Posts
4042
Joined
8/16/2006
Location
Mission Viejo, CA, USA
Edited Date/Time
1/25/2012 2:04pm
Does the sport really need TV?
By Denise Conroy-Galley (Motochic)
I've been reading a lot lately on this topic. And, I pose this question: does MX/SX need television at all?
Blasphemy, I know. Don't misunderstand me. It would be great (and easy) if the sport had a nice big TV deal, complete with terrific ratings. But, that's not the case. One might argue it's never been the case.
There are a lot of reasons for MX/SX not having a top level TV deal: below average ratings, small viewer/fan base, wide variance in TV production values, difficulty of portraying the excitement of the sport, etc.
I posit that MX/SX doesn't need TV at all. Instead, why not make it a new media-centric sport? For years, people in the sport have been trying to position it as the sport for a young, vibrant demographic. Why not reinforce this positioning by focusing on the media channels that a young, vibrant demographic watches? You'd carve out your own niche that reinforces how the sport is positioned anyway. And, you'd stop banging your head against a wall, trying to do the traditional TV broadcast deal.
This new media delivery plan would look something like this:
1. Races broadcast live over the internet at a branded portal/channel for the sport, complete with pre- and post-shows and lots of rich content (athlete profiles, interviews, etc.). Some of this is already happening, so you'd just have to turn it up a notch.
2. This would NOT be a subscription site. Subscription sites have largely been a failure. This would be an ad-supported endeavor.
3. Doing an online based broadcast has several advantages: provides you with viewership metrics superior to Nielsen ratings, lets you portray the sport on its terms w/o worrying about jamming everything into a conventional TV format and makes the series available to an international audience.
4. Cut a deal with cable companies to show race exerpts/weekly updates and athlete profiles on their video-on-demand (VOD) platform. You could even go as far as to give it a channel name (like The AMA Motocross Channel)and use that channel name across all of the new media platforms you're on. Cable companies aren't too keen on launching new linear networks, but they really need content for their VOD. And, again, the metrics for VOD are far superior to Nielsen ratings. And, you can generate revenue off of this.
5. Do a branded portal on You Tube and do a revenue share deal with Google.
6. Start a mobile segment of the business and cut deals with the major cell phone carriers.
If you did all of these things, you'd probably generate more impressions for the sport than the current model on TV. And, you could take those impressions and boost advertising sales efforts considerably - while you tout how cutting edge your young audience really is. And, it would cost a heck of a lot less than TV.
Thoughts?
By Denise Conroy-Galley (Motochic)
I've been reading a lot lately on this topic. And, I pose this question: does MX/SX need television at all?
Blasphemy, I know. Don't misunderstand me. It would be great (and easy) if the sport had a nice big TV deal, complete with terrific ratings. But, that's not the case. One might argue it's never been the case.
There are a lot of reasons for MX/SX not having a top level TV deal: below average ratings, small viewer/fan base, wide variance in TV production values, difficulty of portraying the excitement of the sport, etc.
I posit that MX/SX doesn't need TV at all. Instead, why not make it a new media-centric sport? For years, people in the sport have been trying to position it as the sport for a young, vibrant demographic. Why not reinforce this positioning by focusing on the media channels that a young, vibrant demographic watches? You'd carve out your own niche that reinforces how the sport is positioned anyway. And, you'd stop banging your head against a wall, trying to do the traditional TV broadcast deal.
This new media delivery plan would look something like this:
1. Races broadcast live over the internet at a branded portal/channel for the sport, complete with pre- and post-shows and lots of rich content (athlete profiles, interviews, etc.). Some of this is already happening, so you'd just have to turn it up a notch.
2. This would NOT be a subscription site. Subscription sites have largely been a failure. This would be an ad-supported endeavor.
3. Doing an online based broadcast has several advantages: provides you with viewership metrics superior to Nielsen ratings, lets you portray the sport on its terms w/o worrying about jamming everything into a conventional TV format and makes the series available to an international audience.
4. Cut a deal with cable companies to show race exerpts/weekly updates and athlete profiles on their video-on-demand (VOD) platform. You could even go as far as to give it a channel name (like The AMA Motocross Channel)and use that channel name across all of the new media platforms you're on. Cable companies aren't too keen on launching new linear networks, but they really need content for their VOD. And, again, the metrics for VOD are far superior to Nielsen ratings. And, you can generate revenue off of this.
5. Do a branded portal on You Tube and do a revenue share deal with Google.
6. Start a mobile segment of the business and cut deals with the major cell phone carriers.
If you did all of these things, you'd probably generate more impressions for the sport than the current model on TV. And, you could take those impressions and boost advertising sales efforts considerably - while you tout how cutting edge your young audience really is. And, it would cost a heck of a lot less than TV.
Thoughts?
seriously this seems to be the area DC would take things the farthest, his on line magazine works seamlessly, his on line coverage of mx and internet connections are just 1 step behind what Denise is suggesting.
plus there's this place called RadioShack by my house and they sell this thing called a cable and it hooks your computer to your TV, really amazing stuff ha
S
choreographed and brilliantly executed, SATURDAY NIGHT SUPERCROSS
PROGRAM (2-3 hours)- produced as entertainment - with personalities,
intrigue and DRAMA -again, key word "LIVE" - on TV, give it a couple years to grow
an-outside-the-sport fanbase - IT WILL.
30 years after Supercross has got going, sadly, we're still unable to make this
happen.
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
S
When things become "bigger", more popular, they become more expensive as prices go up to meet demand. When they're more popular, they also come under greater scrutiny, like from concerned citizens, busybodies and ultimately government regulators.
For myself, as long as I can keep a bike running underneath me, and have some place to ride, I don't need anything else. Race reports and pro sport coverage will naturally increase with practical Internet capability. I think those that are in it to make a living had better be exceptional or else read the writing on the wall and accept that you're scraping by just because you love the sport.
I'd be all for this as long as it's not hard to access. For the most part the live webcasts have been pretty good lately... adding video to this... would it bog it down like in years past for just the audio?
They would be way out of their league with just ad supported campaigns .
They would need over 5 million hits/impressions in targeted traffic a day (and 4 times as many on race day) and even if they did unheard of ratio's (like 1:100) they still would not come close to even paying for the package (or making what type of money they are getting for the package now).
The other VOD stuff would be like pissing in the wind , same with dealing with cell phone carriers.As for dealing with Google -Google would rob them blind.
Also the reason that subscription sites fail is because lack of traffic and shitty ratios.
An ad supported campaign would be much worse - because most subscription sites
also use ad supported campaigns combined with their suscriptions to generate $$$
and they still fail.
The sport needs live TV on a major newtwork in somewhat of a prime time slot.
The events need to seperated by 2 week periods, with lots of commercials (Radio & TV)
hyping up the events and a few PC's to hype the events up (just like in pro boxing).
The Mains need to start at 8pm out west and 11pm here on the East (reguardless of what coast they are racing on).The Major network broadcasting the events could also stream a live broadcast on their site for the people over seas ect. (Just like ESPN did with X).
I'm not sure what the bandwidth would cost, but it scales with the viewship as does the ad revenue so it should self-adjust to compensate.
The networks just don't get the sport. The only way to get the message across the way the core fans want it to be seen is if the industry takes control of the broadcast.
Signed: G-Force
Having the advertisers pay the way would be great (for you cheap bastards) but I think the subscription would be the best way to start out and if things worked out go the advertisement route.
Any large company would do their homework before investing in this sport and the data would not support their investment if it were an internet only broadcast. If it were some other sport like surfing (which is much more affordable) along with the fact that it’s a lifestyle as much as it is a sport it might work.
TV fuels all sports money. Maybe SX is just an event and not a sport..
I think you need TV money for it to grow, but you also need Las Vegas to put up odds on every race. People want to bet, and sports that allow it and conform to it, grow like crazy.
Pit Row
You get off shore and Las Vegas interested, and things can only go up from there.
Remember,when it comes to TV vs The Inet.
TV (targeted) impressions are worth much much more then (targeted) I-net impressions are.
As in all sport though, you can't have the same winner every week, thus you have a spread.
I can't see a way to put a Spread on MX/ SX events.
Let me know how they make out then.
Lower ticket prices to 10 bucks and flood the local markets with advertisements pack 50k spectators in a 20k bag and make a killing on merchandise.
Post a reply to: I have to steal Denise's Topic from MT too good to pass...