Livestreaming has been popular for a couple of years now, and lots of events are now offering a "tv-table" where they are broadcasting maybe like 16 matches during a weekend.
Poolfans all over the world have now gotten a chance to watch pool live, but unfortunately there are not more than maybe 50-200 people watching in average from medium-sized events.
I think I now have come up with a very simple solution to get a larger non-pool-playing audience to watch, atleast visit for a few minutes. If the format is interesting and the quality of play and video is great, they might hang in there for atleast a match or two.
In a couple of weeks I will put on a tournament on the small island here in Norway where I live, with 16 invited players. We will play a single elimination cup in 9-ball, and the matches will consist of two short sets race to 4, alternate break. If tied in sets 1-1, there will be played a last deciding rack for the win.
This is a format that is obviously not perfect for the poolplayers who prefer long races etc, but it is very exciting for spectators.
Now, back to the subject. How to get more people to watch my event?
I have been in negotiations with one of the biggest newspapers in Norway, (my local newspaper) and they have agreed to broadcast this on their website.
(There is still a minor problem. The newspaper and I ran some tests of the connection last week, and it was not good enough yet, but we have ordered a better connection, and hopefully it will work...)
Why did the newspaper agree to broadcast it?
Because there is absolute no work involved for them, and that is how I presented it to them.
ALL they have to do is to write an article about the tournament, including the schedule for the coming matches, and then copy the embed-code for the stream into the article so people who visit their site and read the article can click play and watch the tournament live without visiting ustream.tv or my website.
Viewers on the newspapers website won't be able to read the chat, they will just get the livestreaming.
Hopefully this will result in a lot more viewers during my tournament, and I hope that some of you broadcasters/promoters decides to try this with your local newspapers too.
It's definitely not rocket science, but I have to admit that during the two years we have been streaming in Norway, it never even crossed my mind doing it like this..
Poolfans all over the world have now gotten a chance to watch pool live, but unfortunately there are not more than maybe 50-200 people watching in average from medium-sized events.
I think I now have come up with a very simple solution to get a larger non-pool-playing audience to watch, atleast visit for a few minutes. If the format is interesting and the quality of play and video is great, they might hang in there for atleast a match or two.
In a couple of weeks I will put on a tournament on the small island here in Norway where I live, with 16 invited players. We will play a single elimination cup in 9-ball, and the matches will consist of two short sets race to 4, alternate break. If tied in sets 1-1, there will be played a last deciding rack for the win.
This is a format that is obviously not perfect for the poolplayers who prefer long races etc, but it is very exciting for spectators.
Now, back to the subject. How to get more people to watch my event?
I have been in negotiations with one of the biggest newspapers in Norway, (my local newspaper) and they have agreed to broadcast this on their website.
(There is still a minor problem. The newspaper and I ran some tests of the connection last week, and it was not good enough yet, but we have ordered a better connection, and hopefully it will work...)
Why did the newspaper agree to broadcast it?
Because there is absolute no work involved for them, and that is how I presented it to them.
ALL they have to do is to write an article about the tournament, including the schedule for the coming matches, and then copy the embed-code for the stream into the article so people who visit their site and read the article can click play and watch the tournament live without visiting ustream.tv or my website.
Viewers on the newspapers website won't be able to read the chat, they will just get the livestreaming.
Hopefully this will result in a lot more viewers during my tournament, and I hope that some of you broadcasters/promoters decides to try this with your local newspapers too.
It's definitely not rocket science, but I have to admit that during the two years we have been streaming in Norway, it never even crossed my mind doing it like this..
