Aug. 29, 2003
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Beginning this fall, fans of Purdue Boilermaker athletics will be able to enjoy added audio and video content on the official Purdue intercollegiate athletics Web site, www.purduesports.com.
The Division of Intercollegiate Athletics has reached an agreement with both Yahoo! Sports and OCSN/RealNetworks (Official College Sports Network) to be a part of national networks of real-time sports programming on the Internet, beginning with the 2003 football, soccer and volleyball seasons, that will generate revenues for the athletics program.
"We are sensitive that prices are rising everywhere, and we would prefer to keep all of these services free," said Morgan Burke, director of intercollegiate athletics. "But these services have real value and real cost associated with them, and we think that fans will find the nominal cost will bring with it a fan experience that will keep them on the Internet longer than they are now."
In 2002-03, www.purduesports.com, enjoyed more than 15 million page views and 160,000 unique viewers.
Boilermaker football, men's and women's basketball, as well as coaches shows for Joe Tiller (football), Gene Keady (men's basketball) and Kristy Curry (women's basketball) will now be available via www.purduesports.com on a subscription basis through Yahoo! Sports, in conjunction with Host Communications.
Listeners can subscribe to Boilermaker sports via a "School Pass," on a monthly basis ($4.95) or a reduced rate on an annual basis ($29.95) and can subscribe to the service at http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/teams/ppj/schedule. Fans interested in listening to nationwide college athletics, a "College Pack", can do so on a monthly basis ($9.95) or an annual basis ($59.95). Subscriptions to the "College Pack" will entitle listeners to programming from Purdue as well as nearly 40 other major colleges, including Big Ten schools Indiana, Iowa and Michigan.
Audio webcasts for volleyball, soccer, baseball and softball, as well as JumboTron replays of all 2003 home football games and other content will be available via www.purduesports.com on a subscription basis through the OCSN College Sports Pass and RealNetworks.
Listeners will have three subscription options with OCSN. Fans can subscribe on a monthly basis ($6.95), on a seasonal basis ($18.95 for three months), or on an annual basis ($44.95). With a subscription to the OCSN College Sports Pass, listeners will also be able to hear programming from other Big Ten schools such as Illinois, Michigan State, Ohio State and Northwestern as well as intrastate rival Notre Dame.
"As our computers become a hybrid of radio and television, Boilermaker fans will get more and more video and enhanced audio," said Jay Cooperider, assistant athletics director for communications. "The experience of listening to a game or watching the replay of the big-screen show or the current coaches' TV show is a fantastic fan experience, and fans can do it at their convenience."
Revenues received by Purdue will be dependent upon the number of subscribers to Boilermaker programming, as well as the number of total listeners and amount of listening time for Purdue sports by all subscribers, even those who may initially enroll via another university's site.