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K. Paul Mallasch Muncie Free Press Grassroots Journalism LocalJournalism.net

Revenue idea: Local sports webcasts

Here's an idea for the group:  Local high school sports webcasts.
We're airing our first game a week from now and sponsor reaction has been strong.  We're going to wind up with at least one sponsor who has turned down every proposal we've made to them for the last ten years.  Several others have shown interest and I'm sure we'll pull in plenty of sponsors. (I promise to update you by mid-winter, when we'll be in full swing.)
The cost of doing these webcasts just dropped, with the advent of sites like ustream.tv.  Ustream allows you to set up (literally in less than 60 seconds) a channel on which to stream live video.  Cost: FREE.
(There's no such thing as a free lunch; ustream reserves the right to use anything you stream any way they see fit. I don't see a problem here, but it's a word to the wise.)
The cost to get started is less than $2000:

  • Laptop: $1000
  • USB-based audio mixer: $300
  • Two microphones: $80
  • Decent video camera: $600
  • Various cables, cords and plugs

The only other real cost is for wireless broadband for the laptop.  In my area, through Verizon, it's $60 a month -- and it's the ONLY real recurring cost after the initial investment.
Here's our plan:  We'll do radio-style (meaning, no pictures) webcasts of outdoor football games.  That's because video requires a ton of bandwidth and a cell modem, even a broadband cell modem, just doesn't supply enough bandwidth.  In our tests, video through a cell modem provided about one frame every half second or so.  It would like watching football under a strobe light.
But indoors, we'll use video.  That's because the small schools we deal with appear willing to let us hook into their school computer networks.  This bypasses the cell modem and supplies plenty of bandwidth (in theory; again, I'll let ya know how it turns out.).
All that's left is to find broadcasters.  As a former broadcaster, here's my good news for you:  There's a former or future broadcaster under every wet rock in your area.  We'll use college broadcasting interns, along with a few locals who have done radio in the past.
Our plan is to have the play by play guy control the laptop and decide when to take breaks and play commercials (using iTunes or some other audio player software), while the color guy/analyst operates the camera.
When we're also covering the game for text, the text reporter will take photos and, at halftime, upload them into a photo gallery that we'll publish right on the page of our website with the embedded video player.
Eventually, when we've built an audience, we'll look at using Instant Messenger to take questions from listeners for post-game guests or include their comments in the broadcast.
I'll be glad to share our rate structure for this project with anyone who drops me their e-mail.
Long post, but here's the wrapup:  Local radio is dead.  It was swallowed whole by big, corporate interests.  They spit out the parts of local radio that made it unique, quirky, and most of all, useful.  The local sports broadcast is one such thing.  If our experience is any guide, there's a lot of money to be made and a great service to be delivered in going after the parts of local radio that the big boys threw away.

One note

K. Paul pointed out a fact I had overlooked -- Verizon says it's against its rules to use their broadband service to "broadcast".
Check your provider's TOS and tread lightly.
However, methinks this is one of those rules that will be abused with impunity since it will be hard for Verizon to distinguish between a "broadcast" and, say, a webcam left on for two hours.

© 2007 kpaul media