Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME After performing much of the research into other universities' uses of digital media and ex- panding cable networks, Dan Skendzel has led Notre Dame's Fighting Irish Digital Media (FIDM) since its inception in July 2011. Blue & Gold Illustrated: When you compare it to something such as Texas' Longhorn Network, how much difference did Notre Dame's national footprint make in its digital media design? Skendzel: "We were looking at what the Long- horns were planning on doing with a lot of inter- est. If there's a school that should have a cable network, it's Notre Dame and not just for athletics. Because we're Catholics, we have a faith com- ponent that appeals to millions — and also the academic nature. "But with the cable structure being what it is, such a fragmented industry, we'd have to go and cut deals with a number of providers. What is the likelihood of getting that done where we have true national coverage? Very little. When you look at what happened, they struggled to do it in Texas alone. "Then there's this digital technology that's really coming on strong, and now we can go global with it. We thought, 'Why don't we really invest on the digital side and essentially leapfrog ... on digital as the industry evolves?'" Blue & Gold Illustrated: How much did avoiding 24 hours of programming per day play a part of the consideration? Skendzel: "Most of those cable networks that start up, they start up with a six-hour block and play it four times. That's a huge advantage of the digital side here and what we're doing. "The start-up costs, the infrastructure and the manpower to do this are significantly less than launching a full cable network." Blue & Gold Illus- trated: How would you like to see FIDM grow moving forward? Skendzel: "What we're really trying to invest in and become great at is feature storytelling. … That kind of content lives well beyond the announce- ment date or the announcement week because it's telling a broader story. … That covers all five of our core values: excellence on and off the field, education, faith, community, and tradition." Blue & Gold Illustrated: How big of a role have undergraduates played in growing FIDM? Skendzel: "Huge role. … We've gone from work- ing with 10-12 students to a program that now totals 70 students. The reason we've been able to grow is because we've partnered with our academic department, the Film, Television and Theatre Department, and in particular a faculty member named Ted Mandell." Blue & Gold Illustrated: FIDM now produces events for ESPN3. How hard was it to put together and maintain that relationship? Skendzel: "The ESPN3 program is one they've been rolling out across conferences. Through our joining the ACC, that opportunity presented it- self. ESPN's very active through the ACC wanting schools to produce as many games as they can for the ESPN3 platform. We wanted to be a part of that. "It did cause us to invest in some equipment and certain production standards we had to meet, but it's caused us to raise our game." — Douglas Farmer Five Questions With … SENIOR ASSOCIATE ATHLETICS DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL MEDIA DAN SKENDZEL SKENDZEL