Broadcaster asks school board to abandon sports agreement
June 25, 2021The Indiana Gazette reported Friday that Renda Broadcasting has asked the Homer Center School Board to abandon their sports broadcast agreement in favor of a webcasting outlet.
Renda Broadcasting’s Indiana division General manager Mark Bertig asked the board to make the move upon reading a vaguely worded provision the district has with the NFHS Network prohibiting other media from streaming the games. Renda heavily invested in video technology in 2020 to stream the games and sold ad time in the webcast.
In the 2020-21 school year, NFHS allowed Renda to proceed, but station executives believe that will not happen come fall given the NFHS employee who gave the permission is no longer with that company.
The school board was unaware of such a provision in the contract and remained supportive toward the local radio company. So far the board has not acted on Bertig’s request.
While a local company like Renda charges ad time for broadcasts, NFHS sells subscriptions to viewers.
