The ISD 200 School Board has approved two agreements that could bring new revenue to high school athletics while
expanding the district’s sports media coverage.
The board took action during a special meeting on August 12th at the middle school media center.
The first item on the agenda was the HCTV Raider Media Productions Agreement.
Athletic Director Trent Hanson told the board the program has been in development for about a year and a half and will involve athletics, HCTV, and the school’s media productions program.
“So, our media productions leadership team will be described as myself as the AD, Mike Bremer, executive director of HCTV, Hunter Pinke, who’s the sports director at HCTV, and then Josh Colvin, who’s our teacher of the media productions course and advises the club. The four of us, in addition to some others periodically, Kurt Radtke, etc. That’s the group that’s been convening for probably a year and a half, working through all the logistics.”
Hanson said the district has partnered with Hudl, a company that provides technology and production services to schools across the country.
He said revenue will come from two sources: business sponsorships and pay-per-view purchases for athletic events.
Sponsorship revenue will be split 80 percent to high school athletics and 20 percent to HCTV. Pay-per-view revenue will be split 60-40 between athletics and HCTV after a production fee paid to Hudl.
Hanson said three sponsorship agreements have already been secured, totaling more than $15,000.
“So as it sits right now, three sponsors, $15,500. So a straight-up answer is 80 percent of that would come to the high school. 3,000-ish would go to HCTV.”
Hanson estimated the athletic portion of the revenue could total between 15-thousand and 20-thousand dollars during the first year.
Pay-per-view prices will include seven dollars for a single game, 110 dollars for a full-year pass, and 15 dollars for a tournament pass.
Hanson emphasized that the first year will be a learning experience for the program.
“This is going to be very admittedly a baseline learning year. We don’t know if that’ll be again 50 views, 500 views. We’re going to learn.”
The program already has about 45 fall athletic events scheduled for livestreaming, covering six sports and three levels of competition.
The Hudl agreement runs for three years, while sponsorship agreements will be renewed annually.
Hanson also told the board that events will be available for free, delayed 24 hours after the original event through HCTV and Hudl.
The school board approved the Raider Media Productions Agreement.
The board then turned to a separate sponsorship agreement.
After discussing stronger language in the agreement and deciding that the superintendent or another designated person would approve sponsorship commercials, the board approved that agreement as well.
[Click the soundbite to listen to the report.]