Doing more with less is not an uncommon scenario for public media, but rarely does it reap the results that South Dakota Public Broadcasting (SDPB) achieved in streaming the SDHSSA State Gymnastics meet on February 11-12.

The two-day event, livestreamed on SDPB’s website, resulted in a 343% gain in total viewership over 2022. Over 18,000 people tuned in for all or part of the live stream, which in 2022 had reached just 4,252 people.

“We have seen consistent gains in viewers of the event over the last few years,” said Bran Van Osdel, Director of Entertainment for SDPB. “This year, we wanted to enhance the online viewer experience by making all four events ((Vault, Floor Exercise, Balance Beam, and Uneven Bars) viewable simultaneously. In past years, we had limitations in bandwidth and workflow that only allowed one event at any one time.”

Working with SDPB’s engineering department, Van Osdel’s team was able to obtain the equipment to ensure the needed live feed bandwidth out of the event space and onto SDPB’s live stream platform. Existing staff shifted workflows to make the four-event feed possible and the audience jumped on it immediately, with the very first four sessions offered on Friday morning seeing more viewers than the entirety of 2022’s event.

“February and March are some of our busiest months, streaming- wise, as we are live streaming South Dakota’s legislative session as well as several high school sports championship events in addition to our regularly scheduled programming,” shared Van Osdel. “Trying something new and having it have such a huge positive response from the people of South Dakota is a win for both our team and our audience.”

SDPB’s coverage of the 2023 state gymnastic meet also saw gains in website visits (+24%) and on social media, with a 224% increase in reach on their SDPB Sports Facebook account and a 118% increase in reach on the SDPB Sports Twitter platform as compared to numbers from the same period in 2022.

SDPB presents the SDHSAA Gymnastics Championship Highlights show Sunday, March 19, at 1 pm Central, noon Mountain on SDPB1 TV. More information is available at SDPB.org/ Gymnastics. Coverage of SDHSAA sports continues February 23-25 with the State Wrestling Individual and Team Championships on SDPB.