MHSAA TV Returns to the Mats

March 2, 2016

By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director

Most of the MHSAA Championship action on MHSAA.tv in the coming week can be found on the mat, with nearly 300 hours of live streaming video in Girls Competitive Cheer and Individual Wrestling, plus Student Broadcast Program-produced coverage of Basketball Districts.

Live streaming this week begins at 2 p.m. on Thursday (March 3) from The Palace of Auburn Hills at the Individual Wrestling Finals.  A dedicated camera will be on each of 12 mats on the floor, and include full graphics to indicate the participants on each match, plus full in-progress scoring information via Trackwrestling.

Here’s the complete wrestling coverage schedule:

·  Thursday – First Round – 2 p.m.

·  Friday – Rounds 2-3-4 – 8:30 a.m. - Round 2 at 8:30 a.m. is the first Consolation round. Round 3 at about 10:30 a.m. is the second round in the Championship bracket. Round 4 at about 1:30 p.m. is the second round in the Consolation bracket.

·  Friday – Semifinal Round – 7 p.m.

·  Saturday – Rounds 6-7-8 – 8:30 a.m. - Round 6 at 8:30 a.m. is the third Consolation round. Round 7 at about 9:45 a.m. is the fourth Consolation Round. Round 8 at about 11 a.m. is the final round in the Consolation bracket.

·  Saturday – Final Round & Awards Presentations – 4:45 p.m.

Girls Competitive Cheer coverage begins Friday (March 4) from The DeltaPlex in Grand Rapids. Here’s the complete schedule

·  Friday – Division 1 – 6 p.m. (East Kentwood, Grandville, Hudsonville, Lake Orion, Livonia Stevenson, Rochester, Southgate Anderson, Sterling Heights Stevenson, Troy Athens)

·  Saturday – Division 2 – 10 a.m. (Allen Park, Dearborn Divine Child, DeWitt, Gibraltar Carlson, Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills, Muskegon Mona Shores, Richland Gull Lake, Trenton)

·  Saturday - Division 4 – 2 p.m.  (Breckenridge, Farwell, Houghton Lake, Hudson, Merrill, Michigan Center, Pewamo-Westphalia, Sanford Meridian)

·  Saturday - Division 3 – 6 p.m. (Comstock Park, Escanaba, Lake Odessa Lakewood, Monroe Jefferson, Paw Paw, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, Ovid-Elsie, Richmond)

The continued Wrestling and full Cheer coverage is part of six straight weekends of live MHSAA Championship coverage on MHSAA.tv. Online viewers can catch every weekend of action for one low cost of $14.95. 

A Month Pass on MHSAA.tv for $14.95 will give a viewer access to events over a 30-day period from the time it is purchased.  Over the next three weekends of live Winter championship coverage, the following events will be featured: 

  • Girls Basketball Districts – March 2-4
  • Boys Basketball Districts – March 7-9-11
  • Girls Basketball Regionals – March 8-10
  • Ice Hockey Semifinals & Finals – March 10-12
  • Girls Gymnastics Finals – March 11-12
  • Lower Peninsula Boys Swimming & Diving Finals – March 12
  • Boys Basketball Regionals – March 14-16
  • Girls Basketball Quarterfinals – March 15
  • Girls Basketball Semifinals – March 17-18
  • Boys Basketball Semifinals – March 22
  • Boys Basketball Semifinals – March 24-25 

A Day Pass is available for $9.95.  All events become available for free, on-demand viewing approximately 72 hours following their completion.

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.

Upcoming MHSAA Tournament coverage by SBP members includes a Girls Basketball District at Mt. Pleasant which could have a rubber match in its Final on Friday between Saginaw Heritage and Midland Dow, two top five teams in Class A which split their regular-season meetings.  At Laingsburg, the three teams that tied for the regular-season title in the Central Michigan Athletic Conference are in the Semifinals, with Bath and Laingsburg squaring off, and Pewamo-Westphalia on the other side of the bracket.

Here’s the schedule of events School Broadcast Program members plan to cover this week for broadcast on MHSAA.tv  (As of March 1): 

March 2

  • Class C Girls Basketball District Semifinals at Laingsburg

·         Saranac v. Pewamo-Westphalia – 5:30 p.m. - LIVE

·         Laingsburg v. Bath – 7 p.m. - LIVE

  • Class A Girls Basketball District Semifinals at Mt. Pleasant

·         Saginaw Heritage v. Bay City Western – 5:30 p.m. - LIVE

·         Midland v. Midland Dow winner – 7:30 p.m. - LIVE

  • Class D Girls Basketball District at Rogers City

·         Onaway at Rogers City – 6 p.m. – LIVE

  • Class A Girls Basketball District Semifinals at Lake Orion

·         Waterford Mott at Lake Orion – 7 p.m. – LIVE

  • Division 3 Ice Hockey Regional at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood

·         Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood v. Madison Heights Bishop Foley – 7:45 p.m. – LIVE

March 3

  • Tawas Area at Alpena – JV Boys Basketball – 5:30 p.m. – LIVDE
  • Whittemore-Prescott at Rogers City – JV Boys Basketball – 6 p.m. - On-Demand
  • OAA Crossover at Lake Orion – Boys Basketball – 7 p.m. – LIVE
  • Lansing Waverly at East Lansing – Boys Basketball – 7 p.m. – On-Demand
  • Escanaba at Calumet – Boys Basketball – 7:20 p.m. – LIVE
  • Whittemore-Prescott at Rogers City – Boys Basketball – 7:30 p.m. - LIVE 

 

March 4

  • Class A Girls Basketball Finals at Mt. Pleasant – 6:30 p.m. - LIVE
  • Class C Girls Basketball District Finals at Laingsburg – 7 p.m. - LIVE

 

March 5 

  • Division 3 Ice Hockey Regional at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood

·         Teams TBA – 3:15 p.m. – LIVE

 

March 7

  • Class A Boys Basketball District First Round at East Lansing

·         East Lansing v. Lansing Waverly – 5 p.m. - LIVE

·         Haslett v. Grand Ledge – 7:30 p.m. – LIVE 

March 8

  • Class A Girls Basketball Regional Semifinals at Mason - 6 & 7:30 p.m. - LIVE
  • Class A Girls Basketball Regional Semifinals at Hudsonville - 6 & 8 p.m.  - LIVE

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

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.