A recent visit to the Pitt site may have piqued your curiosity about the teaser press release for “Panthers All-Access.” It did for me.
Panthers All-Access” is a must for the serious Pitt fan. Providing the most comprehensive Pitt coverage on the web, Panthers All-Access gives you such exclusive content as live game broadcasts, highlights, press conferences, special behind-the-scenes features and more!
Panthers All-Access will be available through a $69.95 annual subscription or $9.95 monthly subscription. Come back to www.PittsburghPanthers.com on August 7 to begin your FREE trial!
Now, when you are given that kind of limited information, and it sounds suspiciously like the Yahoo! broadcast package that costs less than half that amount, well some healthy cynicism about what is really being offered kicks in.
Despite my urge to just issue a pissed off rant, I actually opted to send an e-mail to Tim Kelly, the contact person the release listed. Tim is the Internet Services Coordinator for Pitt.
I had a 10+ minute phone conversation with Tim on Friday about Panther All-Access. So here’s some information on it.
The All-Access program is part of the CSTV package. CSTV, of course, is also responsible for the Pitt and Big East websites. So this is just another aspect being done exclusively for Pitt. At the present time, there will be no podcasting, but it will be recorded and archived streaming.
By necessity, and not terribly surprisingly, the Yahoo! broadcast package is going away. So, if you have a monthly subscription, you might as well cancel.
Mr. Kelly talked about a rather ambitious slate of offerings for the system.
Panther All-Access (PAA) will be offering live video broadcasts of the football press conferences after practices and during the season. There will also be audio clips from the practice — interviews with players and coaches. These will also be on the site as archived materials so you can listen to them at your leisure.
Other things that will be offered on PAA will be Dave Wannstedt Radio Show. On the Sunday following a Pitt game, there will be a highlight package video. Live chats with players and coaches are also in the plans.
One of the more encouraging things, might be providing feeds for the actual football games. The problem there are the rights issues. For example, Mr. Kelly said they are working to see if they can get the rights to stream the Virginia-Pitt game on September 2 since it airs on ESPNU, and “the U” doesn’t exactly have wide access unless you have a satellite. Personally, I doubt that ESPN will be that accommodating. Providing live feeds for the Toledo and The Citadel games (both not scheduled for any TV) are more likely.
Similar things are planned for basketball season. They are planning a 15-20 minute exclusive PAA basketball show with player and coach interviews. Video highlight packages the day after games as well. The Jamie Dixon Radio Show, of course, will also be available.
The big issue, though, is still figuring out if its worth $69.95/year or $9.95/month. That’s the very controversial aspect. Mr. Kelly admits he is bracing for some negative feedback for that kind of pricing. Especially with the elimination of the more affordable Yahoo! option if you just want to listen to games. Mr. Kelly is in charge of implementing the system and running it, he was not the one to set the price. He did offer to put me in touch with those who arrived at the pricing decision, and I may take him up on that at a later time.
I’m really not sure about the price-point. Especially just as its launching. It would be one thing if it was somewhat established and all the features, offerings and plans were more solidified. The plans are ambitious, but how much of them actually occur is hardly guaranteed. That could lead to some hard feelings as subscribers may come to feel that what they expected/were promised fell far short of the reality and they didn’t get their money’s worth.
This is something brand new, and I’m not sure that a limited trial period during football training camp will be enough time. Especially when they will need to get all the kinks and glitches that have to expected with a new multimedia platform.
This is the sort of thing you offer free for at least a few months while you get it up and running and make it clear how much of a value it is for fans.
