MANCHESTER, N.H. – On Wednesday, the Manchester Board of School Committee (BOSC) Finance and Facilities Committee voted to recommend approval of a five-year contract with Play On/Pixellot to live stream events from Gill Stadium, William “Bill” Meisel Veterans Memorial Field at Manchester West High School, the Clem Lemaire Athletic Complex at Manchester Memorial High School and the gymnasiums of the city’s three public high schools.
In May, the matter was referred back to committee by the full BOSC after concerns about dozens of complaints about Pixellot to the Better Business Bureau as well as costs for watching games live.
Ward 10 BOSC Member Gary Hamer asked Manchester School District Athletic Coordinator Christine Telge why a contract with Pixellot would be better than Hudl, the company that currently captures video for the city’s public high school football and soccer teams. Hamer expressed concerns over the complaints lodged against Pixellot, noting that Hudl in comparison has had only one similar complaint in recent years. Hamer also noted that Hudl has a much larger company than Pixellot.
Telge told the committee that Hudl is primarily used for game film and is a requirement for all NHIAA Division I football programs, which share game footage with each other. Some school districts pay for the Hudl system to be installed in their stadiums, while Manchester requires its teams to fundraise for the system, which costs $7,000 per year.
Installation of the Hudl cameras specifically for streaming would cost $37,000 according to Telge. While she said she would support this if the funding was there, she told the committee that there would likely be a two or three-year contract at most, and Hudl continually raises its prices. She also said she did not want to wait another year to begin live streaming games.
In contrast, Pixellot would cost the school district nothing, with the company profiting from subscriber fees and advertisements during the streaming videos of the games. The school district would also be able to produce their own advertisements in the videos and would have the ability to refuse placement of certain advertisers that would be inappropriate, such as cigarette or alcohol companies.
Telge also said that Manchester’s NHIAA Division I Schools are the only ones without consistent online streaming of games, which puts many student athletes at a disadvantage when producing highlight reels for college recruitment.
In regard to the subscription, Telge also noted that games would be free to watch online and that the subscription fee would actually cost less than it would cost for families to purchase tickets to every basketball game or football game over a season, making it an issue of equity for lower-income families.
At-Large BOSC Member and Committee Chair Jim O’Connell wondered if the majority of student athletes needed video footage for college recruiters and also asked if the services provided by Play On/Pixellot could be done more efficiently by giving Manchester Public Television an additional six cameras to supplement the games they already cover.
Manchester Public Television Executive Director Jason Cote told the committee that he has tried to obtain grant funding to cover all Manchester public high school sporting events, but has not been able to do so given the complexity of magnitude of locations and times when Manchester teams play.
Cote said he was actually one of the driving forces in bringing Pixellot to the attention of the district in the hopes they, or someone, could help bridge the gap where his organization doesn’t have the resources to go, and that Pixellot could do that within the athletic department’s budget.
“I don’t care about Hudl or the different things, what I care about is the content, what I care about is what the person at home that doesn’t get to see (the game in person,)” he said.
Ward 3 BOSC Member Karen Soule referred to the contact as “a gift to the city.”
The recommendation passed the committee with a 2-1 vote. O’Connell abstained from voting to avoid a tie vote and allow the item to return to the full BOSC for a final decision in the near future.
