With high school basketball tournament quarterfinals scheduled to get underway on Wednesday, fans who can’t make it to the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor and the Augusta Civic Center will still be able to watch all of the games through state-final weekend on Feb. 26-27.
For the first time, three different organizations will be live streaming and/or televising the 142 games after a busy off-season of negotiations involving the Maine Principals’ Association, the governing body for the state’s high school sports.
Maine Public Broadcasting Network administrators said in November 2015 the network couldn’t carry the regional semifinals and finals because the addition of a fifth class, Class AA, left them shy of resources to handle the extra coverage.
The tourney regional semifinals and finals were next awarded to the Northeast Sports Network, based in Lyndonville, Vermont, which will be live streaming the regional semifinals and finals for the first time.
The National Federation of State High School Associations Network (NFHS), which is based in Atlanta, will live stream the quarterfinals in both regions (North and South) for the third straight year.
The quarterfinals can be watched at http://www.nfhsnetwork.com/; the semfinals and finals can be watched at http://www.nsnsports.net/ and the MPBN website is http://www.mpbn.net.
Fans will be able to watch games on smartphones, tablets, computers and smart TVs. A cable connected from a computer to a TV also may allow viewers to watch the games on their TVs.
The NFHS Network is a subscription service because it doesn’t sell local advertising, according to Maine Principals’ Association Executive Director Dick Durost.
It will cost $9.95 per day, $15 per month or $119.95 per year for viewers to watch games.
NFHS has already done live streaming for other Maine Principals’ Association-sponsored sports such as soccer and cheerleading.
“That’s one of the reasons we reached an agreement with them a few years ago. They were willing to cover sports that normally don’t get covered. They’re also doing the hockey finals,” said Durost. “The monthly rate is the best buy.
“You’ll also be able to watch high school sports from 35 or 36 other states,” said Durost. “In addition to basketball, you could watch things like wrestling from Iowa and swimming from Florida.”
Durost pointed out that they have extended their contract with the NFHS Network. There are two more years on the five-year deal, and they have agreed to another five-year contract after that.
The Northeast Sports Network does not charge because it sells advertising. It has a one-year deal with the Maine Principals’ Association.
“We didn’t want to lock ourselves in with them until we went through it one time to make sure it worked out well,” said Durost.
The Maine Principals’ Association also wanted to leave the door open for future television contracts.
Durost said the streaming involves using announcers from the state, which is a positive.
“The announcers already know the Maine kids and the coaches. There will be a familiarity,” he said.
Don Shields, who does radio play-by-play for the University of Maine women’s basketball team along with doing high school games, is one of the announcers employed by Northeast Sports Network.
Durost said he is pleased with the arrangement with the three organizations.
“It is certainly the best we could have hoped for. We would have liked to have more televised games like in the past with MPBN, but nobody else stepped forward,” he said.