Too much pool?

[JCIN]

I don't get video on my old dialup computer and I don't care. I prefer lying in bed, watching an actual tv, not perched in front of a small screen. But I haven't seen pool on tv in a long time. I suspected it's because it's gone to the web. I suppose if I had access I'd check it out now and then, but I really don't like the computer screen because I don't like sitting, I'm a lie down guy.

Now, since I have not yet seen any of the stuff you're talking about, maybe someone has already done what I'm going to suggest. Get a decent player, maybe a group of them, and follow them from poolroom to poolroom as they match up on camera with locals all over America.

It's a no lose proposition. Sure, they bet their own money, the locals, but they get to be on tv (if that is their wish), and a chance to win some money. And even if they lose they get some kind of stipend from the producers. I don't know if the real feel of matching up could be achieved with the cameras rolling, but I think it might have some appeal. It would be like the old days back in the 20s when boxers used to travel around from town to town challenging the locals to step into the ring. This would not be as brutal and nobody really gets hurt. But the matchups have to be real and the game has to be real, as does the cash put up to support the local hero. But even if the local loses he gets something back in more ways than one. Like most of my ideas that I think are unique, this too has probably already been done. Bastards.

I had no thought of coming to the group tonight until I got the annual birthday wishes from the site. 66 years old now and starting to feel it. Happening all at once with me. Probably from not playing pool in 20 years. Never thought of it as exercise back then, but see now that it was. In fact, the older one gets the more everything becomes exercise, even getting out of bed.

Rack 'Em,

TJ

The concept of what you propose has been around longer than I have been in the industry (2007). It sounds easy and it is if someone just wants to take a camcorder with them to the pool room and post the stuff on youtube with no intent to ever sell it to anyone. Anything past that and you get into model releases, location releases, revenue splits etc etc. It gets very complicated very quickly.

There are several people out there with projects like this on the drawing board. As of yet no one has figured out how to beat the devil that is in the details.

 

[JCIN]

Anyone else feel like there is too much pool online now? Practically every day you can watch a decent live stream for free or a PPV or a recorded recent match. I have a question is there any other sport right now with as many live streams and full recorded matches happening?

I can't digest it all. There is enough quality pool on video to last several lifetimes. I haven't watched the on demand TAR I bought months ago yet and am going to buy TAR 1 as well.

Thanks streamers! I will finally be caught up with the DCC 2014 in about 2018

There will be a shake up in the streaming industry at some point if it ever actually gets to the point where there is money in it for the streamers. Eventually event promoters and players will want their piece if the money starts to come. Rightfully so.

If/when that happens things will get interesting.

I think its good for consumers that there is so much content out there. I believe it will probably hurt people like me in the short term in that it dilutes the market for the product I sell at least with the live events. The hope is with so much content available it draws new potential customers into the market. I have not seen that happen yet and at the end of the day people can only watch so much pool.

In some ways what is going on with pool streaming is a microcosm of what traditional media outlets have had to deal with now that the number of content providers is virtually unlimited. Anyone with an internet connection and a camera is a producer. Going forward I think the consumer will become more discerning and search out higher quality production and matches. At least that is what I hope for every day.

Its pretty crazy how streaming has exploded in pool. Pool as an activity does lend itself to it though if you think about it. Its indoors, connectivity is comparatively easy, you can see the basics of what you need to follow the game with one camera. Its a perfect fit. Interesting time in the games history I think.

 

[StraightPoolIU]

When I first got into pool I remember the Ultimate 9 ball Challenge on ESPN being on quite a bit, but I quickly realized that I didn't care for it very much. The production was stale and uninteresting, the races were short, it was only 9 ball, and it wasn't live and heavily edited. Because of that I was never really interested in watching pool and eventually took up golf as my primary hobby. Streaming started in its infancy when I was in college and that (with Accu-stats) changed my whole perspective. Here were live matches made for hardcore pool fans that were the players I want to see and it was live. As the years have gone on the quality has become much much better, and I have become a more discerning consumer. I have no problem paying for TAR's streams because I know they are the best. Personally from the point of view of a consumer of professional pool matches I don't care if ESPN ever airs another match in their current production style. It's simply not what I want to watch.

 

[jhanso18]

Maybe if we get enough on the the interwebz, some will bleed over into TV???

 

[macguy]

Anyone else feel like there is too much pool online now? Practically every day you can watch a decent live stream for free or a PPV or a recorded recent match. I have a question is there any other sport right now with as many live streams and full recorded matches happening?

I can't digest it all. There is enough quality pool on video to last several lifetimes. I haven't watched the on demand TAR I bought months ago yet and am going to buy TAR 1 as well.

Thanks streamers! I will finally be caught up with the DCC 2014 in about 2018

It does tend to make it seem of far less value when it is so readily available. On the other hand, it keeps the interest up in pool. I have to say, I may go months without playing even year in the past. Without this forum and on line pool I could easily drift away for good. I have no good pool rooms near me, no one to even discuss pool with anymore. I would really miss this forum and without the on line videos pool for me would be dead. I can't wait to move to an area with a little more pool.

I don't drink and hanging in bars is not for me. I hate pool leagues, I am sure they are great for some but not for me. I just checked youtube and just for example looked for Efren Reyes. There are two videos that have only been up a few months and they live almost quarter million views. People are looking. I would say it is too much if no one was watching but they are.

 

[macguy]

Anyone else feel like there is too much pool online now? Practically every day you can watch a decent live stream for free or a PPV or a recorded recent match. I have a question is there any other sport right now with as many live streams and full recorded matches happening?

I can't digest it all. There is enough quality pool on video to last several lifetimes. I haven't watched the on demand TAR I bought months ago yet and am going to buy TAR 1 as well.

Thanks streamers! I will finally be caught up with the DCC 2014 in about 2018

I just had another thought. Could be with all the free pool on line and the fact that pool is not really an organized sport. In other words, no one cares who wins they just watch to watch. It may be a reason big sponsors may not see the value in pool. Why would a sponsor want to invest in sponsoring pool on TV when people can watch it anytime commercial free. Just a thought, all this free pool may be shooting itself in the foot as far as attracting sponsors.

 

[Tobermory]

I can't say that there is too much, but I have definitely hit my own saturation point as a spectator. My friends and I used to joke about what it would be like if there were a billiards section in the newspaper every day, and there were pre-game shows and then post-game analyses on TV, and then there was pool on every night and every weekend--basically the way that mainline sports are. How long would it take you to be tired of billiards? I've hit it. I passed up the US Open One Pocket this year for the first time in a long, long time. I probably won't do the entire week at the DCC, just part.

The same thing has happened to me with golf, now that there is The Golf Channel. My interest in golf dies after the British Open, when there are two and a half months of the season left.

I think my interest might be holding up more strongly if there were a local poolroom, but I am fifty miles away from an acceptable establishment. Maybe if there were people to hang around with and have a cup of coffee with while talking pool I would feel differently.

Am I getting old?

 

[Scherf]

I just wish I didn't have to be attached to my computer to see it.....

 

[JCIN]

I just wish I didn't have to be attached to my computer to see it.....

Its not as easy as I think it will be in the future but there are many different ways to view streams on a TV set. I know I get a lot of feedback from people who do.

 

[POVPOOL]

Please take back my gratuitous plug!

It's funny and not funny at the same time, but the very issue which I mentioned earlier about streamers stepping on each other toes has come up with the very event I plugged earlier on this thread!

I was going to do a PPV of the Joe Martin One Pocket Stream, but as it turns out, The US Open 9-Ball starts on the final day of that event. I cannot possibly pull this off as a PPV now because some of the anticipated players won't be there and I'm competing for viewership with a huge event.

A small part of me wants to do it anyway as a PPV; as sort of an experiment. The results could be extremely informative. But, I just can't risk it. I'm not throwing my money away just to see what happens.

Instead I will do this event with some additional sponsorship and revert to my old 'donation' model to basically break even! Actually, I lose money. I'm invested financially more than the average viewer or promotor realizes (Whatever an average promotor is).

Justin's 100% right. It's hurting streamers NOW in the short term and this is an example.

 

[JoeyA]

Anyone else feel like there is too much pool online now? Practically every day you can watch a decent live stream for free or a PPV or a recorded recent match. I have a question is there any other sport right now with as many live streams and full recorded matches happening?

I can't digest it all. There is enough quality pool on video to last several lifetimes. I haven't watched the on demand TAR I bought months ago yet and am going to buy TAR 1 as well.

Thanks streamers! I will finally be caught up with the DCC 2014 in about 2018

Yes, but not all of it is "decent".

 

[Tommy Joe]

There are several people out there with projects like this on the drawing board. As of yet no one has figured out how to beat the devil that is in the details.

I don't doubt that for a minute, even said so myself. Yeah, there are no real original ideas, or so they say. I agree with that in a general way, but things can be tweaked. I'm not a business man (the suit and tie turned me off years ago to something I might actually have been good at, being a business man in the truest sense of the word, not the image I had of it in my own brain back then), so I would not get into that aspect of it - not a take charge guy, just a suggester of things. That would be a great job, to let everyone else do all the work with my only job being to make suggestions, kind of like a movie hiring a director to director the movie's director. Anyway, it doesn't surprise me that this has already been thought of, but of course there are different ways to approach it. The players (maybe a trio of them), don't have to be top known players, just really good players willing to join that team and go around the country challenging poolrooms. Yeah, I can see how actually doing something instead of just thinking about it might be tough. That's probably the main reason I haven't done much in my life. Thanks for responding.

TJ

 

[Tommy Joe]

Its not as easy as I think it will be in the future but there are many different ways to view streams on a TV set. I know I get a lot of feedback from people who do.

I have owned only one cellphone in my life, an old Nokia for 12 years that used strictly for driving the cab. I got rid of it a few months ago after I called it quits a year ago. This computer is over 15 years old. Getting into the group is hard enough, video is impossible. I am not against anything new even if my tone might imply it, but I resist buying into the techno package (and that's what it is), for two reasons - I don't like the cost and I don't like buying into the whole package. NOW, we must see it NOW. Ever notice the one thing most tv commercials for most products have in common? They're all about speed. I saw one commercial for something, can't remember what exactly, where they said, "And you don't even have to leave home." Ok, I can see the good in some of this stuff, if one can afford it, but I just don't like the constant upgrading at a time when my in my life when I think downgrading might be a better idea. Yes, I know that different computer devices can be hooked into the tv and I think that's great.

Now I know someone could say, and maybe rightfully so, that it's up to the consumer whether he's going to allow himself to be used by things he buys. But I don't know, with some of this stuff I just see it as a trap. If I hit the lottery, any kind of lottery, ok, maybe then I'd submit to it, but for now I can't afford new toys any more than I can afford a car that might require constant upkeep. Keeps me walking anyway. Got off the pool topic here, which I think is good. I find it interesting when the main topic swerves into other things sometimes. I agree with another guy in this thread who thinks pool on tv doesn't go over because there is lack of emotion. Nobody really cares about the players, not enough to keep them watching anyway. The productions lack the direness of a championship fight or playoff game in any sport. Also, the top players make the game look easier than it is. In golf, even non players can identify with how hard it is to make a long putt. The camera doesn't seem to capture the true difficulty of some of the shots. Hey, maybe some things aren't meant for tv. I enjoyed watching it now and then though. I think the players are too good and make it look to easy to get the average viewer excited. I actually enjoy watchng it to relax. Perhaps a few fistfights at the table might help bolster ratings.

TJ

 

[POVPOOL]

Anyway, it doesn't surprise me that this has already been thought of, but of course there are different ways to approach it. The players (maybe a trio of them), don't have to be top known players, just really good players willing to join that team and go around the country challenging poolrooms. Yeah, I can see how actually doing something instead of just thinking about it might be tough. That's probably the main reason I haven't done much in my life. Thanks for responding.

TJ

This idea is currently in the process of being formed through Mark Cantrill and Str8-Shots. Nick Varmer is the first member of the team to be announced.

There are programs and/or divisions for the youth and work with BEF being worked out as well through this project.

Here's the press release:
http://www.str8-shots.com/nick-varner-joins-team-str8-shots/