Clemson has set a date of Feb. 15 to launch Clemson+, the new OTT channel the school has been developing with media tech firm WMT for close to a year. Clemson+ will be available on Apple TV, Roku and Android TV streaming platforms, the ClemsonTigers app and the new ClemsonPlus.com website.
ON THE PLUS SIDE: Clemson will be the third school to create an OTT channel with Miami-based WMT, joining Notre Dame and Arkansas, but the Tigers’ new streaming channel will feature a significantly different model. Rather than selling subscriptions, Clemson+ will be available only to members of the IPTAY Club, the school’s booster and fundraising organization. Clemson is promoting it as an “exclusive benefit for members.” IPTAY members will be able to use their username and password from the IPTAY site to log into Clemson+. IPTAY has close to 20,000 members, meaning Clemson+ will launch with a sizable audience of about 20,000 subscribers. The Tigers’ in-house multimedia rights team will sell sponsorships to Clemson+ programs to drive revenue.
SPANNING ALL PLATFORMS: Clemson+ content will cross a wide range of press conferences, classic games and behind-the-scenes docu-series like the popular Clemson football VLOG, which has been running for five seasons on YouTube, Facebook and the school’s website. Clemson also has hired three new positions that are specific to creating more long-form video content. One of the primary benefits of Clemson+ is that all of that content, long form and quick hitters, will now be housed in one place.
EXPERIENCE MATTERS: “It’s going to be a Netflix or ESPN+ type of experience. That’s how we’re talking about it,” said Clemson AD Graham Neff, who took over the AD position last month and previously had taken the lead on the Clemson+ project when he was the deputy AD. “We’ve prided ourselves for years on what we’ve done with social media and especially video content. Now we’ve got a place that will be home for all things Clemson.” While there will be a revenue component to Clemson+, Neff said he is looking at the channel’s success through a much longer lens. Neff: “We want to grow our membership and we’re looking at a number of different ways to do that, but we feel like this added benefit is going to be a compelling piece of that.”
