By Daryl Velez
Northeastern fans can now watch Husky home games from their computers. Students, parents, alumni and casual fans can log on to the newly launched GoNU.TV to watch the action live.
Last year, the site was operated as a free service available on GoNU.com, the official website of Northeastern Athletics. However, only football, men’s hockey and men’s basketball games were broadcast.
This year, every Husky team except for field hockey will be broadcast on the website for a fee. Field hockey games cannot be broadcasted because there are no telephone lines in the Sweeney Field press box.
Many Husky fans, including first-year Athletics Director Peter Roby, are excited about watching the Huskies online.
“It gives families a chance to see that their kids are having fun and doing well and it gives alumni a way of connecting to the university,” Roby said. “More importantly, this is an opportunity to publicize and to exemplify our athletes. It’s an opportunity to aggregate a community and communicate with them in real time.”
GoNU.TV was launched by Adam Polgreen and KJ Cardinal, two former Northeastern Athletics employees. They co-founded Pack Network, which provides the streaming solutions for New Hampshire and Vermont as well as Northeastern. They used Northeastern as a test run last season and have launched the full package this year.
“We try to set our expectations to be realistic,” Cardinal said. “We don’t know what to expect really. The numbers from last year were from a free service.”
Saturday’s football game at Parsons Field was broadcast live on the site. About 90 people viewed the game with roughly 40 tuning in after purchasing a Huskies All-Access Pass. The remaining 50 viewers only ordered the single game. The price of a single game is $4.95 while the full pass costs $49.95.
“The athletic department has been rather aggressive about getting all sports out there,” Cardinal said. “Northeastern wants to put all sports out there. This is the YouTube age where everybody expects to see everything online.
The website plans to include more than just live games. There will be archived games so fans can watch their favorite moments again as well as highlight packages, press conferences and interviews with coaches.
“When people are really into Huskies’ sports they’re going to find a way to watch,” Polgreen said. “Our goal is to do as many events as possible and to make a contribution in that way.”
So far the feedback has been positive and Pack Network is quickly expanding beyond Northeastern.
“What we’re excited about at Pack is that we’re offering a better service than any other out there,” Cardinal said.
Unlike other similar services who use a single camera “almost like video surveillance,” Cardinal said the Pack Network has the ability to zoom and shoot from multiple angles.
“I wouldn’t say it’s ESPN-like, but almost television quality is what we shoot for,” he said. “There are certain things we have that could be obstacles and things that could be shortcomings of the system, but just like other live events, you don’t know what’s going to happen sometimes.”
