Football Selection Show Goes Global

October 13, 2015

By John Johnson
MHSAA communications director
 

The watch party of the MHSAA Selection Show on FOX Sports Detroit will go global for the first time Oct. 25, as the 60-minute program announcing the qualifiers and pairings for the MHSAA Football Playoffs also will be streamed online on the FoxSportsDetroit.com website.

Mobile viewing also will be available of the program on FOX Sports GO, which is a free download for Android and iOS devices. The Selection Sunday Show will air live on FOX Sports Detroit at 7 p.m. Oct. 25.

One of the newest members of the MHSAA's School Broadcast Program will debut content Wednesday – live coverage of the Detroit Catholic High School League Boys Soccer Finals. In the first game at 5 p.m., Dearborn Divine Child faces the No. 7 team in the Division 2 coaches poll, Orchard Lake St. Mary's, in the CB title match. The AB championship has Birmingham Brother Rice against Detroit Catholic Central, which is ranked No. 7 in Division 1, at 7 p.m.

The CHSL also will stream its annual football championships Oct. 24 and its girls volleyball finals Oct. 26.

More than two dozen athletic events produced by students involved in the School Broadcast Program are scheduled for the coming week on MHSAA.tv.

In its seventh year, the School Broadcast Program gives members an opportunity to showcase excellence in their schools by creating video programming of athletic and non-athletic events with students gaining skills in announcing, camera operation, directing/producing and graphics. 

The program also gives schools the opportunity to raise money through advertising and viewing subscriptions.  

All sporting events – Live or On-Demand – are available on a subscription basis only for their first 72 hours online. They become available for free, on-demand viewing approximately 72 hours following their completion.

Here’s the schedule of School Broadcast Program events planned this week at MHSAA.tv. On-Demand listings may be available as soon as one hour following an event’s completion.  (List as of Oct. 13):

Tuesday – Oct. 13

Wednesday – Oct. 14

Thursday – Oct. 15

Friday – Oct. 16

Tuesday – Oct. 20

Weekly highlights from games produced by participants in the MHSAA's School Broadcast Program are back for another school year on MHSAA.TV. This week's highlights are from football games East Kentwood at Rockford and Bloomfield Hills at Lake Orion and a boys soccer semifinal match in the Capital Area Activities Conference Cup between Williamston at East Lansing. Watch this week's highlights below.  

Schools interested in becoming a part of the School Broadcast Program should contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office.

Launching at Midnight every Friday throughout the season is MHSAA Football Friday Overtime on FOX Sports Detroit. Mickey York and Rob Rubick host the weekly 30-minute highlights show.  The show will re-air most Saturday and Sunday mornings – and will be archived on the FOX Detroit Website. This week, FFOT will re-air at 6, 8:30 and 11:30 a.m. Saturday; and 7 a.m. Sunday on FOX Sports Detroit. 

The following games are scheduled to be highlighted this week on Football Friday Overtime:

  • Mayville at Detroit Cesar Chavez
  • Southfield at Oak Park 
  • Detroit Catholic Central vs. Warren DeLaSalle at Wayne State University 
  • New Haven at Clawson 
  • St. Clair Shores South Lake at Madison Heights Madison    
  • Plus – SBP Coverage of East Grand Rapids at Lowell and Ironwood at Calumet.

MHSAA.tv Live Postseason Views Approach 1 Million for 2020-21

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

July 14, 2021

Live postseason events streamed on MHSAA.tv during the 2020-21 school year were viewed nearly 1 million times, with 15 events drawing more than 10,000 live views apiece. 

The final championship weekend of the Spring – featuring Girls Soccer Finals and Baseball and Softball Semifinals & Finals, all across four divisions June 17-19 at Michigan State University – saw nearly 70,000 live views on MHSAA.tv despite record attendance of those events at Old College Field. 

The Division 2 Softball championship game – which ended with Owosso claiming its first Finals title in any sport, drew a weekend-high 5,677 live views on the network. The previous weekend, the Division 1 Girls Lacrosse Final won by Rockford on June 12 led the way with 4,284 live views.

The total number of live postseason views on MHSAA.tv for 2020-21 was 962,371. The most-viewed live tournament events were the Individual and Team Wrestling Finals, which with all rounds over all four divisions combined drew 244,044 live views. Among individual games broadcast solely by MHSAA.tv, the Division 3 Boys Basketball Semifinal matching Iron Mountain and Schoolcraft (15,393 live views) and the Division 1 Volleyball Semifinal featuring Novi and Lowell (13,484) ranked among the most watched.

MHSAA.tv is a partner of the NFHS Network. Postseason events streamed on MHSAA.tv included most sports’ Finals, and Semifinals and Quarterfinals for some – especially sports where multiple concluding rounds were hosted by the same tournament site.

MHSAA.tv also ranked second among NFHS Network contributing states with 18,973 live events (postseason and regular-season combined) streamed during the 2020-21 school year. That total of nearly 19,000 live postseason events was an increase from 7,710 events streamed live during 2019-20 and 3,900 during 2018-19, and placed Michigan behind only Illinois.

The School Broadcast Program is responsible for nearly all production of regular-season events. Having now concluded its 13th year, the SBP gives members an opportunity to showcase excellence in their schools by creating video programming of athletic and non-athletic events with students gaining skills in announcing, camera operation, directing/producing and graphics. Rockford – one of the state’s largest schools with nearly 2,500 students – broadcast 242 events, drawing an SBP-high 74,437 live views and 89,604 total with on-demand replays included. Much smaller Pewamo-Westphalia, a school of 300 students, received the second-most views of SBP members in 2020-21 with 56,009 including live and on-demand. Marquette, Lake Orion, Cedar Springs, Montrose and McBain also were among top SBP providers.

In addition to bringing local events on air nationally, the School Broadcast Program gives schools the opportunity to raise money through advertising and viewing subscriptions. NFHS Network subscriptions begin at $10.99 per month. Subscribers receive access to all live and on-demand video from across the country. School Broadcast Program participants receive a portion of every subscription sold by a school to benefit its program.

Broadcasts from the majority of Michigan schools – especially those lacking the ability to staff events for production – are streamed using a Pixellot automated camera. Michigan schools have 774 Pixellots in service, third-most in the country behind only Texas and California. Most Michigan schools have one camera at an outdoor stadium and a second at the main indoor gymnasium.

A complete list of participating schools can be found on the School Broadcast Program page of the MHSAA Website.