Are you going to spend 49.95 to watch the Open?

[Cardinal_Syn]

how much was it last year? I remember paying like $14 or something like that but I think that was the last day.
Why so much this year? Cost more than watching a PPV match sheesh. For that price the video should at least be archived for later viewing.

 

[buck15]

us open

last year it was $20 i beleive. if it is 50 this year i will not be watching it. that is a big price jump.

 

[storke]

i have been going to the site and keep getting 0 dollars as for the cost. however if it is 50 bucks thati is a jump from last year. i orderd it last year and i was one of the ones that got burned. they offered me a video which they never sent. so im a little skeptical on purchasing this year

 

[CaptiveBred]

BCN has serious problems EVERY SINGLE TIME they do this. Check the search function for every event they covered and you will see. They have terrible customer service and no clue how to stream.

I would never pay them $50 for their shotty coverage...

Just wait and see all the complaints coming in, on the forums, when this goes live...

 

[macguy]

I just went to BCN and noticed that the price to order coverage for the U.S. Open is 49.95 if you order before the 13th. If you order after the 13th it is 69.95 for the stream.

I am curious as to how many people plan to purchase the feed at this cost.

I just read through the current posts. Un "F"en believable. People won't pay fifty bucks to watch from the comfort of their own home. Just more proof that pool is a totally dead issue. Why any promoter would waste five minutes on these pool fans is beyond me. F-em, let them watch five year old reruns of trick shots on ESPN and be done with it. What a bunch of nit's.

 

[Bassmaster]

I voted no its too high.....then turned around and ordered the whole package for 49.00 I have no experience in watching TV on the PC so hopefully the quality will be as good as the demo?

I figure you pay that amount to watch any big sporting event for a couple of hours. With this you get it all week 24/7 plus its cheaper and probably a better view than going up there in person...although I still might make the trip for one of the days.

 

[Bigtruck]

Easy there.....

I just read through the current posts. Un "F"en believable. People won't pay fifty bucks to watch from the comfort of their own home. Just more proof that pool is a totally dead issue. Why any promoter would waste five minutes on these pool fans is beyond me. F-em, let them watch five year old reruns of trick shots on ESPN and be done with it. What a bunch of nit's.

Easy there big guy, a lot of us have ordered and can't wait. Why is Pool Issue dead because of a few with tight budgets or can't see the value? I HIGHLY recommend to go and get a S-Video cable, they are cheap cheap. Hook your computer to your TV. The sound will still come from your computer speakers. It's the only way to go!!!

Ray

 

[uwate]

I am going to direct this post at BCN, since I know they will be reading this thread. excuse the techno babble azbers, but BCN could use to hear me out on this without it being dumbed down.

You guys might have better luck getting people to spend $50-60 if you can still do this PPMinute instead. At the end of the day, its alot easier to get people to buy in with the entry level pricing of $2.95 for 15 minutes than trying to whack them for $50 to 70 from the get go. Many of those people will continue to rebuy and could easily be converted to final $ made of more than $50. With PPM, the actual $ amt per customer will be lower, but you will make it up on a higher volume. It is very hard to get people to buy in above $50 and BCN should also concern themselves about chargebacks. On transactions that are $70.00 you have to execute very well or there is a low tolerance for problems and a much higher willingness by the enduser to seek redress through xbacks. You will be running this through a high risk merchant acct so you need to keep the xbacks below 1% which im sure you know.

I see the demo is saying that youwill be trying to run this at 720x480 with 1035kbps bitrate. Bitrates above 1024 are very hard for people to stream on DSL/Cable. I am speaking from experience about this, and not surfer/enduser experience, but actual business experience of trying to implement VOD/PPM/PPV/Download to burn. You are going to get alot of people complaining about buffering if you try to run this at 1k bitrate. You need to get your CanVid to provide variable bitrates that can autodetect what the bandwidth capabilities of the enduser are. Or at the very least have your provider give the option of choosing a lower bitrate so as to eliminate buffering complaints. 512 bitrate is a more user friendly and still provides a good product. If the enduser is able to download the whole video to watch later, like the archived vids, then 1024+ bitrate is totally doable, its just the actual PPV-VOD thing wont work live at that bitrate.

Make sure you have Canvid beta this on Firefox, Netscape and the Macs. I tried it out on Firefox and it didnt work. IE is working of course, but make sure they test it out on earlier versions and not just IE7.

Lastly I understand the need for DRM, but know that having DRM on your product is asking for a huge amt of problems. You better make sure your authentication servers are up and are robust. Be prepared for alot of *****ing on the DRM. Most companies that tried to protect their content with DRM have had to remove it at a later date.

 

[Bigtruck]

Download...

BCN had some issues during the Derby City Classic that were really resolved poorly. Partial refunds or DVDs that had to be begged for. The few people in my room that dealt with that all feel burned and vowed never to deal with that again. They have a ways to go before they can charge that amount I think. Seems really high.

For a live feed you HAVE to watch then? Who has a life they can set aside for that?

The average TV show you can download goes for $1.99. Or watch it at will for $0.99 Thats for an hour long show.

I think that format is a more acceptable one. Download any match you want for $1.99 or watch it for a buck.


JMO

Yes, the download thing would be great! I too, was not able to view the Derby City matches much. Either couldn't get on or when I did get on it was very small and not enjoyable. I know there have been HUGE breakthroughs in webcasting and live feeds. I believe BCN has teamed up with a new provider that is giving full screen high definition viewing. I'm staying with them on this one. Viewing matches on the internet is the future and we should support their efforts to get it right.

Ray

 

[uwate]

Yes, the download thing would be great! I too, was not able to view the Derby City matches much. Either couldn't get on or when I did get on it was very small and not enjoyable. I know there have been HUGE breakthroughs in webcasting and live feeds. I believe BCN has teamed up with a new provider that is giving full screen high definition viewing. I'm staying with them on this one. Viewing matches on the internet is the future and we should support their efforts to get it right.

Ray

I dont think you can compare tv shows versus the US Open pool matches in terms of pricing. The costs to produce a tv show are made up through many alternative forms of revenue that gets generated by the producers, including tv advertising, syndication, dvds etc. The volume for something like "Lost" or "Grey's Anatomy" also dwarfs the volume that BCN will see on this. Higher volume means you can accept a lower amount of profit per sale and still be well into the black. I dont think its reasonable to expect that BCN can produce this tournament and sell the matches on PPV for $1.99 each match. Maybe much much later after the initial sales have been made you can go to the well again and get $2 for people to download the file another time, but not now..not when its happening.

At the risk of sounding rude...dont be so cheap man...BCN has to be able to make some money on this or they wont be able to do this at all in the future.

*edit: sorry bigtruck...i meant to quote cueandcushion's pricing quote and not yours.

 

[jnav447]

Although I was a little surprised at the price tag, I ordered without hesitation. For a similar pay-per-view cost, you can order boxing, which often is boring beyond belief (and I'm a lifelong boxing fan) or MMA, which is great if you enjoy watching 2 guys roll around the floor. The per-day cost for the Open feed is about $7, which seems rather fair to me. The problems with the BCN live feed from last year's Derby City Classic were a result of events beyond the control of the network people, according to BCN. I tend to believe this, since the Open feed has always been more reliable than the DCC. I remember riding my bike 12 miles each way to the YMCA when I was a kid just to watch pool games, because pool halls were illegal in Texas until around 1962 and the only pool tables were at the Y. I think pool has made a little progress since then.

 

[JustPlay]

I just don't understand why the BCn just doesn't rent a cable station and charge 29.99 for the quarterfinals uptill and including the finals. They would most likely have a bulk of customers to watch...

 

[misterpoole]

maybe

If I knew they could execute I would buy the package but its been hit and miss in the past. I hope there will be a thread, when the open starts, so we will know how good the feed is. If they do execute then I will likely buy the package early in the week.

 

[Ktown D]

If I knew they could execute I would buy the package but its been hit and miss in the past. I hope there will be a thread, when the open starts, so we will know how good the feed is. If they do execute then I will likely buy the package early in the week.

As I said, I will be watching at home due to a surgery. if the feed is bogus I will start a thread telling how bad it is and warning people not ot wast their money. If it is great, I will let you know as well.

 

[JimS]

I don't think it's a fair price but I DID order it.

 

[DaveK]

I just don't understand why the BCn just doesn't rent a cable station and charge 29.99 for the quarterfinals uptill and including the finals. They would most likely have a bulk of customers to watch...

This is a fascinating idea, but it would take some development (duh). A channel-time-reseller could buy up all kinds of events, then resell them as pay-per-view content (with advertising just to get greedy) on the cable system. I'm sure the regulatory folks would have something to say, but a few "whatever-sport-we-have-and-you'll-pay-for" channels could be very good for pool and other second tier sports ... I might buy that (for less than $50 though, say $20 - $25).

Like uwate, I believe that the Internet today does not provide good service for live video. Maybe in a few years when reasonable multicast and quality-of-service systems are implemented to everyones home, but until then the experience will have a very tough time comparing to TV as I know it, let alone High Def which I'd like to know.

Dave

 

[supergreenman]

I just read through the current posts. Un "F"en believable. People won't pay fifty bucks to watch from the comfort of their own home. Just more proof that pool is a totally dead issue. Why any promoter would waste five minutes on these pool fans is beyond me. F-em, let them watch five year old reruns of trick shots on ESPN and be done with it. What a bunch of nit's.

Ok mr. high roller with all the money in the world to throw away, you pay the $50 for poor quality video you have to sit at your computer and watch. You can't even tape it or record it in case you have to get and go to the washroom, cook dinner and otherwise have a life.

Don't be calling down pool players because they refuse to pay an exhorbant amount of money.

Don't look down on people that don't have the cash to throw around that you do.

I'm not poor by any means, I'd rather do things like put food on the table and put some cash away so my kids can go to university. Next time you drop a hun on dinner(like you stated in the other thread) remeber that would feed a homeless person for a month with that.

 

[Mr Hoppe]

I think the $49 changes to $69 after tomorrow . . . I was going to order, but the web page that takes your credit card info is not secure I don't need my credit card number stolen and credit history trashed just to see some pool. Wish they would fix it.

 

[CaptiveBred]

... Next time you drop a hun on dinner(like you stated in the other thread) remeber that would feed a homeless person for a month with that.

forget that... I can buy a quarter for that price

 

[suckershot]

I dont think you can compare tv shows versus the US Open pool matches in terms of pricing. The costs to produce a tv show are made up through many alternative forms of revenue that gets generated by the producers, including tv advertising, syndication, dvds etc. The volume for something like "Lost" or "Grey's Anatomy" also dwarfs the volume that BCN will see on this. Higher volume means you can accept a lower amount of profit per sale and still be well into the black. I dont think its reasonable to expect that BCN can produce this tournament and sell the matches on PPV for $1.99 each match. Maybe much much later after the initial sales have been made you can go to the well again and get $2 for people to download the file another time, but not now..not when its happening.

I agree here. The fact is we know the volume of purchasers for this event will never be anything like the volume of purchasers of a popular TV show. With a popular TV show, you can recoup costs on volume. With pool, I'm sure it's not that easy.

BCN has serious problems EVERY SINGLE TIME they do this. Check the search function for every event they covered and you will see. They have terrible customer service and no clue how to stream.

Unfortunately, I also have to agree on the comment about BCN's customer service. I had a complaint about the responses I was getting from their CS people. First I was told by BCN matches would only be shown live, in which case I would not pay because I wouldn't be home for 90% of the matches. I later found out by going on their site that the matches had indeed been made available on demand, but as their site said, only for a couple more days past the current date. I emailed again and asked them was this expiration date firm. I said I'd be fully willing to pay for it, but a couple days wouldn't be enough for me to watch the videos. I got NO response from them, so I had to take the website's word for it, and I again would not pay only to see these videos go offline in 2 days. A month later, I looked at the BCN website, and the expiration date was still posted there, but the videos were STILL available. I emailed them again, requesting the actual availability of these videos, again with no response.

So if not for a bitter taste in my mouth, I'd absolutely have paid $50 for it. But the customer service experience above soured me on BCN, and I can't bring myself to spend money with them not knowing how it will be. I want to be clear that I think $50 is an excellent price IF it all goes smoothly and they provide what they claim they will. Unfortunately, I've little faith in them because of the bad experience, and will not $50 to find out if they've changed.