
March to Victory : A Parent Media Company Starts From Scratch To Give Dallas Stars, Anaheim Ducks a New Broadcast Home AVOD service features new graphics package, studio shows from PGA of America facility By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Monday, October 14, 2024 - 12:06 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
On Saturday, Oct. 12, Dallas Stars fans watched their favorite hockey team's first home game, against the New York Islanders, on a new medium: the advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) service named Victory . The platform also hosts Anaheim Ducks games, with additional over-the-air distribution on KTTV Los Angeles and KCOP-TV Los Angeles. With both teams turning to A Parent Media Company (APMC) for help, the entire production and operations strategy was put together and launched before the start of the 2024-25 NHL season.
Anytime you're doing something of the size and scope as this, it's nerve-wracking, says Jason Walsh, COO, sports, A Parent Media Company. We've done a few games, and we've already far surpassed what we thought we were going to see.
Victory is the new streaming home of the NHL's Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks.
Amid the Turmoil: Diamond Sports Group Turmoil Gets the Wheels Turning The state of media rights in sports is evolving, but that of regional sports is the most complex. Diamond Sports Group - the company responsible for operating the Bally Sports Regional Networks - is experiencing hard times, forcing professional teams under its umbrella to search for new ways of broadcasting and distribution to audiences. Walsh, who served as VP and executive producer at Bally Sports Southwest for eight years, understood possible scenarios. To see if there was a different avenue for the club, he also tapped into a decade as VP, production and entertainment, for Dallas Stars. In early 2023, Walsh and APMC CEO/President Neil Gruninger sat down with Stars CEO/President Brad Alberts, a longtime investor in APMC, to kick-start conversations. The Victory app would come to life just three weeks later.
Extra content available to fans includes postgame interviews, playoff recaps, classic games, and special player features.
This isn't APMC's first foray into live streaming and being the home of a brand's content. The company's Kidoodle.TV service has presented content from child-focused shows like Paw Patrol, Bubble Guppies, Peppa Pig, and Cocomelon. More recently, Dude Perfect, the Texas-based content company known for mind-bending trick shots, teamed up with APMC in late 2023 to debut its streaming offering.
Despite this history of successful live streaming and the capability of quickly transforming Victory from an idea into a plausible broadcast option, Walsh had qualms about the project's longevity: To be honest, I was quite skeptical of the situation because throughout my entire career, all I heard was that AVOD was not going to be a viable [financial] solution. Now it's not going to just be about the teams' making money but more about their controlling their own destiny.
Before officially making the leap to APMC in April 2024, Walsh picked Gruninger's brain, asking every question he had. His initial reservations disappeared after multiple meetings and conversations, but, once the Dallas Stars announced in July 2024 that they were leaving Bally Sports Southwest and the Anaheim Ducks a month later announced its plan to move on from Bally Sports West, the big task was to get everything in order prior to puck drop in October.
The platform's new graphics package features a Chyron Prime scorebug and a permanent Time on Ice bar.
We didn't even have a camera or a microphone at that point, notes Walsh. I asked myself, How are we going to produce professional sports in five months?'
The Avengers Assemble: Execs Join the Company Before Takeoff Flying the Victory plane required a top-tier flight crew. Scrolling through his list of contacts, Walsh went to work on choosing his broadcasting team. The top two selections were Bally Sports Southwest colleagues: VP, Operations, Dawn Esposito and VP, Content Production, Greg Flick, who had served as director of operations and coordinating producer, respectively, at the RSN.
Next, Walsh needed to recruit trusted tech vendors that would bring legitimacy to the broadcasts. Esposito and Flick were onboarded, and, a week later, Walsh and his new team were at NAB 2024 in Las Vegas. Roaming the Las Vegas Convention Center, they saw solutions that caught their eye but ultimately went in a direction incorporating many of the workflows used by their previous employer.
Graphics are easily switched between the Ducks' Orange County-themed bright orange and the Stars' Victory Green.
At the end of the day, says Walsh, the broadcast-production [side of the business] wasn't broken; the economics of the RSN business were broken. We knew we could go with some of the same [vendors] that we've always trusted.
Thus, APMC tapped Mobile TV Group as primary mobile-unit provider, Chyron for the graphics package, Sportradar for data integration, and others to round out its tech portfolio. Finding the partners was the easiest part; more difficult was having traditional-broadcast executives learn the intricacies of modern-day live streaming. The other side of the coin is true: APMC's live-streaming experts needed to learn live event production with a broadcast lens.
The countdown to puck drop includes photos from the Stars' 1999 Stanley Cup-winning team.
We began to teach one another about how we each worked and started to find some really exciting opportunities right away, Walsh explains. There are infinite channels with streaming, and, being in Texas, I've suggested a Spanish version of the broadcast where fans can sele
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
08/10/2026
Modern venues have come a long way since the tinny, echoing audio of the mid 20t...
08/10/2026
ESPN's first Super Bowl production will stream in English and Spanish on Disney+, while the ESPN App carries the full slate of game, ManningCast, studio, an...
08/10/2026
From high-school videoboards to War Eagle Productions, the Opelika native is learning how to lead shows and capture big moments
The future of live sports produ...
08/10/2026
The Television Academy and Prime Video have announced a six-year agreement making Prime Video the exclusive global home of the Emmy Awards beginning with the 20...
08/10/2026
Techex will exhibit at NAB Show New York 2026 (Booth 623, Javits Center, October...
08/10/2026
X Games has announced the appointment of Steve Rogers as Chief Operating Officer. Rogers previously served as COO of World Supercross and spent nearly a decade ...
08/10/2026
Fonn Group has appointed Trevor Spielmann as Sales Director for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Spielmann joins from EVS, where he held sales and business de...
08/10/2026
The flagship program will originate from major PG events with a four-camera production, live distribution across PGTV, social platforms
Perfect Game is bringin...
08/10/2026
Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. More often, it happens at the point of collision: when worlds that have run on separate tracks begin to converge. That is...
08/10/2026
For decades, the production and broadcast services business has run on a familia...
08/10/2026
Uplynk, Zixi, BroadView Software, and Grass Valley have published The IP Converg...
08/10/2026
The NFL has announced the return of the Big Data Bowl, the league's analytics competition, now in its ninth year and again powered by AWS. Registration is o...
08/10/2026
Eutelsat has renewed its partnership with T l diffusion d'Alg rie (TDA), Algeria's national broadcasting network operator, for continued distribution of...
08/10/2026
Disney will livestream Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027, alongside the game's broadcast on ESPN and ABC. All Disney subscribers in the United States wi...
08/10/2026
RHStv and Red House Streaming have announced an expansion of their partnership w...
08/10/2026
Gray Media has announced a distribution agreement with TEGNA and DAZN to simulca...
08/10/2026
SVG readers can save 10% on registration and receive a complimentary Solutions H...
08/10/2026
PROTON Camera Innovations GmbH has been named a recipient of a 2026 Technology a...
08/10/2026
Industry leaders discuss real-world cloud workflows for live game production, pl...
08/10/2026
The next-gen audio technology joins Dolby Vision as part of Apple TV's immersive F1 experience...
08/10/2026
David France, Jesse Short Bull, Mato Wayuhi, N. Bird Runningwater, Jodi Archambau, Jhane Myers, Paul McGuire, Amber Morning Star Byars, Holly Macarro, Nick Tils...
08/10/2026
Dynamic panning plug-ins get an upgrade
Sound Particles have just announced major updates for two of their popular dynamic panning plug-ins. Energy Panner 2...
08/10/2026
New expandable instrument boasts full DMNO engine
UDO Audio have just announced the upcoming release of a new, expandable synth that packs the power of the ...
08/10/2026
Two new subwoofers added to monitoring line-up
ADAM Audio's monitoring range has just been expanded with two new DSP-equipped subwoofers, the Sub8 PRO a...
08/10/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
08/10/2026
Calrec gives broadcasters freedom of choice at NAB Show New York We're looking forward to meeting up with you all at NAB New York on 21st-22nd October.
Cal...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, will showcase its next generation of media orchestration services at NAB S...
08/10/2026
Clear-Com played a critical role in the production communications infrastructure for Rock in Rio 2026, one of the world's largest and most recognized music...
08/10/2026
Sohonet Launches ClearView Rush: A Leap Forward in Studio Review, Built for Crea...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Ikegami announces a major expansion to its range of broadcast-quality live production cameras. Scheduled for introduction on Ikegami booth 708 at NAB New York, ...
08/10/2026
Calrec will be located at Booth 444.
Freedom to choose
The media landscape is evolving quickly, and the broadcasters best placed for what comes next will be...
08/10/2026
LiveU has announced that CRD Audiovisuel relied on LiveUs LU900Q intelligent production unit, with built-in native LiveU IQ (LIQ ) connectivity, to deliver live...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Marshall Electronics, a globally recognized provider of high-performance video solutions for broadcast, streaming, AV and professional production, will exhibit ...
08/10/2026
14-hour package also includes A Remarkable Place to Die season 2 as well as libr...