The Ivy League, working in conjunction with NeuLion, will kick off a suite of digital sports services this August in time for the 2013-14 academic year.
A subscription-based property, The Ivy League Digital Network, will comprise a conference-wide channel, as well as individual sites for each of the conference’s member schools: Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, Princeton, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania.
The network, powered by the NeuLion College Platform, will provide live and on-demand video and audio content from each school, and will be accessible on PCs, smartphones and tablets. Content will encompass football, basketball and the more than 30 sports played by conference members.
NeuLion handles the digital and mobile programming technology for the Pac-12 and Big Ten, as well as some 200 individual school sites.
Pricing has yet to be announced, but NeuLion co-founder and exec vice president, marketplace strategy Chris Wagner said there will be various price points for complete access to the conference service and the eight institutions, or for an individual school. Marketing for the services will begin in June and July, Wagner said.
Games and action airing nationally on NBC Sports Network or ESPN, or contests running on regional sports networks, will be blacked out on The Ivy League Digital Network. However, Wagner said that action could be streamed with appropriate-network-branding if the rights-holder is interested in authenticating the video on the digital service.
Wagner said advertising will be sold by NeuLion and the Ivy League, with the parties sharing revenues from digital ads, as well as commercials that can be dynamically inserted into the breaks in the live games.
"This partnership represents a monumental step forward in enhancing our connection to our fans and continuing to showcase our brand of intercollegiate athletics worldwide," said Robin Harris, Ivy League executive director. "Coupled with NeuLion's demonstrated experience in delivering digital content to any device, this new network will maximize our alumni's affinities for their schools by providing a single digital destination to access every school's sports content with multiple subscription options by school, sport or season."
