A recent opinion column in Technician questioned the quality of management and content at PackTV. There are many technical and creative aspects that go into broadcasting a channel. I hope that this shares some context into why the channel was created and how it currently operates.
It is important to understand what PackTV is. It is not ESPN+ or the ACC Network, although if you look for NC State sports content on either of these sites, you will find content produced, but not branded, by PackTV. You will also find some of our current and former PackTV personalities on these sites. PackTV is a 24/7 NC State sports channel that tries to give our club and intramural athletes the varsity experience. We are unique in this endeavor and are helping to grow and develop our club teams. Very few universities do full, live game broadcasts for their club teams, and we give our teams’ families, friends and fans the ability to see their games live on cable, YouTube, Amazon Fire, AppleTV and RokuTV. We do this on a very limited budget. We are student-driven but not student-run, which means that we do not have access to student fees and are supported from advertiser revenue and funding from the cable television system.
PackTV is one of four local origination channels. NC State Television broadcasts lectures, student interest and some student life programming. WolfBytes Television is a campus information station that is part of the WolfAlert system. 88.1-HD WolfBytes Radio is an EDM radio station. All of these channels are student-driven. We had a fifth station, WOLF-TV, that programmed student life content exclusively. We transferred ownership of the channel to Student Media in the early 2000s. Those students learned that it is substantially more difficult to produce enough video content on a consistent basis to run a television station and the station became inactive.
As for PackTV’s name, Wolfpack Sports Television was a great name for a sports station. But it had to change with the advent of the ACC Network due to licensing issues and a general confusion between other athletics-based entities. The new name and logo were chosen by our viewers through a vote.
All of our channels are inclusive. We have forged partnerships with many administrative and academic departments on campus. We are all here to learn, and we have leveraged our channels to help academic departments train students in the skills that are needed for their coursework. Our student employees have a wealth of creative potential and are working hard to improve their skills. They come to us because they have a passion for NC State sports and an interest in broadcasting. They learn the basics of editing, shooting, directing, interviewing and becoming multimedia journalists at a university without a broadcast journalism major. They have access to professional equipment and full-time staff with skills that are available nowhere else on campus. The majority of our students will go on to other things besides sports broadcasting, but they are very passionate about what they do. They, along with many of our alumni and fans, have been very vocal in support of the station over the last few days. That is appreciated, but there is room for conversation on how to improve.
All are welcomed at PackTV. To that end, we have a limited number of paid student positions at all of our channels.
BJ Attarian is the program director for PackTV.
