Team Hive helps schools stream sports, events for free

FAIRVIEW—A partnership between a locally owned streaming service and multiple broadcasting partners is making a big contribution to high schools across the state by offering a platform for sports and school events to be viewed online for free.

Operated by CentraCom Interactive of Fairview, Team Hive streams games, school events and more from 18 high schools, and the number is climbing.

So far, the service has been extremely well received, with more than 200,000 individual viewers logging on to watch more than 750,000 unique sessions from August 2022 through May 2023.

Barrett Hilton, Team Hive director, says the service, which is free to both viewers and schools, is not a big money maker, but the endeavor is more about contributing to the community than big profits.

“Overwhelmingly, people love this service,” Hilton told the Messenger. “I hear from a lot of people. Often, it’s ‘thank you so much for making it so I can watch my grandson’s game’ or ‘I live out of state, and I was so glad I could see my sister play in her tournament.’

“There is a big desire for this kind of service. Others may offer something similar, but we do it totally free to the viewers and schools, and we think that is important.”

Hilton says the site, which exists online at Teamhive.live is a video streaming platform for Utah schools much like Youtube. But its primary emphasis is on live broadcasts of games and events.

The service has its origins in a previous iteration called Local10.tv, which streamed Sanpete County school events. But somewhere along the way, CentraCom, which operates Local10.tv, realized the service needed to be expanded to offer hosting for schools, enabling the schools to upload and stream their own content.

“The pandemic really created a need for this,” Hilton says. “So, we decided to work harder and make it available to any school in the state that wants to do it.”

With the changes to expand in service and scope, so too came the new name, “Team Hive.”

“We realized it was time for a catchier name that reflects the state of Utah as a whole instead of just central Utah,” Hilton told the Messenger.

Hilton, who also teaches film and broadcasting classes at North Sanpete High School, says CentraCom and its partners prioritized helping the schools that use their service with the process of producing and broadcasting their events.

“A big part of what I do is provide support for those schools,” Hilton says. “Teach them how to stream, answer questions about their production, anything I can do to facilitate the process.”

Hilton says across the board, all the schools who stream their events through Team Hive love the service and what it offers to the high school sports and education communities.

“The athletics directors are constantly thanking us for what we do,” he says. “There has been so much gratitude and appreciation. That’s what helps us realize this has value for education, sports fans, family members of students and their communities. That’s why we have kept it going and growing.”

Although about 70 percent of the events streamed on Team Hive are now produced by the schools, the service still operates an in-house production crew that broadcasts multiple games weekly. Hilton says one important game per week is also be broadcast on the CentraCom TV station.

“CentraCom is the company that powers and funds Team Hive and our production,” he says. “Our production division does production of our own for 10 or so high schools in central and southern Utah that are within the service area of Centracom and our radio partner, MidUtahRadio.”

Hilton says Team Hive has several important partnerships, including KSLSports and the Utah High School Activities Association. Because of those relationships, Team Hive was able to stream 37 state tournaments to viewers on both TeamHive.live and KSLSports.com last year.

By partnering with MidUtahRadio, Team Hive’s games get the benefit of a professional MidUtahRadio sports announcer and simulcasting across four of the radio stations on the MidUtahRadio network.

“It has given us a lot of legitimacy to be able to have those professional announcers at these events, Hilton says.

Other partners include ETV, a cable channel in Carbon and Emery County, and ChannelV6, a cable channel in Vernal.

In order to offer such a broad service that is totally free to the viewers and schools, Team Hive has recruited generous sponsors, such as Central Valley Medical Center, Rocky Mountain Chevrolet dealers and dozens of others.

Hilton says Team Hive has grown to the point where it is providing more extensive and high school sports coverage in rural Utah than most schools get across the entire county.

“We appreciate everyone watching and supporting us so much,” he says. “Personally, I grew up here, but I worked in California for many years until I realized I wanted to do something that had more value and contribution to my community. That truly motivates me, Team Hive and our partners in doing this.”