From now on, streaming Elon University sports may come with a price. The Colonial Athletic Association has signed a three-year contract with FloSports, an online streaming service in which users must pay for subscriptions. The payments will assist the CAA in bringing in revenue.
Gone are the days of Stretch Internet, a free streaming provider Elon Athletics was previously partnered with. Elon football, volleyball and soccer games will now be available to stream with a subscription on demand or through the FloSports application.
FloSports had its first livestream Sept. 7 when Elon football went head-to-head with The Citadel. There will be 11 more Elon broadcasts accessible on FloSports this fall. This season, more than 300 total CAA games will be accessible on FloSports. FloSports is available for streaming on any device.
Fans can download the application on Roku, Amazon Fire TV and fourth generation Apple TVs. With this PRO subscription, viewers can enjoy live events and premium videos. The subscription offers a $12.50 monthly price and a $95.88 yearly price.
Elon Sports Vision, formerly Maroon Sports, broadcasts and livestreams Elon athletic events and will be responsible for the production of the FloSports broadcasts.
ESV Coordinating Producer Katie Halter will be heading the team with FloSports broadcasts. Her cohort of 30 students is working to provide a high-quality broadcast for fans, all while boosting their own resumes.
Sophomore and ESV treasurer Chris Morrison admits he doesn’t see his fellow students purchasing this subscription, aside from committed fans. After all, home games are free for students to attend. But he is thrilled to add FloSports to his resume, and he says his other team members at ESV are as well.
“For all the students who work on the broadcast, I think it’s pretty exciting to have this professional name to put on our resumes,” Morrison said.
Though subscribers are not permitted to share accounts with others, Morrison has a suggestion for those who want to watch but do not want to purchase the subscription.
“Get together with people who have purchased it and maybe watch them [the live streams] together instead,” Morrison said.
Halter agrees that while the partnership with FloSports comes with a price, there are benefits for Elon students. FloSports will provide the 30 students working on the broadcast with more exposure to a bigger network.
She says having FloSports on student’s resume is more prestigious than Elon Sports Vision or Phoenix All Access. Halter plans to “sell the FloSports factor” to incoming freshmen to help promote the connection between Elon Athletics and the School of Communications.
Halter says it is too early to tell how many students are subscribing.
“It’s going to be kind of a trial and error kind of thing. Going forward, there’s not really anything that we know of right yet, but hopefully in the coming months we’ll get some information on that,” Halter said.
After speaking with Elon students, it appears purchasing a subscription to FloSports comes down to whether or not the student is a sports fan at heart.
Freshman Callahan Johnston loves all things sports. Despite not attending an athletic event as of yet, Callahan is excited for the opportunity to stream from the comfort of her own home. “I’m going to watch it in my dorm and also support the team. I would love to do that,” Callahan said.
Sophomore Garrett Doyle has attended various Elon sports events, and he initially agreed that streaming is something he would be interested in.
“Obviously we can go to games for free, but I mean, if I have friends on the team or something like that, then it’s definitely something to check out,” Doyle said.
But with a constantly-growing student body, diversity is growing as well, and sports are not appealing to all Elon students.
Some students, like junior Noah Orr, are not nearly as interested. “I’m not a sports guy. And I would not put, like, my $12 of Netflix money a month to sports, but that’s just me,” Orr said.
FloSports is a venture-backed, over-the-top media service offered to viewers online. OTT bypasses cable and satellite television platforms. FloSports was founded in 2006 by Martin Floreani and Madhu Venkatesan.
It began with streaming wrestling and running and has evolved into a platform that may eventually rival ESPN.
Its library offers more than 2,000 hours of content and is growing by the day. FloSports owns exclusive broadcast rights to over 4,000 premier events.
Its partnership with the CAA will give schools involved more exposure to a bigger network and, in return, will allow the FloSports name to grow.
Despite the new commitment to FloSports, free streaming will still be available for select Elon athletic events.
A full list of FloSports coverage can be found on the Elon athletics website.