Penstone, who served as play-by-play broadcaster for Penn State's club team the last 10 seasons, will return in the same capacity during the 2012-13 campaign. Tim King, who most recently served as a news anchor for KQV-AM in Pittsburgh, will join Penstone as color analyst.
The Nittany Lions will also appear on national television twice during the season. Both Penn State's matchups against Michigan State Jan. 26 and Wisconsin Feb. 25 will air on the Big Ten Network.
It's fantastic to finally know how fans not at the rinks (which will include myself some amount of the time) can follow the inaugural men's NCAA season, although it's unfortunate that no traditional television outlets will be involved beyond the two already-known BTN dates. Johnstown's WJAC, more than any other local TV outlet, seems to be in attendance at every major PSU hockey media event - I had actually convinced myself at one point that they were trying to promote the program because they planned to air a couple games. Obviously, the TV partners of the Flyers and Penguins have giant holes in their schedules as well at the moment.
The pay aspect to it is a little disappointing as well, but it should be remembered that we've been spoiled for quite a while with accessible and free Icers broadcasts, thanks to the hard and often thankless work of Steve and Barb Penstone. From a completely selfish standpoint, I do wish there was a pay-per-view option, versus requiring a card on file for an automatically recurring charge.
On a more positive note, it's fantastic to see Penstone back at the mic. He's become synonymous with the team's broadcasts over his decade of work, to the point where not bringing him back would have been a public relations disaster. The hockey radio network, while not quite as robust as it is for other sports, does reach several areas of the commonwealth and also includes out-of-state entries in Youngstown, OH and Olean, NY. In State College, the games will be on WRSC 103.1 FM.
Those interested in video of away games (beyond the two on BTN) will generally have to rely on broadcasts produced by Penn State's opponents, as they own the rights to video originating in their rinks. The alternatives there range from full internet streaming to non-streamed local TV broadcasts to nothing at all. As each away weekend comes up, I'll make every effort to communicate all available broadcast options.
Well it's nice to know that every once and a while my spit-balling and reading between the lines turns out about right.
ReplyDeleteReferring to the lack of "real" TV for any of the home games? Thanks for that knowledge, I sort of leaned on it a little bit in the post about the UW game making BTN!
DeleteYeah and even more specifically, that the coverage would be on Penn State All-Access (BTDN). I would assume that Penn State is being paid some amounts of rights fees in exchange for putting these on BTDN, which makes it a better deal for them than it was for U-Stream.
DeleteI think next year's coverage will be a lot better as BTN will have a lot larger presence with the start of BTHC.