This week U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced the Student Athlete Fairness and Enforcement (SAFE) Act to codify athletes’ rights and protections in law, expand revenue for all schools, support women’s and Olympic sports and bring much-needed stability to the college sports system.

The Act, for the first time, gives all athletes Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rights, establishes uniform health and safety standards, protects scholarships and requires agents to register with a state and abide by clear contract requirements, including a 5 percent cap on fees.

The bill provides new opportunities for schools to increase revenues for all sports by amending the Sports Broadcasting Act, and ensures all schools, not just the biggest and the richest, benefit from those increased resources. The legislation stops collectives from engaging in pay for play by requiring that any payments to students are for legitimate use of their NIL. For the millions of fans who care deeply about their college sports teams, the Act requires football and basketball games to be made available for free in schools’ local media market and tackles transfer portal concerns.

“This legislation is a path through the new world of NIL,” said Sen. Cantwell. “This bill will protect athlete rights, preserve women’s and Olympic sports, and help smaller schools compete. It is a fair shake for everyone, instead of the biggest, richest schools.”

“The SAFE Act empowers athletes and strengthens protections for their health, safety, and education,” said Sen. Booker. “In stark contrast to harmful legislation being considered in the House, our bill preserves athletes’ rights to advocate for themselves and ensures meaningful avenues for accountability. Playing college football was one of the great gifts of my life—and it instilled in me a lasting conviction to fight for justice and fairness for athletes today and into the future.”

“The Student Athlete Fairness and Enforcement Act (SAFE Act) provides clear and enforceable rights and protections to college athletes,” said Sen. Blumenthal. For far too long, college athletes had their basic economic rights denied while the NCAA failed to protect their health, safety, and academic success. Our measure centers athletes’ rights and wellbeing with real reforms while bringing schools the clarity they need and promoting women’s and Olympic sports.”

The National Association of Broadcasters immediately announced its support for the bill.

“NAB thanks Senator Cantwell for her leadership on this important legislation,” said NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt. "The availability of college sports on free, local broadcast outlets strengthens the unique connection between universities, their communities and the student athletes who inspire them. At a time when Big Tech is locking more content behind costly paywalls, this bill will ensure that games remain accessible to the widest possible audience through broadcast television. We look forward to working with the Committee and other policymakers as this legislation advances.”

Morgan Murphy Media, a station group with TV and radio stations in the upper midwest and northwest, also came out in support.

“Morgan Murphy Media would like to thank Senator Maria Cantwell for her leadership on the important legislation bringing college sports to fans for free” the company said in a statement. “For 135 years, we’ve been a family-owned, local media company and broadcaster committed to public service. Today, we serve the state of Washington and 12 others, and we know how vital these universities are to the fabric of our communities. Broadcast TV reaches all corners of our country for free to the viewer. We continue to believe the public should have free access to the teams, coaches and inspiring athletes instead of the increasing move by Big Tech to acquire rights and lock them behind paywalls. Nothing ties communities together like the love for its local university.”

Over the past five years, college athletics has changed significantly after many states passed laws to allow athletes to earn compensation from their NIL, creating a patchwork of rules that upended how schools recruit, train, and retain athletes. The college sports landscape was further changed by the unanimous Supreme Court decision in Alston vs. NCAA in 2021 that paved the way for NIL and the recent Grant House vs. NCAA settlement that allows schools to directly compensate athletes, up to 22 percent of athletics revenue.

These are some of the changes that have fostered the current “wild west” environment and a financial model that is unsustainable for small- to mid-sized schools. For example, in 2023, the average athletic department in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) earned $79 million in revenues and spent $98 million. This legislation addresses revenue challenges facing schools today while at the same time protecting student athletes and non-revenue sports. Last month, Sen. Cantwell released a report showing how skyrocketing media rights payments have exacerbated a massive financial gap between traditional power conferences, especially the new Power 2—the SEC and Big Ten—and everyone else.

Student Athlete Fairness and Enforcement Act Key Provisions:
1. First-ever National Rights and Protections for Student Athletes. Grants student athletes a new federal right to their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and replaces the patchwork of state laws with a strong national NIL standard. The Act establishes:

• A 10-year scholarship guarantee.
• For Division 1 schools, 5 years of post-eligibility medical coverage for sports-related injuries.
• Safety standards for heat exertion, brain injury, sickle cell trait and asthma; enforced by independent officers.
• NIL contract requirements that protect student athletes; contracts must include key terms like what the athlete must do under the contract and how much they will be paid.
• Endorsement rights for athletes so schools cannot restrict athlete NIL endorsement deals, except during organized team activities.
• Whistleblower protections for those who report violations.
• An Office of Athlete Ombuds at the NCAA to provide independent information and advice to student athletes and assist them to resolve disputes with schools and conferences.

2. Pooling Media Rights to Maximize Revenue. Allows colleges and universities to lawfully negotiate their media rights as a group to increase their value—just like the NFL, NBA and NHL are able to do, without violating antitrust laws. The bill accomplishes this by amending the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to include college sports. Additionally:

• The antitrust exemption begins upon signing of the legislation.
• The Act creates a Committee within the NCAA to help maximize revenue for all schools and conferences.
• It charges the Committee with determining fair distribution of media rights to ensure that schools can maintain scholarship and roster slots at 2023-2024 levels for women’s and Olympic sports. Each school shall receive more media rights revenue than they received in the 2024-2025 academic year.

3. New Broadcast Revenue to Bolster Olympic and Women’s Sports. Schools will receive more revenue from their pooled media rights.

Schools must use the increased media rights revenues to retain the same number of scholarships and roster spots for non-revenue generating and women’s sports as provided during the 2023-24 academic year.

The Committee will represent Division 1 schools broadly and will not be controlled by the biggest conferences. Members of the Committee will be chosen by university presidents and include members across the college sports ecosystem. It will not be subject to NCAA’s weighted voting rules.

4. Market Level Broadcast Access for Football and Basketball Rights. The legislation requires, just like the NFL, that content be made available for each college athletic competition for football and basketball on a non-exclusive basis for not less than one local outlet.

Local content is not behind a pay wall.

5. Streaming Media Utilization Rights. Requires broadcast networks, streaming media platforms, or other distributors who control streaming media rights to reconvey those rights back to schools if the entity does not use or materially underutilizes the streaming media rights.

This will strengthen digital distribution rights for athletic competitions other than football and basketball.

Allows non-revenue generating sports to grow through narrowcasting.

6. Cracks Down on Bad Actor Agents. Puts strong penalties in place against bad actors taking advantage of the new NIL world. The Act will:

• Require agents to register with a state and certify to the NCAA that they are registered before they can lawfully represent a student athlete.
• Cap agent fees at 5 percent.
• Prohibit agents from making fraudulent statements in their registration.
• Prohibit agents from misrepresenting NIL deals to entice student athletes to enroll or transfer. Give athletes a private right of action to enforce their NIL rights and bring cases in court against bad actor agents.

7. Brings Certainty to the Transfer Portal. Sets a national standard for student athlete transfers.

Student athletes can transfer twice without having to sit out for a year.

Student athletes can transfer without having to sit out for a year if their sport is cut or materially reduced.

8. Shines a Light on Collectives. Requires transparency for NIL deals between collectives and student athletes.

Collective NIL deals must be for a valid business purpose related to the promotion or endorsement of actual goods and services and the compensation must be at rates and terms commensurate with what other individuals would be paid.

Collectives must report to the NCAA their basic business information, what sport programs they arrange NIL deals for, and their associated schools.

These provisions are enforceable by the FTC and state attorneys general.

9. Preserves the Grant House vs. NCAA Settlement 22 Percent Revenue Share Cap. The legislation does not touch the 22 percent revenue share cap.

Other legislation would bust the settlement cap—this bill would leave it in place.

The Act respects the agreement between the NCAA and the student athletes regarding the revenue share cap.

10. Provides for Strong Enforcement. Establishes new tools for the FTC and state attorneys general.

Under the Act, the FTC can sue in court and get first-time civil penalties for violations of athletes NIL rights; and can sue agents and collectives.

The Act grants state attorneys general authority to enforce this federal law in court including against agents and collectives.

The Act gives athletes a private right of action to enforce their NIL rights and bring cases in court against bad actor agents.

Read the full text of the bill here.

STAMFORD, Conn.—ESPN has announced a new long-term deal with Genius Sports Limited that ESPN said will help transform ESPN’s live data-driven storytelling for NCAA sports and enhance broadcasts for the NBA and WNBA. 

As part of the agreement, ESPN will expand its college sports coverage with real-time team and player stats from Genius Sports, the exclusive distributor of official NCAA Data, with access to data across 65,000 NCAA games a year inclusive of basketball, football, ice hockey, volleyball and soccer.

Additionally, ESPN is extending its deal with Genius Sports around NBA player-tracking data insights while adding the WNBA to its portfolio of sports properties leveraging its data. With the deal, ESPN has access to Genius Sports’ cutting-edge Insight tool used by every NBA and WNBA team. This tool will enable ESPN to easily research, identify and produce video clips that break down team and player performance across both leagues.

“Genius Sports is a proven entity in the space that we know very well from our previous work together,” said Jeff Bennett, vice president, stats & information group, ESPN. “The new long-term agreement creates a runway for both sides to ideate into the future using augmented reality live execution concepts in ways that unlock the next generation of fan experiences.”

ESPN and Genius Sports have previously worked together in a variety of capacities from powering immersive “altcasts” such as the NBA ‘Marvel Arena of Heroes’ presentation in 2021 to collaborating on live broadcast augmentations for immersive experiences around the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship.

“Following on from our work with ESPN to power the first fully branded sports broadcast with Marvel and immersive March Madness augmented megacasts, we are delighted to strike a major expansion with ESPN,” said Mark Locke, CEO of Genius Sports. “As well as powering crucial NBA and WNBA insights, ESPN can utilize Genius Sports technology to power all of its NCAA data needs including next generation context experiences through our new GeniusIQ technology.”

ESPN and the NCAA have reached a new, eight-year agreement beginning Sept. 1, 2024, for NCAA championships media rights. The deal—valued at $920 million, or $115 million annually—includes domestic rights to a record 40 NCAA championships—21 women’s and 19 men’s events—and international rights to those same NCAA championships plus the Division I men’s basketball tournament.

The new agreement expands the sports network’s longtime relationship with the NCAA, which has broadcast NCAA games since ESPN’s inception in 1979.

“ESPN and the NCAA have enjoyed a strong and collaborative relationship for more than four decades, and we are thrilled that it will continue as part of this new, long-term agreement,” said ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro. “The ESPN networks and platforms will exclusively present a record number of championships, including all rounds of several marquee events that, together with the NCAA, we have grown over time. This unprecedented deal also further strengthens The Walt Disney Company’s industry-leading commitment to women’s sports and will help fuel our continued growth, including in the critical streaming space.”

The agreement continues exclusive coverage of sports included in the previous ESPN agreement—including all rounds of marquee NCAA Championship events (women’s basketball, softball, volleyball, gymnastics, baseball, FCS football, and more)—and adds coverage of the Division I men’s and women’s tennis team championships and the national collegiate men’s gymnastics championship. It also includes full rights for the men’s National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT), as well as international rights for the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. Division II and Division III also add coverage on ESPN platform of championships in men’s and women’s basketball and women’s volleyball.

“The NCAA has worked in earnest over the past year to ensure that this new broadcast agreement provides the best possible outcome for all NCAA championships, and in particular women’s championships,” said Charlie Baker, NCAA president. “Over the past several years, ESPN has demonstrated increased investment in NCAA championship coverage, and the Association is pleased to continue to provide a platform for student-athletes to shine. Having one, multi-platform home to showcase our championships provides additional growth potential along with a greater experience for the viewer and our student-athletes.”

NCAA says its members “will explore revenue distribution units” for the women’s basketball tournament. The Division I Board of Directors Finance committee began discussion of revenue distribution philosophies and new models this year, and those discussions will continue with membership in the coming year, NCAA said.

“Finalizing this agreement ushers in yet another milestone for the NCAA positioning student-athletes first,” said Linda Livingstone, chair of the NCAA Board of Governors and Baylor University president. “Concurrent with the terms of the new media rights, several enhancements to student-athlete benefits across all three NCAA divisions will take effect, and this deal will help fund those important programs. And the national, integrated platform the family of ESPN networks provides will help grow the visibility of many NCAA sports, particularly for our women student-athletes.”

The 40 NCAA events included in ESPN’s new eight-year agreement include:

• Men’s Championships – soccer, football (FCS, DII & DIII), cross country, water polo, indoor track & field, swimming & diving, wrestling, ice hockey, gymnastics, fencing, volleyball, lacrosse, outdoor track & field, tennis, baseball and basketball (including DII semifinals & DIII semifinals and championship).
• Women’s Championships – soccer, field hockey, volleyball (including DII & DIII), cross country, indoor track & field, swimming & diving, basketball (including DII & DIII), ice hockey, bowling, gymnastics, fencing, beach volleyball, lacrosse, outdoor track & field, tennis, softball, and water polo.
• Also: men’s National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT); NCAA Div I Men’s Basketball Championship (international rights).

ESPN agreed to guarantee that broadcasts of the national championship game in Division I women’s basketball, women’s volleyball, women’s gymnastics, and the Football Championship Subdivision will air on ABC annually, as well as provide additional ABC coverage of softball and baseball championships. The agreement also includes a guarantee that at least 10 of the championships will have selections shows distributed on linear ESPN networks.

Select rounds of NCAA championships will be exclusively available on ESPN+, which includes 24,000 college games each year spanning more than 20 conferences. In total, ESPN says that more than 2,300 hours of championships will be presented on ESPN’s linear and digital platforms annually, with more than 800 hours of NCAA championships on ESPN linear networks each year.

The agreement also includes enhanced broadcast sponsorship and footage rights for ESPN across its full portfolio of championships and platforms.

ARLINGTON, Va.—Thursday marks the tip-off of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, more commonly known as March Madness. The first days of the tournament are a seemingly never-ending stream of buzzer beaters and upsets with fans sitting back and enjoying it all.

One key piece of that enjoyment though is the way in which people watch the games. Recent reports from the Consumer Technology Association indicate that people are upgrading their viewing experience with the latest models of TV sets offering bigger and better pictures.

In its 2019 Sales & Forecast report from January, CTA estimated that more than three-quarters of LCD TV shipments in 2019 will be for sets 40-inches or larger; TVs 65-inches and larger will account for about 18 percent. As for high-resolution technology, 4K TVs are expected to make up half of all TV sales—which is fitting with some of the tournament games being broadcast in 4K this year on DirecTV—while an estimated 1.35 million OLED TVs will be sold this year.

Cord-cutting continues to be a trend amongst consumers, but that doesn’t mean they want to miss any of the tournament action. Consumers are projected to spend up to $18.2 billion on live TV streaming packages, as many of those services have begun to offer packages that include live sports. For last year’s tournament, the NCAA reported a 28 percent increase of streams of the tournament and a 14 percent increase in hours watched.

Plus, March Madness is a great time to get TV deals.

The NCAA Tournament beings Thursday, March 21, and runs through April 8.

Streaming provider fuboTV announced that it plans to carry Fox Sports’ (FS1) UHD-HDR coverage of selected NCAA football games starting with San Diego State-Stanford matchup on Aug. 31.Other games to be covered in ultra-high definition, high dynamic range include W. Michigan vs. Michigan Sept. 8 and Fresno State at UCLA on Sept. 15, as well as other PAC12 and Big 10 games during the season.

The collaboration extends fuboTV’s relationship with Fox Sports when fuboTV launched its 4K HDR Beta service carrying FS1’s coverage of the World Cup in July as well as FS1’s coverage of a recent Yankees-Red Sox duel in UHD HDR. This is the second year FS1 has covered NCAA football games in UHD HDR. 

[Read: Dish Kicks Off 4K Broadcasts Of Fox Sports College Football]

To view the games in fuboTV’s 4K HDR10 Beta format, subscribers will need to have a 4K HDR-enabled television, HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.2 compatible cable and run the fuboTV app on a streaming device that supports the format, which includes Android Mobile Phones with HDR10 displays and Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV and Roku devices. Bandwidth speeds of 30Mbps-40Mbps or higher are recommended. 4K HDR-capable TVs may also need calibration to present the content correctly. For subscribers without 4K HDR hardware, this content will continue to be available in its usual formats.

fuboTV says it will also offer additional sports and, for the first time, entertainment programming in 4K HDR Beta in the coming months. 

TOLEDO, OHIO—The University of Toledo Rockets compete across 15 NCAA Division I sports in the Mid-American Conference. Our live sports production class in the Department of Communication provides students with hands-on, credit-earning learning experiences while serving the video production needs of the university’s Athletics department.

We rely on Hitachi HDTV cameras to provide high-quality image acquisition for both stadium-based and mobile productions. Our most recent additions are four Z-HD6000 studio and field production cameras for our football stadium, the “Glass Bowl.” The stadium previously used very old standard-definition cameras from multiple manufacturers that required an unsustainable amount of maintenance. When it came time to replace them and upgrade to HD, our satisfaction with Hitachi Z-HD5000 cameras on our mobile production truck led us to again turn to Hitachi Kokusai.

VENUE COVERAGE

The Z-HD6000 cameras provide video for in-house productions that are shown on the stadium’s 40-foot wide video board and TVs throughout the venue. Three of the cameras are stationed on tripods, while the fourth is operated handheld on the sidelines. All four are connected via fiber to CU-HD500 base stations in the control room over cable runs of more than 1000 feet each, with MultiDyne SMPTE-HUT transceivers converting between SMPTE fiber and tactical fiber for transport over the stadium’s existing single-mode fiber infrastructure.

Between football seasons, the stadium’s handheld Z-HD6000 is also used as a fifth camera on our production truck, complementing four Hitachi Z-HD5000s permanently assigned to the vehicle. The truck’s cameras are used in varying fixed-position and handheld combinations depending on the particular sport or event being covered, including soccer, basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball, swimming, and non-athletic activities such as concerts and commencements.

I like the Hitachi cameras because they’re reliable, produce great images, and they’re very competitively priced. In my experience, to buy a camera in the same class from another major manufacturer, you’re looking at a lot more money to get something that does the same thing.

I really like the way the Hitachi cameras look right out of the box; the color, saturation and contrast all look great. That superb quality really stands out when we produce ESPN3 streaming broadcasts in our basketball arena, where cameras from a different manufacturer are used for the video board. Iso feeds from our Hitachi cameras are seen side-by-side in the control room with shots from the other vendor’s cameras. It takes a lot of adjustments on the other cameras to get them to look nearly as good as the Hitachi units, and the other cameras still don’t quite get there.

TAKES A LICKIN’

The durability of the Hitachi cameras is similarly impressive. They are primarily used by students who have varying levels of competency and experience when they begin the program. The ZHD6000s and Z-HD5000s handle abuse very well, and have also withstood some pretty severe conditions. At one soccer match, we had 60 mph winds that actually blew a camera over. The tripod and shotgun microphone didn’t survive, but the camera kept working.

Beyond the technical attributes of the Hitachi cameras and the positive impact on our production quality, they also deliver valuable educational benefits, exposing students to broadcast-quality equipment at a price we can afford. As a department, we not only focus on helping students successfully complete the program, we also focus on getting them jobs. It’s experiential learning that gets students to that point, and the Hitachi cameras help us do that. Our students are able to say they’ve shot eight different types of sports in live productions, with equipment that’s comparable or better than what they will be using in their first jobs.

For me, another big advantage is customer service. There are a lot of good products out there, but Hitachi Kokusai has been awesome in terms of taking care of us and going above and beyond. We love the Hitachi cameras and have had great experience with them over the years, and we love the support we get from the company.

John Eidemiller is executive producer, ESPN3 & Athletic Video Productions in the Department of Communication at the University of Toledo. He can be reached atjohn.eidemiller@utoledo.edu.

For more information on Hitachi Kokusai Electric America, visitwww.hitachikokusai.usor call 855-891-5179.

INDIANAPOLIS—Fans will once again be able to put themselves in the center of March Madness as the NCAA has partnered with Turner Sports and CBS to live stream 21 tournament games in virtual reality. VR streams will be available on Gear VR and Google Daydream devices through the March Madness Live VR app. Games from Dallas and Charlotte, N.C., will be available for the first and second round; from Los Angeles and Boston during the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight; and all games from the Final Four in San Antonio.

For instructions on how to access the games through VR devices, visit NCAA.com.