Monday, September 29, 2014

TV or not TV? That is the question

I've been trying to stay on top of news about KRAVE's new MotoAmerica series. But, understandably, after a flurry of releases in the first few days, the flow of real news seems to have slowed; they're presumably busy with the actual nuts and bolts of  assembling a series.

I'm guessing that my fellow Canadians are wondering, too, whether the FIM "North American" status means that we can expect a race in Canada. I'm not sure whether there are any Canadian tracks that meet FIM standards. (Are there? There are some beautiful and historic tracks there, for sure. Mosport held a round of the World Championship in 1967. But up to modern standards?)

One thing that I did notice right away, though, was a resurgence of the obsession with television. I'm an "advertising guy". I get that the money in professional motorcycle racing comes from sponsors. But I'm not on this we-must-be-on-TV bandwagon. In fact, months ago, when (make sign of cross now) DMG unveiled Fan's Choice coverage of AMA Pro events, I was one of the first to say, Maybe this is better than television.

There are two big forces at work out in the world of specialty media and niche sports:

  • The new old guard, at KRAVE--and the heads of U.S. distribution for the Japanese Big Four--all date from a generation when "being on TV" equalled "having a nice big audience". That hasn't been true for decades. In the n-channel universe, there's an excellent chance no one's watching, and it's almost a certainty that no one's just stumbling onto your programming and about to fall in love with it.
  • TV's audience is shrinking and aging anyway. The younger audiences that motorcycle manufacturers and sponsors like Red Bull and Monster crave are online.


By putting so much emphasis on TV, KRAVE's preparing for the last war, not the next one. Just because you're "on TV" doesn't mean anyone's watching, any more. Tell the truth, have you ever seen an episode of that reality TV show built around Larry Pegram? I haven't. I don't even know what network it's on, what cable package I'd need in order to get that channel, if it's even available at all from the cable provider that serves my building. And all that presupposes that I want cable, but I don't; I've already completely untethered myself from cable. Like the land line phone, it's ancient history to me.

AMA Pro was bitterly criticized for not getting U.S. road racing (or flat track) on TV. In the end, with Fan's Choice, they put a program together that offered decent coverage and was available for free, both live and on demand to anyone anywhere in the world, as long as they had web access.

I'm not saying the series shouldn't be televised. It should be televised, if they can arrange for that. But not at the expense of a great free webcast. That's the future, and it's where young fans already live.

The obsession with a TV package is wrong-headed. If it's being driven by KRAVE, that's depressing to me. Because we don't need more old thinking; we need all-new thinking.

If it's being driven by manufacturers and potential sponsors, I guess that means they're another bunch of out-of-touch old men. But no matter how much power they used to wield in AMA Pro's heyday, they shouldn't be allowed to call the tune all by themselves now.

In summary: I understand the desire for a TV package built around the MotoAmerica series. But if the amount of talk about TV indicates that KRAVE and potential sponsors are obsessed with TV, we're not entering a brave new era; we're clinging to past, under a new name.

4 comments:

  1. The loss of the web cast is ridiculous. That is the one item that must be carried over. I cannot tell you how many people on forums from all over the world were watching and commenting.

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  2. What I want for coverage is widescreen High Definition that equals the image and production quality of MotoGP coverage I get now with my cable provider. I don't care how it gets to me. But it has to be a polished piece of work. FansChoice had it's charm, but decidedly downmarket production values. With that said, I appreciated the effort.

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  3. When commercials appeared on pay television, I pretty much ended my relationship with paying to watch ads. That was 30 years ago, or so. I get pretty much all the racing I want from over-the-air television and YouTube. Racing is fun, watching other people race isn't so much.

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  4. The webcast this year was very similar to a TV broadcast. By simply adding more cameras, I would much rather watch a webcast and be able to choose the rider or battle I want to follow. Add telemetry along with video and the ability to watch anywhere and anytime, I'd rather take the webcast. TV is going to be the same no matter what.

    "The demo" for buying sport bikes, like it or not, is young and into technology. Web's the way to go.

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