The Centennial Conference of Maryland and Pennsylvania marked an important first this month: it became the first NCAA Division III conference to launch a set-top-box app - on Roku, specifically. Other platforms will follow, with Apple TV next on the list.
The conference counts 11 member schools (including Johns Hopkins, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, and Franklin & Marshall), and school parents, alumni, and supporters now have an easy way to catch every game for no cost and without leaving the house.
This isn't the Centennial Conference's first experiment with sports streaming. In 2006, Executive Director Steve Ulrich took out a video camera, connected it to his laptop, and streamed a men's basketball game between Swarthmore and Franklin & Marshall. From that, the effort grew incrementally school by school. Prior to the Roku app launch, all 11 schools streamed games to their websites, a conference portal, and a conference mobile app.
If anyone is surprised that a group of small northeastern colleges known for academics puts that much attention into sports, they shouldn't be. We take our athletics seriously, Ulrich says. We take our academics seriously as well.
Ten Centennial Conference schools stream with Stretch Internet, based in Gilbert, AZ; one uses BoxCast of Cleveland. Stretch was used first by Franklin & Marshall, an early experimenter in sports streaming, and many of the others soon followed suit. Working with nearly all the schools made creating an app easier for Stretch.
App users will find a wide variety of sports: football, soccer, basketball, swimming, volleyball, baseball, softball, lacrosse, wrestling, and track and field. The Roku app offers both live and on-demand video, as well as a schedule so that fans can see what's coming up. The conference site includes a more detailed advance schedule.
People are tuning in. The app may have launched only recently, but, already this year, the conference has live-streamed about 700 events to nearly 150,000 unique IP addresses. That pleases Ulrich: last year, the conference streamed more than 1,000 events to more than 200,000 unique addresses, a figure it will certainly top this year. Centennial's most-streamed event was a playoff between Johns Hopkins and Mount Union, with 8,135 unique addresses.
Prior to the Roku launch, some conference schools experimented with pay-per-view but decided to keep video free from here out. Doing so helps them build and promote the brand with specially created house ads.
We're able to sell the message of what an education at one of our schools means and what kind of experience your child could have, Ulrich points out, not only to be educated but also to get the opportunity to continue to play their sport. The conference might start experimenting with outside advertisers as early as this fall.
Centennial's schools create their own video, often relying on student volunteers. Most member schools lack communications academic departments but still have plenty of interested students. For postseason games, Ulrich's office often hires professional talent to call the games.
The production setups vary. Some schools use single cameras and encoding software like Telestream Wirecast; others use multiple cameras and a NewTek TriCaster. The encoded video is uploaded to Stretch, which routes it to its CDN. Stretch will start using Amazon CloudFront in March.
In designing and building the Roku app, Stretch aimed for a simple user experience.
Our intention was to make it as easy and intuitive as possible for viewers to find and watch the content they're looking for, explains Ryan Ermeling, president/CEO, Stretch Internet. We surveyed a handful of our clients and then iteratively designed the Roku app based on their feedback and our own UX [user-experience] expertise. Stretch will continue to enhance the app as it gets feedback from the conference, schools, and fans.
For the Centennial Conference, streaming to set-top boxes is more than a way to entertain parents. It's a way to show people what Division III sports is all about.
Ulrich thinks that some people may think that we just roll the ball out there and play and have fun; it's glorified intramurals. But, he adds, it's really far from that.
This gets our message out there, he continues. Today, when we talk about the value of higher education, the value of athletics, getting our message out there as widely as possible is what we want to do.
Most recent headlines
01/01/2026
Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation Announces 2026 Noel Schajris Scholarship The scholarship will cover tuition and housing for one Berklee College of Music stud...
01/01/2026
New year, new games, all with RTX 5080-powered cloud energy. GeForce NOW is kicking off 2026 by looking back at an unforgettable year of wins and wildly high fr...
31/12/2025
Back to All News
NFL Christmas Gameday on Netflix Scores Again With the Lions-V...
30/12/2025
As the College Football Playoff Enters the Quarterfinals, ESPN Blows Out Its Meg...
30/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Original ArticlesTake a look back at all our coverage of big-time productions, game-changing technologies, and state-of-the-art new faci...
30/12/2025
MELBOURNE, Fla., Dec. 30, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) will release its fourth quarter 2025 financial results before the market opens on Thursday, J...
30/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
30/12/2025
It marked the first civilian operational authorization for a HAPS flight in Europe, led by Space42's subsidiary, Mira Aerospace
The flight demonstrated HAP...
29/12/2025
San Francisco 49ers Strike Gold With Halftime Laser SpectacularStunning display caps $200 million renovation of Levi's Stadium techBy Dan Daley, Audio Edito...
29/12/2025
The Cup's Around the Corner: An Inside Look at Broadcast Preparations for th...
29/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Longform VideoWatch the standout keynote conversations, deep dives, and panel discussions from the year for free on SVG PLAY!By Brandon ...
29/12/2025
From crisper Lossless audio and immersive music videos in beta to new Audiobooks+ plans, custom transitions between tracks, and in-app Messages, we keep levelin...
29/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
27/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
26/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
26/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
25/12/2025
Holiday lights are twinkling, hot cocoa's on the stove and gamers are settling in for a well-earned break.
Whether staying in or heading on a winter getawa...
24/12/2025
What is AI good for? Posted by MTI Film on December 24, 2025
What is AI good for?
What is AI good for?
It's been three years since ChatGPT first cap...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
The Boyfriend' Season 2 Unveils Heartwarming Trailer, Key...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
Love, Fights, and Everything in Between: Badly in Love' Returns for Season 2
Entertainment
24 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied t...
24/12/2025
Scripps Research study links sleep variability with sleep apnea and hypertension How consumers' digital activity trackers could enable personalized health s...
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today!By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
P...
23/12/2025
The year is winding down, the weather outside is frightful, and it's the perfect time to escape into a story that warms the heart. For listeners looking for...
23/12/2025
A Zeus motor is hot fire tested at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, solid rocket ...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Lightware will exhibit several major product innovations at ISE 2026, including the new USB-C BOOSTER-V1, Google Meet. integration for various Taurus UCX models...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Taking the Stage at Carnegie Hall-On a Global Scale Boston Conservatory Orchestra students reflect on their epic concert marking the 80th session of the UN Gene...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's The Great Flood and Culinary Class Wars 2 Top Gl...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things By the Numbers: How the Global Phenomenon Shap...
23/12/2025
Experience the power of WO Automation for Radio's newest service, the System Effectiveness Review. Designed to help you achieve more, a System Effectiveness...
23/12/2025
23 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan and Rakuten Symphony Collaborate to A...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
How Steamy Can It Get? Single's Inferno' Season 5 Pre...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
33 Million Global Viewers on Netflix Watched Jake Paul vs. Ant...
The Centennial Conference of Maryland and Pennsylvania marked an important first this month: it became the first NCAA Division III conference to launch a set-top-box app - on Roku, specifically. Other platforms will follow, with Apple TV next on the list.
