SEMO football opener will air only on Net

Want to gather some friends and watch the Southeast Missouri State football game on the big screen tonight?

You'll need a large computer screen, and hopefully a cooperative Internet service provider, because the only media outlet for Southeast's season-opening game at Cincinnati is ESPN360.com.

"We tried to get it on a local station, but ESPN wouldn't go for it," Southeast sports information director Ron Hines. "We've arranged for games that were on other networks like Fox Sports South to be broadcast before."

What ESPN did go for was providing the game to all users of the university's Internet service.

"All students, faculty and staff who are hooked into the university system would be able to see it," Hines said. "They made it available to the university at no charge. I think one of the reasons is they're trying to expose students to a new product.

"By doing this, they get a bunch of kids at Southeast and Cincinnati to watch, and that helps their numbers for advertising."

The product launched in 2001 as ESPN Broadband but only last year began to ramp up its broadcast of live games.

ESPN360 named a new general manager this month and has set a goal of 2,500 live broadcasts in a 12-month span.

The product is available only on ISPs that affiliate themselves by paying a fee to ESPN, similar to the way cable providers work with networks. The game cannot be purchased by an individual computer user.

An ESPN spokesman said more than 20 high-speed ISPs -- including Verizon, AT&T and Charter -- are part of the network providing service to 17 million homes.

"We've had a great deal of growth in the past year, both with distribution and with usage," Paul Melvin of ESPN Communications said in an e-mail.

He said distribution had doubled in the last year.

"As broadband becomes more a part of people's lives, we want to deliver the very best, most comprehensive multisport broadband sports network available," Melvin added. "Live sports is something people are passionate about, and we want to deliver them more games and events. This service allows us to do that."

But it also leaves people like Jerry Lynn, general manager at Buffalo Wild Wings, scratching his head about how to put the game on a big screen.

His establishment was crowded Sunday night with the pay-per-view telecast of the WWE Summer Slam wrestling event, and he put Cardinals and other live sports broadcasts on the big screen.

On Tuesday, he was still trying to figure out whether the Southeast game would be shown in his establishment.

"I wish we could," Lynn said. "We've had a few calls. To be honest, I don't know."

tcarrig@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 211