There’s a pretty good chance that if you’re a parent with a kid in a youth sports program, you’ve at some point come across SportsEngine, which is software that’s used to manage teams and leagues. Today, the NBC Sports Next-owned entity is announcing SportsEngine Play, which brings a new era of streaming video to the service.
SportsEngine Play can be thought of in a couple ways. It can be used to record and share video of any sporting event, whether it’s taken with a parent’s cell phone or a dedicated system installed at the venue. Those videos can be served up live, or are available later on demand. In addition to games and other live events, Sports Engine Play will be home to all sorts of on-demand developmental and training content from world-class athletes including for starters, Michael Phelps, Larry Fitzgerald, Shaun White, Maria Sharapova, Kerri Walsh Jennings, and Justin Jefferson.
“We’re thrilled to introduce SportsEngine Play to the more than 30,000 youth sports organizations and the millions of players and families we serve through our NBC Sports Next technology platforms and applications,” Brett MacKinnon, senior vice president and general manager of youth and recreational sports at NBC Sports Next, said in a press release. “Given our sports and media DNA, we’re uniquely positioned to deliver this product to the sports community — a preeminent streaming platform for all youth and amateur sports, with personalized video content, the best instructional and player development videos, and much more to come as we continue to grow.”
There are three tiers of access.
- The free plan lets you capture and view live-streamed content.
- The Premier plan costs $10 a month or $80 a year (that’s a 20% discount from its regular annual price) for live and on-demand games, plus access to create highlight videos.
- The All Access plan costs $10 a month (that’s a 50% discount) or $80 annually (a 60% discount) and gets you all that, plus hundreds of hours of content from the aforementioned pro athletes, plus other instructional and developmental content from athletes and organizations, as well as access to premier amateur sports competitions.
“It’s a powerful thing to create opportunities to learn, grow and inspire within a deserving community, such as youth sports,” Walsh Jennings said in the press release. “I’m proud of the work my fellow champions and I have created with The Pros and so happy our content has found such a great home. My goal is to forever inspire and empower as many people as I can, and this partnership will allow for great and positive impact.”
Other content will be offered from organzations like USA Hockey, Diamond Allegiance Baseball, and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s TrueSport program.
It’s not going to be anything like Netflix streaming live sports — at least not until these kids grow up and turn pro.
