FRISCO, TX- Frisco ISD students participate in many school sports events throughout the year, with approximately 12,000 student-athletes at the middle and high school levels. With the busy lives and responsibilities that event viewers lead, it’s useful to have a way to keep up with their favorite teams regardless of the days they might need to skip games due to conflicts with their schedule. Frisco ISD has recently decided to put up cameras in athletic facilities for baseball, basketball, volleyball, football, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, and track and field to use this demand to post sports content through a new platform.
Frisco ISD has partnered with a streaming partner by NBC Sports Next for the 2024-2025 year, SportsEngine Play. SportsEngine Play is connected to FriscoSportsLive.com in which fans can watch live streams of sports events held at FISD athletic facilities and follow live scoring updates with the FISD venues’ interconnected scoreboards. Subscriptions allow viewers access to all live FISD video streams, on-demand content, and SportsEngine play editing tools that download videos and create game highlight packages.
Nearly 4,000 FISD sports events will be streamed this school year. With a discount of 60% off the regular price, subscribers can view FISD content at $7.98 a month or $79.98 a year. This opportunity expands the reach of sports news and helps school broadcast teams have access to exclusive content. Additionally, it allows for a more active presence of school sports in FISD family lives that helps support the sports teams digitally and not only physically. To sign up, visit the SportsEnginePlay Frisco website.
Matthew Wilson is the FISD facilitator for athletics. He helped oversee the decision to switch to using SportsEngine Play.“SportsEngine Play became Frisco ISD’s streaming platform before the 2023-24 school year. Previously, Frisco ISD used the NFHS Network streaming platform for several years,” he said. “In the final years with NFHS, we noticed a lot of issues with buffering and video quality with NFHS Network and fielded [many] questions and complaints from members of the FISD community about their experience with the NFHS Network streams.”
SportsEngine Play ensures the quality and reliability of the live streams, especially with the huge number of events streamed with the equipment. “The varsity football games are shot with human-controlled cameras and have live production crews, and those production crews at Kuykendall Stadium are led by students from the Frisco ISD Sports Broadcasting Club and classes,” he said. “Most of the other broadcasts are done by automated camera, and the amount of streams occurring at the same time makes it impossible to monitor them all. If there are known problems, we let SportsEngine Play know.”
The experience for the users who view the live streams is significant. On feedback on the live streaming experience and the platform, Wilson has additional information. “Most of the feedback is that people are excited that there’s a way to watch the events when they can’t be there and that out-of-town fans and family can watch the games,” he said. “With video streams occurring at 12 high schools, 18 middle schools, and also at other FISD venues, there are some hiccups, and we hear about those from fans and families. We relay their concerns to SportsEngine Play, which also has a “contact us” button at FriscoSportsLive.com that fans can use to report issues.”
In conclusion, SportsEngine Play’s implementation by Frisco ISD for live streaming of sports events is a significant step towards enhancing the accessibility and engagement of the community with school sports. The new platform addresses the previous issues experienced with the NFHS Network, and it provides a seamless and high-quality viewing experience for fans and families who cannot come to the events in person to watch them. This benefits family relatives, especially grandparents, who get to see their favorite Frisco ISD student-athletes play. With the expanded reach and discounted subscription rates, Frisco ISD is effectively leveraging technology to support its sports teams and foster a more active digital presence for school sports. Overall, the move to SportsEngine Play demonstrates a commitment to improving the overall experience for sports enthusiasts and signifies a positive direction for the future of school sports broadcasting in Frisco ISD.
