WPC-Live TV in the US!!

Nostroke

Nostroke

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
From the recent article on AZB

Harvey Davis, director of ESPN Star Sports said the coverage will reach 130 million households around Asia and will also provide live feeds to leading channels in Britain, the US and Australia among others and packaged programming for channels including Canada, Hungary, Holland, Russia and Scandinavia.


Im not counting on it yet-but it sure would be nice!!
 
If they do it like they've done in past WPC's, the USA will get it's paltry 4 hours of coverage a year.Usually they only show maybe the finals or semi finals.That's pretty bad considering all the great pool players who come from America.

Up here in Canada we get 9 days of coverage(not live, several months later) at 2 hours per day of highlights.These highlight TV shows only show partial matches with several racks missed.There is no way we will receive live coverage anywhere in North America, without perhaps a sattelite feed.

Only in the UK and perhaps part of Asia (Taiwan) is it shown live.Being that it's in the Phillipines this year, it will most likely be shown there live as well.
I get a set of UK style WPC DVD's every year as I go half$ with a friend. These DVD sets are awesome and contain usually 25-30 DVD's per set totally UNCUT(except commercials deleted)with every rack in every set shown for a complete match. The picture quality is superb,the commentary first class and is my favorite nine ball to watch for sure.Even though it's not live, it's still fabulous to watch.

RJ
 
recoveryjones said:
If they do it like they've done in past WPC's, the USA will get it's paltry 4 hours of coverage a year.Usually they only show maybe the finals or semi finals.That's pretty bad considering all the great pool players who come from America.

Up here in Canada we get 9 days of coverage(not live, several months later) at 2 hours per day of highlights.These highlight TV shows only show partial matches with several racks missed.There is no way we will receive live coverage anywhere in North America, without perhaps a sattelite feed.

Only in the UK and perhaps part of Asia (Taiwan) is it shown live.Being that it's in the Phillipines this year, it will most likely be shown there live as well.
I get a set of UK style WPC DVD's every year as I go half$ with a friend. These DVD sets are awesome and contain usually 25-30 DVD's per set totally UNCUT(except commercials deleted)with every rack in every set shown for a complete match. The picture quality is superb,the commentary first class and is my favorite nine ball to watch for sure.Even though it's not live, it's still fabulous to watch.

RJ
Click to expand...


The article seems pretty clear


Harvey Davis, director of ESPN Star Sports said that aside from the Asian audience that will receive “live” coverage of the most prestigious pool event in the world, the worldwide leader in sports will also provide live feeds to leading channels in Britain, the US and Australia among others and packaged programming for TV stations in Canada. Hungary, Holland, Russia and the Scandinavian countries..


There is a clear distinction between live and "packaged" with the US in the "live" category THIS YEAR along with Britain and Asia. Canada in the "packaged" category. Maybe he misspoke but otherwise it looks like the US has been upgraded this year.
 
I will put in an inquiry on this to Luke Riches of Matchroom and let you know. "Live" would mean from 2AM until 11AM EST (approximately) and so I have very serious doubts about it. I'll email Luke now but it is already evening where he is and probably I will not get a reply until tomorrow. If he is traveling it could be several days but whenever I find out I will post it. My money would be either on taped highlights or at least a delayed broadcast to get a decent air time.

-Jerry Forsyth
 
Jerry Forsyth said:
I will put in an inquiry on this to Luke Riches of Matchroom and let you know. "Live" would mean from 2AM until 11AM EST (approximately) and so I have very serious doubts about it. I'll email Luke now but it is already evening where he is and probably I will not get a reply until tomorrow. If he is traveling it could be several days but whenever I find out I will post it. My money would be either on taped highlights or at least a delayed broadcast to get a decent air time.

-Jerry Forsyth
Click to expand...


Jerry- While You have Luke's ear, would you ask if the table specs will be the same this year as they were in Taiwan. Im talking pocket size and cloth mostly. thanks.

PS- If you believe what Steve Tipton says, pool gets almost as good an audience at 3 AM as it does at 9PM.
 
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Folks,

OK, got the reply from Luke. Here it is: "We have no live sales to the USA
for this event yet so as it stands there won't be any live feed. Having
said that, the live feed is of course available should anyone want it."

And sorry, I did not see the message about pocket size and cloth until this AM. If the table supplier has been chosen as yet I am not aware of it. As this is a WPA sanctioned tournament the pocket sizes would have to fall within their specs (my assumption), so that does allow for buckets of pocket room. Simonis has been a long-time parrtner of the WPC so it stands to reason the cloth will be Simonis 860. Balls will, of course, be Aramith Pro TV.

The problem with getting a live feed to the States is that no one here wants it. (All of this is again my impression, not to be confused with fact, as I do not live in any broadcasters office.) The broadcasters feel that market is currently saturated and cannot easily stand more expansion. Plus, the pool they currently get they acquire at a very low price, often for free, and they do not want to harm that market value by paying up for pool. This is a problem I would imagine the IPT is running into somewhat. When they announced that the KOH would be broadcast in March they may have felt that the broadcasters would pony up for their high quality of programming. The broadcasters may be tighter with a nickel than they had imagined.

-Jerry
 
Live feed possible.....

It is really very easy to feed any TV program live. It is the cost that makes it prohibitive. Satellite uplink and downlink cost. Unless there are sponsors to pony up the cost and audience to watch/target, then it is not possible. TV broadcasters decides, if it can make money. Broadcasting rights also cost $$$. It's all about business and making $$$ and time slots available.

It can be done as well via (Pay-Per-View) PPV.
 
Jerry Forsyth said:
Folks,

OK, got the reply from Luke. Here it is: "We have no live sales to the USA
for this event yet so as it stands there won't be any live feed. Having
said that, the live feed is of course available should anyone want it."

And sorry, I did not see the message about pocket size and cloth until this AM. If the table supplier has been chosen as yet I am not aware of it. As this is a WPA sanctioned tournament the pocket sizes would have to fall within their specs (my assumption), so that does allow for buckets of pocket room. Simonis has been a long-time parrtner of the WPC so it stands to reason the cloth will be Simonis 860. Balls will, of course, be Aramith Pro TV.

The problem with getting a live feed to the States is that no one here wants it. (All of this is again my impression, not to be confused with fact, as I do not live in any broadcasters office.) The broadcasters feel that market is currently saturated and cannot easily stand more expansion. Plus, the pool they currently get they acquire at a very low price, often for free, and they do not want to harm that market value by paying up for pool. This is a problem I would imagine the IPT is running into somewhat. When they announced that the KOH would be broadcast in March they may have felt that the broadcasters would pony up for their high quality of programming. The broadcasters may be tighter with a nickel than they had imagined.

-Jerry
Click to expand...


Nice - so it was pure BS that the live feed was being provided to any channel in the US as the article said.

Thanks Jerry
 
Nostroke said:
Nice - so it was pure BS that the live feed was being provided to any channel in the US as the article said.
Click to expand...

Nostroke, I think we have a "Catch 22" here.
1. The feed will be provided, if some sponsor puts up the cash.
2. No sponsor will put up the cash, until someone can prove they will get good ratings.
3. They can't prove what kind of ratings the show will get, unless they show it.
4. Go back to #1 and start all over.
 
Rich R. said:
Nostroke, I think we have a "Catch 22" here.
1. The feed will be provided, if some sponsor puts up the cash.
2. No sponsor will put up the cash, until someone can prove they will get good ratings.
3. They can't prove what kind of ratings the show will get, unless they show it.
4. Go back to #1 and start all over.
Click to expand...

Yeah exactly-Not what they said though-Pisses me off the way they worded it.
 
Well hopefully they at least give you guys better highlights then simply showing the semis and the finals. What we get isn't much better but at least we get highlights from all parts of the championship. I'm so jealous of the pool fans in the UK that get to watch the entire event live start to finish:(
 
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