My Opinion
TAR had some good matches on there I got to watch and enjoyed, seeing Harry Platis play for some big dollars and also John Henderson playing solid. Jeanette Lee playing Tedder was interesting, I started watching at 25-15 and saw a great come back with some twist and turns. This was all for free!
I did do a good deal of modding along with a few others, we would tag each other in. Modding is tough, you want to be laid back but not let people talk smack about players and make nasty comments about females on there, that should not be tolerated at all. I banned atleast a dozen people, one decided to send me threatening emails because he is a washed up pro player and I banned him for being disrespectful, he threatened me and TAR, funny stuff.
I think the chat needs to be cleaner during certain hours and certainly respectful to female players/commentators and also people should not dog players, you would think that everyone in the chat is a world champion or something. I think the commentary is good and funny but sometimes I have heard players being scoffed at for bad play, not everyone plays like SVB or great all the time, it seemed like the winning guy was the man and the losing guy was just a sucker. I know alcohol can be a factor, I myself have done it during live streams and cursed a bit and acted goofy too.
I feel sorry for TAR because they are trying to provide an affordable service to the pool community who would never be able to see the DCC and the backroom action and probably did not do well this time around. I remember when they first did it and how exciting it was to see, I was losing so much sleep and still found myself 2 years later losing sleep when Tedder and Jeanette were playing.
I think the PPV model is not a good one and have said it all along but until the economy picks up and the companies in pool start to realize spending there advertising dollars on streams is the best bang for there buck it is just what TAR has to do to cover stuff. With PPV you have to deal with people who cant get things to work because they might not have there computer right or minds right, you got tech problems on both ends at times, refunding money and on ad on along with nits. I see sponsors who advertise in pool newspapers and magazines or some sites with little traffic when TAR probably had 100,000 viewers if not more for the DCC, talk about getting exposure for your product.
I rarely chase after sponsors and just recently started sending emails, some reply they have no money for advertising, not ready to, or do not get back to you. IMO they are losing out because the streams are mostly free or could all be free for fans and that is big numbers of people viewing LIVE pool being interactive unlike a mag or newspaper. Well enough going on and on but TAR rules and I appreciate the streaming I did get to watch, with streaming there will be problems and there are no guarantees there wont be with so many little variables.