Menu
Media

New app shines spotlight on HBCU schools

A longtime media industry veteran has partnered with Kiswe on an app that eventually expects to provide live sports from the country’s 100-plus historically black colleges and universities.

Curtis Symonds, a former ESPN and BET executive through the 1980s and ’90s, launched HBCU Go earlier this month. The free app will focus on sports, education, entertainment and campus life.

Eventually, Symonds hopes that the app will spawn a linear television channel that would be called HBCU TV. Several years ago, Symonds was out in the market with an idea for an HBCU television channel. After early interest from Comcast, Symonds was not able to cut a deal.

“I don’t think Comcast felt our content was valuable enough,” he said. “We weren’t able to get a linear TV launch side, which pushed us to the digital side where we can get in the door and the audience.”

hbcu network

HBCU Go expects to have live football games from some of the colleges up and running this fall. Symonds is in the market looking to pick up rights to the schools’ football and basketball games, which is challenging. With more than 100 schools across several athletic conferences, much of Symonds’ work will be to negotiate with individual schools for the rights, rather than one centralized conference headquarters. Plus, ESPN already owns some of the more coveted rights, Symonds said.

“We’re hoping to continue to work with ESPN so that we can get the second rights to whatever games they don’t pick,” he said. “That will open up a lot of games. They can only do a certain amount of games. There are still more than 100 universities out there. There’s a tonnage of games.”

The plan is to start off slow and pick up rights to games like the John Merritt Classic at Tennessee State, Symonds said.

Symonds’ company, called HBCU Network, owns the app and provides the content and marketing around it. Kiswe built and operates the app. “It’s still in its soft-launch phase,” said Wim Sweldens, co-founder of Kiswe Mobile.

Like many of the conference TV channels that already exist, part of HBCU Go’s pitch will be to have the universities and their students produce much of the content. While football and basketball will be the biggest draws, Symonds also expects to focus on smaller sports.

“But we’re also going to look at producing a lot of it ourselves,” he said. “Baseball, volleyball, bowling, especially track and field — those are big sports in HBCU circles.”

Symonds said the app will provide HBCU schools with much-needed exposure.

“There’s no true destination for the HBCU,” he said. “The HBCU Go app is the start of creating that true destination that people will be able to find what they want on HBCUs.”

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: April 25, 2024

Motor City's big weekend; Kevin Warren's big bet; Bill Belichick's big makeover and the WNBA's big week continues

TNT’s Stan Van Gundy, ESPN’s Tim Reed, NBA Playoffs and NFL Draft

On this week’s pod, SBJ’s Austin Karp has two Big Get interviews. The first is with TNT’s Stan Van Gundy as he breaks down the NBA Playoffs from the booth. Later in the show, we hear from ESPN’s VP of Programming and Acquisitions Tim Reed as the NFL Draft gets set to kick off on Thursday night in Motown. SBJ’s Tom Friend also joins the show to share his insights into NBA viewership trends.

SBJ I Factor: Molly Mazzolini

SBJ I Factor features an interview with Molly Mazzolini. Elevate's Senior Operating Advisor – Design + Strategic Alliances chats with SBJ’s Ross Nethery about the power of taking chances. Mazzolini is a member of the SBJ Game Changers Class of 2016. She shares stories of her career including co-founding sports design consultancy Infinite Scale career journey and how a chance encounter while working at a stationery store launched her career in the sports industry. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2019/03/11/Media/HBCU-app.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2019/03/11/Media/HBCU-app.aspx

CLOSE