Southeastern Channel to stream football broadcasts on ESPN+
Friday, August 23, 2019
by: Tonya Lowentritt
HAMMOND – The Southeastern Channel will broadcast and stream Southeastern Louisiana
University’s first two home football games this fall on ESPN+, making Southeastern
the only school in Louisiana with students fully producing football games for ESPN.
“Being on ESPN is truly a dream come true,” said student play-by-play announcer
John Sartori of Mandeville, who won a 2018 student Emmy for on-camera talent. “I will
cherish every second of this coming season. The exposure we will be receiving is truly
second to none.”
The Emmy award-winning Southeastern Channel, honored by the Broadcast Education
Association as one of the top four in the nation two years running for its live sports
game broadcasts, will initially stream ESPN+ broadcasts for the Lions’ home opener
with Jacksonville State on Aug. 29 and the Sept. 21 Southland Conference contest with
Lamar.
“The fact that our broadcast will now be aired on ESPN is truly a tremendous
honor,” said game broadcast director student Dylan Domangue of Houma, who was play-by-play
announcer for the 2018 winning broadcast. “Our broadcasts are student-led, so having
our work on ESPN is a huge honor because our production is getting recognized alongside
professionals.”
Southeastern Channel General Manager Rick Settoon said streaming on ESPN+ means
increased exposure for Southeastern Athletics to more than two million paid subscribers.
“It’s an incredible honor that ESPN and the Southland Conference hold the quality
of our student productions in such high regard,” Settoon said. “It’s extremely rare
for a student-produced game broadcast to be selected for streaming on an ESPN platform.
This is the culmination of many years of hard work by our students and Southeastern
Channel supervising staff members.”
Game selections after the first four weeks of the season will be announced by
the Southland Conference 12 days prior to kickoff, allowing the best matchups to be
selected each week for various broadcast partners.
ESPN+ is the premium multi-sport, direct-to-consumer video service from The Walt
Disney Company’s Direct-to-Consumer and International segment in conjunction with
ESPN. It offers fans thousands of additional live events, on-demand content and original
programming not available on ESPN’s linear TV or digital networks.
Programming on ESPN+ includes hundreds of MLB, NHL and MLS games, thousands of
college sports events (including football, basketball and multiple other sports from
more than 15 conferences), Grand Slam tennis, international and domestic rugby, cricket,
and the full library of ESPN’s award-winning 30 for 30 films.
In recent years Southeastern Channel game broadcasts have streamed live on the
Southland Digital Network and aired on the Cox Sports Television Network.
“We are very excited to have Southeastern Louisiana home games added to our ever-expanding
menu of football broadcasts across the Southland Conference,” League Commissioner
Tom Burnett said. “The award-winning production efforts of the student-led Southeastern
Channel will be seen by a wider audience of football fans to enjoy watching the Lions
and other Southland competition.”
Settoon said that the Southeastern Channel provides unique sports broadcasting
opportunities for students whose work can be seen on national networks.
“We’re one of the very few college television stations in the entire country-
and the only one in the state or region- where students are able to do the play-by-play
announcing, color commentating, sideline reporting, live game directing and every
other crew position for Division One Football and other sports events,” Settoon said.
“Most college game productions relegate students to running camera or production assistant
positions.”
The Southeastern Channel football broadcast from last season’s Lions vs. Abilene
Christian game won fourth place in the nation for Live Game Broadcast given by the
Broadcast Education Association.
ESPN+ is an integrated part of the ESPN App, the leading sports app and the premier
all-in-one digital sports platform for fans. The ESPN App is a showcase of the company’s
culture of innovation, delivering a rich, personalized experience that curates all
of ESPN’s incredible content around each fan’s individual tastes. ESPN+ is also available
through ESPN.com. Fans subscribe to ESPN+ for $4.99 a month or $49.99 per year and
can cancel at any time.
The Southeastern Channel has won over 400 national, international and regional
awards in the past 16 years, including 17 from the Emmys. The channel can be seen
on Charter Spectrum 199 in Tangipahoa, St. Tammany, Livingston and St. Helena parishes,
and its live webcast and video on demand can be viewed online via the channel’s website
at thesoutheasternchannel.com. It’s also on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
