Jay, use some of your clout, your "pull" in pooldom, to twist some arms for us! When you get back over there, tell 'em that we even said "pretty please"!
Espn star
- Thread starter duker
- Start date
Jay, use some of your clout, your "pull" in pooldom, to twist some arms for us! When you get back over there, tell 'em that we even said "pretty please"!
Our Congressman of Pooldom!
Leave it to a tenacious Marine to get the job done right! Thanks JoeyA for your dedicated service!
(The AZB crowd murmurs with whispered great expectations and is abuzz with excited anticipation as we jockey for position in line at the telephones.....)
WOW! The TV Customer Service actually answered their phone and I spoke for quite a while, discussing ESPN STAR covering the U.S. event www.us9ballchampionships.com and the rep was quite understanding and promised to forward this information to the appropriate parties. He also mentioned that he would be able to tell me if this event would be broadcast or re-broadcast by ESPN after it got closer to the October date. I told him, that ESPN STAR broadcast this event live last year and that ESPN did not and that ESPN most likely would not broadcast this event again this year unless some changes are made.
I emphasized that this is the PREMIERE 9 ball INTERNATIONAL event and that players from all over the world come to compete.
He promised to get information to the proper parties. I gave him my telephone number and name and asked them to call me if they wanted any questions answered. I was polite and nice the whole time as I learned that if you want to *****, ***** very nicely if you want a positive response.
OK, I've done my duty, what about the rest of you. One person's phone call isn't going to get the job done.........
THEY DO ANSWER THE PHONE. Give ESPN TV a call. It's free. So either call or quit *****ing.
Leave it to a tenacious Marine to get the job done right! Thanks JoeyA for your dedicated service!
(The AZB crowd murmurs with whispered great expectations and is abuzz with excited anticipation as we jockey for position in line at the telephones.....)
Am i understanding correctly that at this time the US Open is going to be televised but not in the US?
Tap Tap! ESPN has pretty much killed televised pool in America with poor quality telecasts. That about sums it up for me.
Jay, use some of your clout, your "pull" in pooldom, to twist some arms for us! When you get back over there, tell 'em that we even said "pretty please"!
Perhaps if enough people send E-MAILS to ESPN requesting coverage of the major International pool tournaments, they might finally see the light. Doubtful though.
I have seen edited versions of the Mosconi Cup and other events on Fox Sports, long after they were played. Typically they take a full day of matches and edit it to fit a one hour time frame. So what you get is the last two or three games of a match. It is kind of a joke how real pro pool is covered in America.
We all e-mailed ESPN a few years ago, similar to this, in a campaign about pool on TV. We posted the e-mail address in a thread and asked all AzBilliards' members to please contact them.
It was like talking to a wall. I got a boilerplate reply back thanking me for taking the time to write to them. That was it.
I hope things have changed. :smile:
Here is the link to the AzBilliards thread: ESPN.
It was sad to see Rude Dog and Hemicudas' posts in the thread.
It was like talking to a wall. I got a boilerplate reply back thanking me for taking the time to write to them. That was it.
I hope things have changed. :smile:
Here is the link to the AzBilliards thread: ESPN.
It was sad to see Rude Dog and Hemicudas' posts in the thread.
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Everybody is in the same boat on this , peoples interests vary , so they have to pay 75 % for channels they don't watch or despise. People need to contact their elected officials at the Fed. level and have them force the small dish and cable companies to sell programming ala carte .
I think that the American pool fan needs to stress to ESPN how much he/she enjoys watching the Asian and European pro pool players.
Aside from the Mosconi Cup, male American professional players have a declining profile in the overseas pool events. The top American pros aren't even showing up anymore to overseas events, and, in an equally strange turn, many of them are boycotting America's most prestigious event in 2011. Personally, if ESPN is not paying attention to American pool right now, it may be to our advantage, because I'm not sure I want them to see the prevalent disunity and disfunction.
Right now, unless ESPN believes that American pool fans would still watch an overseas event in which almost no Americans were competing, they'd be hard pressed to use pool as a reason for adding ESPN Star to their American TV offering.
Aside from the Mosconi Cup, male American professional players have a declining profile in the overseas pool events. The top American pros aren't even showing up anymore to overseas events, and, in an equally strange turn, many of them are boycotting America's most prestigious event in 2011. Personally, if ESPN is not paying attention to American pool right now, it may be to our advantage, because I'm not sure I want them to see the prevalent disunity and disfunction.
Right now, unless ESPN believes that American pool fans would still watch an overseas event in which almost no Americans were competing, they'd be hard pressed to use pool as a reason for adding ESPN Star to their American TV offering.
Al a carte won't be a real solution. To make it work economically, you'll only get to choose a small number of stations for the same amount of money that you pay currently.
The cable/satellite companies depend on these niche channels to provide them income. If you had to pay on a per station basis, you would be quite surprised how little you would be able to get for any reasonable amount of money.
They need the huge selection to attract customers. Without the package deals, the smaller niche channels will disappear, as they won't get enough buys to pay for production costs, much less make a profit.
Now if these cable/satellite companies were to provide Star (or other offerings) through PPV, that is a far more workable solution. Or through their internet outlets, streaming-wise. A much more likely scenario.
Here's to hoping...
That's a major issue with telecommunications, and one that I only see growing as time goes on. People have gotten very accustom to watching what they want, when they want it, and the demand and subsequent move to more on-demand programming structures will only grow. I'm not sure we were ever a society built for 250 channels (but only 16 you ever watch), but with modern telecommunications providing so many content options in other places, the cable/dbs systems and accompanying laws need to get with the times.
Your problem gets worse with sports programming, where sometimes it isn't a question of wanting the product, but simply not being able to purchase it at all. I see it quite a bit with baseball, where a game isn't provided, but you can't get it on another channel because you're blacked out due to locality.
The real hypocrisy, though, is when programmers and service providers go after streamers, who are often (though certainly not exclusively) users that can not otherwise receive the product.
I see your point, but I disagree. They said it couldn't be done with music, without having an album format to essentially bundle the songs. Yet, micro transactions now dominate the music marketplace.
The same thing happens with movies. On demand, and internet rentals have killed off the traditional movie rental business.
Gaming, music, movies, even television (in some cases) has moved to an on-demand format. These are all formats that have traditionally been funded by previous sales and the re-packaging of prior content and they're all, in one shape or another, making the transition.
Oh, it will probably happen at some point in the future, but we aren't close to being there yet. It will require our internet bandwidth to be significantly higher than it is now, so that we get our programming in that manner.
When that happens, they will be far more capable of delivering streamlined content packages, and PPV and/or a la carte will be a regular occurrence. We don't have reliable and wide enough bandwidth to support that method of delivery, yet. Maybe in 10 years?
Until then, we will have to rely on the packages satellite/cable provide.
your eyes bleed?
Best post so far. I hate having to buy a package that comes with 40 channels i might watch and another 100 something that I couldn't give a rat's butt about. I dont care about those other channels and what they need to survive.
Luckily I have the choice to not watch them, but as soon as my contract is up with the Comcast monopoly, I'm downgrading to just internet and local channels.
I want more pool on TV. Thank god I can watch old matches on Youtube.
Sad to say, but if it weren't for YouTube, we'd all miss out on most pool in the world to be watched at all. ESPN sux ass here in the US! Even if and when they do show pool, its mostly 10yrs outdated broadcasts and they still manage to edit out a third to half the match. Total waste to bother. We just need another sports channel to watch pool on in the states.