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C&J 475: Multimedia Journalism, Spring 2008

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NMAA.TV: The Source for Prep Hoops Madness

This story was written prior to the state basketball tournament at the Pit in March. High school basketball fans were able to watch the entire tournament on the Web via NMAA.TV.

by TRISTEN CRITCHFIELD

Can’t make it to the Pit this week for New Mexico’s prep version of March Madness? Don’t worry, access to all the state tournament basketball games is just a simple mouse click away.

The New Mexico Activities Association has a partnership with Team Power Stream Networks (TPSN),  which enables it to broadcast the games live on NMAA.TV.

Just don’t expect to see any games live on network television.

NMAA Director of Communications Robert Zayas said NMAA.TV gained exclusive rights to broadcast state championship events at a board meeting last fall.

“The board of directors said we had jurisdiction over who could broadcast our state championship events. The way technology is going today there are going to be multiple entities that want to broadcast our games. We wanted to have a bylaw to prevent that,” Zayas said.

According to a news release issued after the Oct. 3 meeting, the board of directors vote granted the NMAA exclusive telecast or broadcast rights to all events at the playoff level. That includes over-the-air television, cable television, radio, Internet and Web streaming.

NMAA.TV is not brand new – the NMAA has been using it for the past three years.

However, those associated with New Mexico high school basketball can remember when the state championship games were on live television.

“That’s the only drawback (to NMAA.TV),” said Hobbs boys basketball coach Russ Gilmore. “What I missed is that all the games are televised live on Championship Saturday. It’s not the same as the Internet."

Jim Williams, president of TPSN, said that KASA-TV did broadcasts of the State Championships for 20-plus years as a courtesy, but producing a television broadcast for those games was expensive.

“I approached FOX about utilizing high school kids (to produce the broadcasts) – but it was too cost prohibitive to pre-empt network programming,” Williams said.

Enter Gary Tripp, executive director of the NMAA. He presented Williams with the option of using NMAA.TV.

In addition to watching games live, prep sports fans can now watch old games or upload their own footage to the site. And NMAA.TV is almost entirely student operated.

“Getting high school kids involved is part of the deal,” Tripp said. “ … Kids are driven to learn, and this is what they’re going to be good at. For us it’s an extracurricular activity. It connects fine arts with athletics and the activity world. For us it’s a win-win situation.”

Zayas said My50-TV (KASY) wanted to broadcast the state championship games live this year.

“There’s always a consideration for a decrease in attendance when you broadcast the game live,” Zayas said. "We gave anyone that wanted the opportunity to broadcast the game on a tape-delay basis for a fee.

“My50-TV was interested in taking the feed from a tape delay but wasn’t interested in taking our feed.”

Tripp said the spring sports championship events depend largely on the income produced by the state basketball tournament. The spring sports would suffer the most if TV negatively affects attendance.

“One thing we have to have in any television contract is assurances that the projected revenue from attendance losses will be covered by the station,” Tripp said. “Whatever runs live, we’d have to have some type of guarantee that says if we don’t hit the (130,000) attendance mark (for the tournament), they’d cover it because the games went live. If we only get 114,000 because people chose to watch instead of attend, we have a problem.”

La Cueva boys basketball coach Frank Castillo said he isn’t disappointed that the games aren’t on TV.

“I usually go to the game anyway. If there’s a game I can’t get to I pull it up on the Internet. There’s not much difference between watching it on the Internet and watching it on TV,” he said.

The problem with NMAA.TV is that the broadcasts can be inconsistent.

Example: On March 1, the site promised fans the option of watching Gilmore’s Hobbs Eagles take on Clovis, and Castillo’s La Cueva Bears take on Albuquerque High in district championship action.

As of 8 p.m., neither game was visible on the site.

Williams attributed the technical difficulties to: 1. A firewall at La Cueva High School, and 2. A memory problem in a laptop computer at Clovis High School.

“It won’t be as quality as TV for a while – I believe TV and computer will be one in the same within one to two years,” Williams said.

“I think that they have the right idea,” Gilmore said. “I tried to watch last year from my hotel room – I’d get it late because it (the feed) was behind. I think it’s a great idea.”

So NMAA.TV is not perfect, but Tripp said the Internet is the future.

“It’s big right now, but the product is only going to get better as more people get high-speed service,” he said.

Williams said the state tournament should be very reliable thanks to a high speed connection.

The effect of the Web broadcast on attendance remains to be seen.

“It hasn’t hurt our attendance,” Castillo said. “People that like basketball are going to be there. It’s like going to a Lobo game – 18,000 fans are going to want to be in the Pit.”

Written March 13, 2008

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Not Quite the Future of Scouting

Coaches are reluctant to have their games uploaded immediately to NMAA.TV

It reads like a testimonial on the NMAA.TV Web site because that’s exactly what it is.

“NMAA.TV is going to make scouting and exchanging of game film so much easier. Every game, all in one place, accessible from any computer, WOW!”

Those are the words of La Cueva boys basketball coach Frank Castillo, but does he believe them?

Yes and no.

“Personally, I would rather be at a gym myself to see a team play rather than count on a film or a broadcast over the Internet,” Castillo said. "You can see the speed of a live game better. I got a chance to watch a couple games that I wouldn’t have gotten to see over the Internet. I didn’t get a chance to watch Hobbs-Clovis (earlier this season) because we were playing at the same time.”

Castillo wasn’t able to watch the two top ranked teams in the state live because of a schedule conflict, but the presence of NMAA.TV should allow him to watch the game a day or two later if he needed scouting information.

Right?

Not exactly.

Jim Williams, president of Team Power Stream Networks – the company that helps NMAA.TV to broadcast games over the Web, said thus far some coaches around the state have balked at having games uploaded to the site immediately after their completion.

Instead, it takes three to four weeks on average for NMAA.TV to upload finished games to the site.

“We’d like to upload within 48 hours, but we need everyone participating,” Williams said.

“I don’t care about it. I don’t worry about it,” said Hobbs boys basketball coach Russ Gilmore after being informed that some coaches were hesitant to have the games uploaded immediately. “If you don’t know what the Hobbs Eagles are gonna do you haven’t been in the state very long.”

Castillo said almost the same thing – but had a different view.

“I’m one of those coaches,” he said, meaning he was opposed to having his teams’ games on NMAA.TV within 48 hours.
“When this season ends I’ll have no problems with games being uploaded to the Web site. If you want to watch us play you’ll have to come to the gym,” Castillo said. “You can call up (other coaches) and they know what offense and defense La Cueva runs.

“Just a little hesitation, if the guys are not going to come to the gym, why give them another chance?”

The NMAA.TV broadcasts could save Albuquerque coaches a trip to Hobbs – and vice versa, but for now that option only exists if they can watch the game live.