Poll: Do you have a MidcoSports+ subscription?

[kiyoat]

Just for reference, a Midco+ subscription is the same as a "Summit League Network" subscription.

Personally, I'm excited to be able to see most(all?) of the conference games, without having to pay Denver, SDSU, NDSU or UND separately.  Yes, it's another subscription, but one I will actually use frequently.  Now I just need to convince my wife she doesn't need Hulu Live anymore....

[sdyotefan]

I've had midco for years for TV, internet and now midcosports+.

They do a great job and if you have a problem their techs are available 24/7 and all in the upper midwest!!

[Yotes]

Coyote basketball is the only product they broadcast that I'm interested in watching. I'll probably sign up for 3-4 months then cancel again.

[kiyoat]

Wow! I'm surprised at the responses. Basically all over the place. At least one vote for each option. Unsurprisingly, Basketball is the most popular reason for subscriptions. But VB is probably more popular with Yote fans than other fan bases, too.

[kiyoat]

Well, there are 3 days left of this poll, so I thought I'd bump it to squeeze out a couple more responses.... So far with 23 votes:

17% had it before the SLN announcement
35% currently have it
61% will have it when BB starts
22% are unsure
17% are a firm NO

So subscribers will have gone from 17% to somewhere in the 60-80% range (according to this wildly inaccurate poll). I'm sure there are a lot of both positives and negatives in all of this, but it does eliminate the "blackout" basketball games that were behind separate paywalls from multiple schools. So that's a "plus". I'll guess that the conference revenues generated have a administrative cut and an equal disbursement model with the schools involved, too?

[kiyoat]

Sept 25, 2023 7:35:20 GMT -6 kiyoat said:

Well, there are 3 days left of this poll, so I thought I'd bump it to squeeze out a couple more responses.... So far with 23 votes:

17% had it before the SLN announcement
35% currently have it
61% will have it when BB starts
22% are unsure
17% are a firm NO

So subscribers will have gone from 17% to somewhere in the 60-80% range (according to this wildly inaccurate poll). I'm sure there are a lot of both positives and negatives in all of this, but it does eliminate the "blackout" basketball games that were behind separate paywalls from multiple schools. So that's a "plus". I'll guess that the conference revenues generated have a administrative cut and an equal disbursement model with the schools involved, too?

Final numbers (27 votes):

22% had it before the SLN announcement
44% have it now
67% will have it when BB starts
19% unsure
15% firm no

So subscribers will have gone from 22% to somewhere between 67% and 85%.  big jump.  I wonder what the revenues/ expenses/ profits/ disbursements will be?  Schools that were already making money on their own separate subscriptions didn't just give that up without the promise of some share of the money (one would assume).  Since USD was providing it free before, that should now improve revenue a bit, one would assume.

[nodak651]

Sept 25, 2023 7:35:20 GMT -6 kiyoat said:

Well, there are 3 days left of this poll, so I thought I'd bump it to squeeze out a couple more responses.... So far with 23 votes:

17% had it before the SLN announcement
35% currently have it
61% will have it when BB starts
22% are unsure
17% are a firm NO

So subscribers will have gone from 17% to somewhere in the 60-80% range (according to this wildly inaccurate poll). I'm sure there are a lot of both positives and negatives in all of this, but it does eliminate the "blackout" basketball games that were behind separate paywalls from multiple schools. So that's a "plus". I'll guess that the conference revenues generated have a administrative cut and an equal disbursement model with the schools involved, too?

Fenton was in charge of the NCHC and when he set up the streaming service, the league got about 15% of the revenue, and member schools received about 85%, distributed in proportion to fan allegiance, which was selected by subscribers when signing up. It's still that way today. Although Midco is currently asking for fan affiliation when people sign up, I'm 90% sure that revenues are split equally or the league takes all the revenue (same thing really). As subscriptions pick up and revenue increases, it will be interesting to see if changes are made to how the revenue is split. It's interesting to me that the NCHC (Fenton) went with an in-house streaming service and the Summit (Fenton) went with Midco, but Midco Sports Plus didn't do streaming when NCHC.TV was started. The Summit subscription is much cheaper. I would love to know what the Summit/Midco contract looks like, and it would be interesting to know what subscriber and revenue numbers look like, as it could affect if/how the Summit league adds hockey. Not really related, but with Augi Starting hockey and with Midco Televising some of their games, it will be interesting to see if they make a run for the CCHA streaming rights once the Flo Sports contract winds down. Augi and St. Thomas are both in that league. Would be great to see the streaming network grow.

[lakesbison]

No and it’s been AWFUL this year

Having ESPN+ was so nice. Watching 100’s of games then click on summit league games

So disappointing

[olifer]

Feb 22, 2024 22:36:53 GMT -6 lakesbison said:

No and it’s been AWFUL this year

Having ESPN+ was so nice. Watching 100’s of games then click on summit league games

So disappointing

I have it, but will not renew it next year.

Last night's game; USD vs UMKC women's game kept buffering and I never was able to watch any of it, which is not that uncommon.  

Unless you're using Midco's mobile app, their web login is awful and doesn't work much of the time.  

As for the streaming issues, I understand that each school has to provide it. That being said, there doesn't appear to be any type of quality control or pre-stream testing going on for any of these games. It's a crap shoot as to whether or not Midco can get dialed in somewhere close to tipoff. (oftentimes after). 

ESPN+ was so much better than this garbage. 

[gopheryote]

We had a saying in my consulting days: people who won't pay for stuff don't get stuff. I often think of that when I see the complaining about the streaming options. This isn't the B1G - adjust expectations accordingly.

[olifer]

Feb 23, 2024 14:39:42 GMT -6 gopheryote said:

We had a saying in my consulting days: people who won't pay for stuff don't get stuff. I often think of that when I see the complaining about the streaming options. This isn't the B1G - adjust expectations accordingly.

Agreed. This is not the B1G and the expectations are really quite minimal. As long as a camera is on and following the action, the rest of it, including commentary and play-by-play is just a bonus for me. This is a pay service that costs $10.00 a month, and I would gladly pay for better consistency. 

[Men's League Waterboy]

I'm just happy the conference decided to go to it after most of the premier talent on the men's side left the building and the Jacks are rolling through the women's side unchallenged.

[Yotes]

I cancelled my subscription as basketball is coming to an end. $10 a month for this service is a joke. Many of the road broadcasts are absolute shit. Quality seemed better when it was packaged with my existing ESPN+ subscription. Very glad I could pay extra money for a worse product. Looking forward to doing it again next year since I doubt the non-Dakota schools are going to fix their broadcasts even with all the big bucks coming from the Summit League Network.

[jmgg]

Feb 23, 2024 19:42:05 GMT -6 Yotes said:

I cancelled my subscription as basketball is coming to an end. $10 a month for this service is a joke. Many of the road broadcasts are absolute shit. Quality seemed better when it was packaged with my existing ESPN+ subscription. Very glad I could pay extra money for a worse product. Looking forward to doing it again next year since I doubt the non-Dakota schools are going to fix their broadcasts even with all the big bucks coming from the Summit League Network.

Ditto.  I watched nearly every game that I couldn't go to last year on ESPN+.  I think the SLN money grab is slowly losing fan interest for the universities.  Not paying the $ 10 next year.  My guess is overall viewership will drop next year.  Is this the trend that our SD schools want?

[GoYotes]

I use a Roku to stream Midco Sports Plus and have very few issues.

Last year every game wasn't on ESPN+. To the best of my knowledge, the only games on ESPN+ were the USD, SDSU & UND games broadcast by Midco Sports, the NDSU games broadcast by WDAY and most if not all of Western Illinois games (speaking of quality broadcasts). You could stream the non Midco USD home games as well as the Omaha & ORU home games, but it was a pain in the ass to cast the games to your TV. The only way you could watch any non-Midco games at SDSU was to pay a fee to SDSU and the same with all games at Denver. This year for $10/month, basically $30 for all of basketball season, you can watch all games for all Summit League games on your TV, both live and replay. You also have the ability to pause and replay live action.