After modest beginnings in 2011, SEABL live streaming coverage steadily improved last season, and the league will again be live streaming games in 2012.
SEABL has already announced that their live streaming will now be hosted on their YouTube channel, but some other live streaming improvements slated for this season include:
- Longer pre-game show featuring coaches interviews
- Two commentators during games
- Improved picture quality
- Less in-game and third-party advertising
- Audience polls run via Facebook prior to tip off with verdict announced at three-quarter time
- Twitter monitoring with the best tweets announced during play
- Longer post-game show with more analysis
However, we would also welcome your thoughts on how we could improve our live streaming. Please leave comments below, or leave your thoughts on our Facebook or Twitter pages.
In determining the live streaming schedule, SEABL is limited in which games it can live stream due to a number of factors. Firstly, as the SEABL staff oversee live streaming production, the number of games that can be live streamed are limited by staff availability and travel factors. Secondly, due to Internet signal strength, only a small number of venues have been found to be suitable for live streaming. In metropolitan Melbourne, these are Dandenong, Knox, Nunawading and Sandringham. Due to SEABL also covers only men’s games.
For obvious reasons, SEABL also makes every effort possible to cover games that feature regional or interstate teams, and the league also attempts to cover games that have particular significance, such as games that will feature a banner raising ceremony. Also, for logistic and technical considerations, SEABL only streams men’s games.
Under the proposed schedule, the league has been able to cover every team at least once in the opening 15 rounds of the season, and rounds 11 and 15 feature two live streaming games. Also in a first for the league, SEABL will live stream a game from interstate. Pending signal testing at Aurora stadium, SEABL hope to live stream the round 11 game between Hobart and Ballarat.
With these considerations in mind, the league has been able to create a preliminary live streaming schedule:
Round 1: Knox vs Dandenong
Round 2: Nunawading vs Hobart
Round 3: Dandenong vs Canberra
Round 4: Nunawading vs Frankston
Round 5: Nunawading vs Albury/Wodonga
Round 6: Nunawading vs Mt Gambier
Round 7: Dandenong vs Brisbane
Round 8: No live streaming scheduled
Round 9: Sandringham vs Kilsyth
Round 10: Knox vs Bendigo
Round 11: Nunawading vs Brisbane plus Hobart vs Ballarat
Round 12: Sandringham vs NW Tasmania
Round 13: Dandenong vs Geelong
Round 14: Knox vs Ballarat
Round 15: Dandenong vs Frankston plus Knox vs NW Tasmania
Rounds 16-20 will be determined later in the year based on the position of teams on the ladder and venue scheduling. Please note that the games listed above may change due to technical issues, staff availability or other unforseen circumstances.
