Indiana State Wrestling Finals

Fencepost

Member
Oct 23, 2021
21
30
13
I thoroughly enjoyed the Indiana State Wrestling Finals tonight. High quality video and production, good announcing, high quality wrestling. Free to the world. https://www.ihsaatv.org/

What's wrong with PA that we can't do that?
 

Tom McAndrew

BWI Staff
Staff member
Oct 27, 2021
52,261
39,574
113
What's wrong with PA that we can't do that?

It has nothing to do with PA, the Commonwealth. The PIAA (the equivalent of Indiana's IHSAA) controls high school sports in PA (excluding some private schools that are not part of the PIAA), and also controls the broadcast rights.

All of the PIAA championships used to be broadcast for free, via PCN (Pennsylvania Cable Network), to those within PA that had cable subscriptions. For those outside of PA, they had the option of signing up to have the broadcast streamed to them.

The PCN broadcast of wrestling states was, if I recall correctly, limited to just the championship matches in AA and AAA. In Jan. 2019, the PIAA signed an agreement with FloSports which moved the wrestling States from PCN to FloWrestling. The advantages where 1) the PIAA got more money, 2) Flo broadcast all rounds, and 3) it was easier for those outside of PA to watch States. The disadvantage, at least for PA residents, is that it went from being you got for free as part of your cable subscription to having to sign up for a FloWrestling streaming subscription.

The 2019 agreement runs through the 2022 season. I haven't heard anything about a new agreement/an extension, but perhaps I missed that news.

I believe that wrestling is still the only PIAA championship that is not broadcast on PCN.
 
Get unlimited access today.

Pick the right plan for you.

Already a member? Login