Understanding The CAA's Deal With FloSports

HARRISONBURG – The Colonial Athletic Association sought flexibility more than anything else from its new media-rights holder.

On Monday, league commissioner Joe D’Antonio called the deal with FloSports “a unique, revolutionary partnership.”

“I understand people are passionate about linear TV,” D’Antonio said, “and they should be, but right, wrong or indifferent, there is a demographic in our country that is consuming most of their media on a digital platform and not a linear platform. So for us to be able to enter this agreement on the ground level and allow our fans to consume media in a way the younger demographic is consuming it, yet still be able to keep our hands in the linear jar, I think is really important.”

The conference is the first to pick a direct-to-consumer streaming company as its primary media partner. The CAA is also the first conference FloSports has an in-depth, all-sports agreement with.

FloSports and the CAA agreed to a four-year, seven-figure deal beginning with the 2019-2020 season. According to the league, more than 300 games will be shown annually on FloSports including 50 football games, 90 men’s basketball games and 50 women’s basketball games.

Subscribers will pay $12.50 a month to access those contests and all of FloSports’ content.

D’Antonio and James Madison athletic director Jeff Bourne said the CAA discussed FloSports – a digital sports and original content company – as a potential partner for the past year. Bourne said talks began to gain traction about six months ago.

JMU assistant athletic director for communications Kevin Warner visited FloSports headquarters in Austin, Texas, on behalf of the school.

“They’re being very strategic about how they’re building their company,” Warner said of FloSports, “how they’re growing their company and they really see the CAA as an opportunity to vault into the college sports landscape.

“… They’re honestly putting and investing a lot of their future in the CAA, so that’s why this is a good, mutual partnership.”

What D’Antonio said separates this agreement from the other opportunities the CAA had is that while FloSports holds the rights to those games it selects on the digital side, the company won’t restrict how the conference or any of its schools want to handle traditional television.

“There are a lot of different wants and needs for our member institutions when we’re dealing with 17 schools,” D’Antonio said. “Some institutions heavily value their [regional sports network] relationships and JMU is one of them. And we wanted to try to find a partner that was going to allow us to create a comprehensive media package. With Flo, we’ve found a partner that’s allowed us to do that.”

The only exclusivity FloSports is concerned with comes on the digital side.

For instance, if FloSports has the rights to a JMU football game at Bridgeforth Stadium, the school’s digital production, MadiZONE, will not be allowed stream that same game. But if the school partnered with a traditional television network such as NBC Sports Washington or MASN like Bourne’s department often does for Saturdays in the fall, that network can broadcast the same game.

“We love MadiZONE and what it brings to us,” Bourne said. “We feel like we’ve been a frontrunner for our digital broadcasts with that for a long time. The unfortunate part is that you can’t do both. And in order to have one, you have to make a concession for the other. And for right now, we believe firmly moving forward with this enhanced FloSports package will help us long term, and for all those contests Flo does not elect to take advantage of, we will make sure that MadiZONE does.”

D’Antonio said he and the conference office understand how important access to MadiZONE, a free streaming service, is to fans of JMU athletics.

No broadcast or digital streaming schedule for football has been determined yet, but in recent seasons when CBS Sports Digital had digital exclusivity to a CAA Football Game of the Week, only one Dukes home game – vs. Villanova in 2017 – over two years was used within that package.

While the CBS Sports Digital Game of the Week for football is now gone, the CAA and CBS Sports Network have agreed to expand its traditional television package to include regular-season men’s basketball.

Warner said that’s a result of the seven-figure deal between the CAA and FloSports.

“The revenue coming in from FloSports gives the league money to try to purchase a [television] package,” Warner said. “And for fans to understand, a league like the CAA doesn’t necessarily have what you see in the Power Five of ESPN buying to put games on national TV. A lot of times, the CAA has to pursue those games themselves, so this allows the resources to do that.

“The other piece is FloSports has quite a few industry connections to national TV partners and actually will help the league negotiate some of those opportunities.”

Bourne said enhancing basketball exposure was a priority for the CAA.

The men’s conference tournament semifinals and championship game will continue to be televised on CBS Sports Network while FloSports carries the early rounds through the quarterfinals digitally.

“Trying to ensure that we have linear coverage at a national level for our men’s basketball program has been critically important,” Bourne said. “We feel like to maximize our recruiting efforts and get ourselves in a position to where we can get more than one team in the NCAA [tournament] down the road is a major focus for what we’re doing at the conference level right now.”

The league hasn’t earned multiple NCAA tournament bids in the same season since 2011 when Virginia Commonwealth, George Mason and Old Dominion – who all reside now in other conferences – reached the field out of the CAA.

“Now this Flo package is going to allow exposure and a lot of coverage for a wide-range of sports programs, which helps us,” Bourne said. “But the fundamental with men’s basketball is trying to find ourselves in a position where we generate more money from the NCAA, which in turn will bolster the allocation to each member institution.”

On top of its new relationship with FloSports and improved deal with CBS Sports Network, the CAA is keeping its agreement with LAX Sports Network in tact and will continue to show games digitally on CAA.tv when those contests aren’t shown on FloSports.

D’Antonio said FloSports’ presentations will all be productions of the member schools, but the goal is to have a consistent graphics package so the product looks the same.

“I’m appreciative of Flo that they have seen the potential in the Colonial Athletic Association in what ultimately our revenue and exposure can be at a national level,” Bourne said. “Those resources will be fundamental to helping us reach our potential.”