Taking Local Sports National

PlayOn! Sports in Talks With Distributors About High-School Channel

By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 2/13/2012 12:01:00 AM

High school sports proponent PlayOn! Sports is looking to graduate from the regional to the national level, as it eyes a full-time service launch this fall.

The Atlanta-based company, helmed by former Turner executive David Rudolph, has been exhibiting high-school sports and other related school fare across TV, mobile, DVD and Web platforms. Consumers access PlayOn! Sports’ broadband content through portals that are branded to the state associations. PlayOn! presents year-round programming, including football, basketball, baseball, competitive cheerleading, cross country, golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball, swimming/diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, water polo, weightlifting and wrestling.

GOING LINEAR

Th e company also has been syndicating telecasts of toplevel events to ESPN, the worldwide leader’s broadband service ESPN3 and Fox Sports, as well as disseminating live, tape-delay and video-on-demand coverage to Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications.

Come fall, Rudolph said, PlayOn! Sports, which had conversations with nine of the top 12 distributors in January, wants to launch the first national linear network devoted to high school sports.

“Last month, we made our pitch,” Rudolph, who launched and ran regional network Turner South, said. “With feedback from the distributors, we’re going to come back and talk about business solutions on different platforms.

“The short- and long-term goal is to launch the linear service.”

The PlayOn! push comes as distributors are placing increased emphasis on high-school sports as a subscription driver and retention tool.

Rudolph pointed to Cablevision Systems’ dedicated network, MSG Varsity, which serves students, parents and schools in New York City’s tri-state area, and the recent acquisition of expansive rights in California and New Jersey by Time Warner Cable and Verizon Communications’ FiOS TV, respectively. Regional content providers in the game include Wazoo Sports Network, which shows Kentucky school contests on television and the Web.

Rudolph said PlayOn!, whose origins trace to Turner’s streaming service for Atlantic Coast Conference sports, ACC Select, aspires to do on a national basis what MSG Varsity is doing on a regional level.

PlayOn!’s CEO noted that the evolution of sports coverage began nationally with professional games. With expanded capacity through cable, more and more action from those ranks, plus collegiate fare, proliferated on ESPN, TNT and regional sports networks.

With digital, the natural progression has been to high-school sports, which has than 2.5 million events nationally.

Last year, PlayOn produced more than 8,000 events, crowned 1,000 champions and generated more than 15,000 hours of live and ondemand event coverage from 21 states across the country. With no shortage of opportunities, the company is looking to up that ante to 15,000 events in 2012.

Over the next six months, PlayOn expects to reach accords with up to six more state highschool athletic associations, pushing its reach to 65% of the U.S population. When the network launches, events will be aggregated under a common site. Rudolph said PlayOn!’s national network also will feature original series, studio shows, news, documentaries and highlights.

He said Comcast approached Play- On! in 2011 about developing a national VOD product, and sponsors expressed interest in a broader forum.

“Many potential sponsors also expressed interest in investing with us if we grow nationally,” he said, and those conversations inspired the company to make the national jump.

REVENUE SOURCES

Currently, PlayOn! is generating annual revenue of $15 million, Rudolph said. About 70% emanates through license and content syndication fees; 20% through advertising, including clients BlueCross BlueShield, Country Financial and Verizon; and the balance from providing technology support to schools and the production of DVDs.

Advertising is expected to assume increasing importance.

Rudolph said PlayOn!, which is looking to push its revenue base toward $50 million in the years ahead, will look to fund growth out of operations, but has access to more capital.

Last September, 2080 Media Inc. which operates as PlayOn!, completed a Series C round of financing totaling $7.2 million, led by Buckhead Investment Partners, as well as extant investors Hamilton Ventures and Imlay Investments.