Simulcast Audio Broadcast
University of Rhode Island men’s basketball is ranked 23 nationally and the fans of Rams will have to work harder to see them play in the upcoming season. URI came in 23rd position in the pre-season Associated Press Top 25 poll, but they lost their long time TV partner, Cox Communications in the run.
Cox chose to produce selected URI and Providence College basketball games and some of the local high school sports. Yet again, a recent corporate restructuring has put an end to Cox producing any games on Ocean State Network.
URI is making deals with new and more modern set of outlets to broadcast their games. The good news for the fans is that for twenty-one of the thirty games and seventeen of the eighteen games in Atlantic 10, the Rams action can be watched on the traditional networks like NBC Sports, ESPN, and CBS Sports channels. For the seven games at Ryan Center, the athletic department has set up video stream that viewers can access on their computers and smartphones.
Mike Laprey, who is the associate athletic director of URI for media relations, said that a streaming option set up by Cox in the previous seasons will act as a template for the seven games.
“Cox has been a great corporate partner of ours and one of the things they introduced to our fans was a high quality stream of our games,” Laprey said. “We feel we have an obligation to our fans around the country to provide a similar service. We’re looking for a strong video option and fully anticipate providing one from our first game against Dartmouth.”
Cox Channel List
He added that he could envision a video stream, with long-time radio team of Steve McDonald and Don Kaull to offer a simulcast audio broadcast. The games without the over the air TV plans include Nov 11 season-openers versus Dartmouth and against Brown, Marist, Old Dominion, Belmont, William & Mary, and Holy Cross.
“We haven’t closed the door yet, but there is no longer a (TV) entity locally to produce those games,” Laprey said. “The good news is our fans are very excited about our team and are buying tickets for all of our games, both in and out of the conference. Our season tickets and mini-plans are both selling very well.”
