The coverage of University athletics will change dramatically beginning August 15 as the Pac-12 Networks launch on both television and an online platform. With the deal comes a possible negative — student media groups such as Duck TV and KWVA radio may see their access to sporting events decline, though the extent is still to be determined. @@http://kwva.uoregon.edu/@@ @@http://ducktv.uoregon.edu/@@
Estimates have each individual school bringing in over $21 million a year as coverage expands to unprecedented levels. However, students such as Preston Hiefield are concerned that their work on University platforms may be negatively impacted. @@http://www.uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/Preston*Hiefield@@
“I’ve been asking around, because I’m a student journalist myself,” said Hiefeld, who’s involved in both KWVA and Duck TV. “I’ve heard different things, like the restrictions on student rights to sporting events might be tighter because the Pac-12 Networks owns the rights, so the rights for student journalists might be restricted.”
Senior Associate Athletic Director Craig Pintens explained that students will have increasing opportunities to work with the Pac-12 Networks on the production of live events and original content, though he conceded that the possibility for short-term issues to arise. @@http://www.uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/Craig*Pintens@@
“We haven’t outlined exactly what the change will be, from a media access angle, in terms of the amount of footage that will be able to be shot,” Pintens said. “I can say that it will be a more restrictive environment, because the Pac-12 Networks will be very specific in that regard.”
The possible impact appears to be more concrete for Matt Schmidt, who works with both KWVA and Duck TV as part of his video production coordinator job at the School of Journalism, including the possibility of certain events not being covered at all by student groups because of restrictions on multiple events being streamed online at the same time. @@http://www.uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/Matt*Schmidt@@
“The campus is going to have something called a ‘Fast-Pack,’ and the Fast-Pack and each campus in the Pac-12 gets one of these,” Schmidt said. “The example was given in that right now, we cover multiple games at once with O-Zone … but we’re not going to have access to that with the Pac-12.”
Considering whether that meant that Duck TV wouldn’t be able to cover a softball game if the Pac-12 Networks were covering a baseball game, Schmidt replied: “That’s the million-dollar question.”