Monday January 19, 2010
Lrd Sports Wire
2006-2010 Lrd Sports Wire All Rights
Reserved Throughout The Universe
Laredo high school sports coverage
on the web is about to take a leap this
spring.
The announcement by UISD they were
able to broadcasts the basketball
game between Laredo United and
Laredo Alexander from one gym to
another.
Shows how much Laredo has grown.
While pod casting on the internet has
been done for the last two years
across Texas.
In Laredo the only pod casts were from
the visitors coming to Laredo for
football games. Mainly the Del Rio
Rams fans were allowed such
advanced technology.
The valley teams while playing in
Laredo football playoffs games have
provided coverage through their
school broadcast networks from SAC
in the past.
But, now Laredo has come into the
future and it took two years since it
was first done in Texas.
While a story mentioned in today's
sports LMT's coverage written by their
sports editor Dennis Silva. Touched on
perhaps the future of how Laredo
sports will be handled by the school
districts.
The technology departments from both
school districts in Laredo will have a
major impact on how the games will be
covered. There will be issues that
were first mentioned to both school
districts early this fall. Who controls
the process?
The story this morning points to two
things that need to be covered. One is
the vision that school administrators,
school coaching staff, and the AD
office which is the administrative
general if want to say how it will be
done.
The second one is the amount of
energy and cost to do this is
enormous. That is why the private
sector has not been able to venture
into pod castings and coverage of high
school sports on the internet.
One more aspect we mentioned to
both AD this fall is the ability for who to
see the pod casts?
In football you want the fans to attend
not watch it on the internet. The same
with several key sports like in
basketball. The fans still need to
attend the games for this to work.
If you take a pod cast of the Martin vs
Nixon football game. How many would
want to see the game on their pc's ,
laptops or hand held smart cell
phones?
Then the worse part of this is who is
going to do the pod cast. Are they
going to be professionals covering the
game for the pod casts? Or , is it going
to be the school communications
students doing the pod casts?
The final aspect of this is media
coverage. Obviously we do not speak
for all the media but the job of the
media is to be objective in their
coverage. If pod cast take that element
away from the public for high school
sporting events. There will be a short
fall that needs to be addressed.
Their is only one print media in Laredo
that covers Laredo high school sports.
That being LMT. How will it impact the
efforts of LMT to bring the sports
stories to life on the newspaper.
This will also play a part with KGNS
and the local television stations that
cover high school sports. The TV
media will impacted more we feel.
They will not be the only ones with the
highlights of the game and of course
they can not pod cast the games on
their network feeds across the viewing
area but they could pod cast the high
school sporting events on their web
page.
Which will make it interesting if
everyone comes forth and wants to
pod cast the high school games. Who
controls the process?
Will the school districts allow every
media outlet pod cast rights as well
and compete directly with the school
districts pod cast?
The rules are simple at both school
districts. If you allow one media
representative you have to allow all
media representatives. That cannot
change or there would be freedom of
speech and media federal rights
violations.
So, everyone can pod cast from the
high school sporting events. Then who
will watch the pod casts?
Perhaps out of town former alumni
from the schools. Or people who have
to work else where and can not attend
the games. Rest a sure the majority of
the viewers on pod casts now will be
cell phones not lap tops. That is where
the industry has taken the
advancement in technology.
This in the end has to be a media
driven request. It is a responsibility well
absorbed within the media to cover the
sporting events.
If you allow only school officials to
control the pod casts you are not
allowing a free market to take place
and you are fringing in covering
sporting events that not many will see
as a pod cast and the cost to do the
pod cast by school officials is
something they cannot afford to spend
at this economical era we are faced
with.
What would be the benefits for a pod
cast for the school districts. MONEY!
Good luck in getting major advertisers
in spending additional funds to cover
the over all cost. The numbers of
viewers will not be something they
would consider.
Which if it is done. Then television
stations in Laredo , Media print groups
in Laredo will be short changed in their
revenues. The advertisers will take
money they were spending on those
medias and spend it on the pod cast
and everyone will come out losing.
This should be left for the media
groups in Laredo to cover. IF they
decided to pod cast sporting events . It
would be on their nickel not the tax
payers.
The media would absorb the risk in the
pod cast not the schools and the tax
payers.
There has to be as our founding
fathers in our nation first placed in
motion. A free press to cover all
aspects of governments.
An the last time we checked School
districts are governments. Let the
press do their job.
Laredo is blessed in having a Hearts
owned Newspaper in Laredo Morning
Times. They been there done that
when it comes to being a newspaper.
Laredo has KGNS Television a NBC
network affiliate and they been there
done that when it comes to being
broadcasters.
Let the press do their job and have a
check and balance. Let the tax payers
money be spent if need be keep the
money the schools districts would have
to generate to do one pod cast and
return that line item back to the AD's at
each school district to spend on things
they need system wide to run their
athletic departments.