The Univ. of Oklahoma's Sooner Sports TV as it "closes in on its one-year anniversary has produced more than 2,600 hours of programming on television and online," according to Mel Bracht of the OKLAHOMAN. OU AD Joe Castiglione said, "We went from televising one hundred hours annually to over twenty-six hundred hours. This unique network approach gave us instant distribution to over 10 million in the one region." LHB Sports, Entertainment and Media President & CEO Lee Berke, who assisted OU in the net's development, said, "It's always been fully distributed. It's never an issue of where we're going to get on. It's a question of how good can we make this content, how much can we put on, how much we can market it." Bracht noted the programming "has shown up" on FS Oklahoma, FS Southwest or OU's website, SoonerSports.com, and nationally on other Fox regional channels or Fox College Sports. FS Southwest Senior VP & GM Jon Heidtke said that the venture has "almost doubled the projected programming for the first year." The Internet video content on SoonerSports.TV "carries a subscription of $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year." The net's second year will bring "expanded digital coverage, including 'second-screen' opportunities for OU football fans to get additional content on their personal computers and smartphones." OU Assistant AD/Broadcast Operations Brandon Meier said that his staff has "grown to 18 full-timers, 25 part-timers and 80 to 100 students, who are able to get valuable on-the-job training while studying journalism and broadcasting at OU" (OKLAHOMAN, 8/3).
