Troy athletics navigates TV and streaming world to find success
Troy athletics had unprecedented coverage for the 2023-24 athletic season. 193 games were broadcast. The Trojans even played on ABC for the first time during the Birmingham Bowl.
Troy Athletic Director Brent Jones said the Sun Belt Conference conducted a study about the league’s TV and streaming coverage. It found Troy’s coverage was worth the equivalent of paying $50 million for advertising– the highest value in the conference.
“You’re competitive,” Jones said, so people want to see you, and we’ve obviously been very, very competitive from baseball to softball to football, obviously men’s and women’s basketball, everywhere in between. So it’s a really exciting time. It’s not only just exciting for our fans but to really be able to see the Troy brand, the ‘Power T’, the ‘Troy ‘T’ as we call it, all across this nation.”
The ‘Troy T’ played in 11 nationally-televised games last athletic season. There are already some lined up for the upcoming sports year. This includes a football game at Iowa, which helps expose other regions to Troy.
“You’ve seen that when we’ve gone and played LSU, when we played Clemson, when we’ve also played Nebraska as part of this,” he said. “And so anytime we can get out of our DMA, our region, and be able to be on a nationally televised game, it’s gonna draw a tremendous amount of eyeballs to our brand.”
Then there’s also streaming. When home games aren’t televised, Troy produces ESPN+ streams of nearly all home football, basketball, volleyball, soccer, softball, and baseball games.
For football, Jones explained, “We have eight different camera angles. We have about 25 people that work it from the back end. That is from what you would see from actual camera operators, but you also have graphics, you have switchers. Then you also have a play-by-play, spotter, the color analyst, you have sidelines. So there’s a lot that goes into this.”
This gives students an opportunity to get involved in production.
“They’re getting real-world experience,” Jones said, “while at the same time building their highlights, building their reels.”
It’s a win-win as the way we consume media changes.
“Streaming used to be the future,” he said. “It’s not the future. It’s here, and that’s what everyone’s going forward. You see Amazon, you see a few other companies that are really bidding on the streaming rights,” Jones noted.
All the exposure consistent streaming creates has been a major win. ‘
“It’s doing an amazing job being able to help from a recruiting standpoint,” he said, “as well as from an engagement of our alums, our fans, our donors, because they’re always able to watch this, whether that’s streamed in their house, on their phone, as well as iPad, whatever that is. So, you know, 365 days you’re able to watch something on Troy.”
Jones said the newest advancement Troy is working on will be producing halftime content for ESPN+ streams that tells stories of their student-athletes and the Trojan community.
