The Little East Conference (LEC) has rolled out a new sports streaming service called Flo Sports for the 2025 fall season. The new service comes with its difficulties along with advantages for the conference, and Keene State Athletics has eased into the new system.
The first major difference between Keene State College and the LEC as a whole is the paywall implemented in Flo College. There are different subscription options, with the regular pricing at $19.99 a month or $107.88 a year. Students and faculty can sign up with their “edu” accounts for $9.99 per month or $71.88 a year. Associate Athletic Director Abe Osheyack said the new service has not been received very well because of the paywall.
“This is a product that’s been made available for free for 15 years, and all of a sudden you have two generations of people used to following their teams that haven’t had to pay for it. Now they have to pay for it,” said Osheyack.
The LEC is not the only conference to have added Flo College as of late, Osheyack added.
“This is the way of the future for Division III athletics,” Osheyack said. “We’re not the only conference who signed up with Flo, we’re one of five that signed this past summer.”
The addition of Flo College allows for Keene State to improve on the already positive streaming performance the college has seen. Marty Testo, KSC athletic director, said he thinks that this new system will help the Owls excel in the conference streaming world.
“Our athletic communication team and the students and what they’re able to do with our stream is second to none in the LEC, so this was just a way for us to continue to improve and to get more technical support,” said Testo.
Testo also touched on the pricing change and how that has been received, along with some unseen benefits with the streaming switch, saying, “This was a really beneficial move for the league in general. It’s going to help us out in areas of recruiting, marketing and promotion, stuff like that. So there’s a lot of benefits that people don’t see right away.”
The LEC uses one streaming platform for all nine teams, which allows students to watch games wherever and whenever they want. Junior Jack Hartmann said he watches sports through the KSC streaming service and is grateful for the online access, but questions whether he or other college students want to pay for such a service.
“I’d rather them have the paywall and let me watch online, but I’m not paying for that. I’d rather walk to the field or just go to the game,” said Hartmann.
Osheyack said there are some technical advantages that come with the addition of Flo College, and one of those is the implementation of replay. He said Keene State is already one of the top schools in the country when it comes to streaming and hopes to show that with the investment of a service such as Flo Sports, other schools can have a high-level broadcast as well.
“I think the next step for us from a technical standpoint is replay. That’s something we’ve not been able to integrate into our broadcast previously. If you devote some resources you can have a high level broadcast,” said Osheyack.
It has been a few weeks since Flo College was implemented into the LEC and Keene State Athletics. Different teams and families will adapt as KSC approaches the fall and winter seasons. The conference is signed on for five years of streaming sports with Flo College.
Jacob Enscoe can be contacted at
jenscoe@kscequinox.com
