St. Thomas University is now offering the chance to watch men’s and women’s hockey from the comfort of your own home. With the set-up of “Tommies TV,” the games are now being streamed live online through the Tommies own ustream channel.
“We think that by broadcasting and streaming home games, we can build the profile of those two teams, especially for potential recruits, parents of existing players, or fans from away,” said Jeffrey Carleton, director of communications at STU.
Carleton says most other teams in the AUS already have streaming capabilities for their teams, but says STU is a little late getting in on the action.
“We were the only team that didn’t have live streaming,” he said.
Former STU radio personality Randy Corey will be providing commentary on STU home games.
With only a handful of games being broadcasted so far, Carleton says each game has had over 200 unique viewers, comprising of what he suspects to be a combination of alumni, parents and fans.
“We’re pleased with the results so far,” he said.
And the university has yet to promote Tommies TV, so Carleton expects to see an increase in online viewers over time.
“As we move forward now, we’ll start to promote Tommies TV a little more intently,” he said.
Currently, the broadcasts are restricted to just men’s and women’s hockey games, but Carleton says the department will look to expand to other sports as they grow more accustomed to the technology.
“We started with hockey because it was a natural fit,” he said.
Carleton has been told by both the men’s and women’s hockey coaches that the technology will also help drastically with recruiting.
The broadcasts are currently only viewable in standard definition, but Carleton says the capability to stream in HD is there, but they have to thoroughly check their software before the move.
With next year’s move to the Grant Harvey Centre for men and women’s hockey fast approaching, Carleton sees Tommies TV being even more successful next season.
“The lighting will be better, the facility will be better…so we very much see everything we do in the LBR as a learning curve leading up to our new facility,” he said.
And Carleton says something like this that cost
