Pro Tour Live Coverage

[dehaas]

Ultimately we're talking two different tours with two different angles played.

DGWT had emphasis on the worldwide aspect, in other words getting the Discmania name out before anybody else could in developing disc golf markets. Same reason they've partnered with Latitude and Yikun, to get their name out in places where others aren't looking.

Choosing post production over live feed let them get more bang for their buck, if I'm shopping around for sponsors a polished video with a higher view count is more attractive than a mediocre at best live feed that's 4 hours long. People hammered them because they were supposed to be the premier of the two but weren't going to have live coverage. I don't think people really understood they didn't want it, or at least the cost involved didn't serve a worthwhile purpose to them. Wanting to control the media coverage is a smart move, at this point it's where the money is.

As much as nobody wants to admit it, dg is a business just like anything else. There's got to be a way to make a buck in order to pursue it, otherwise it's not worth the time.

 

[ChrisWoj]

Okay, given today events in Christchurch, I agree that this should not be funny. But hitler was a B!t(h, you can criticize Israel without being an anti-Semite, and liberals have to learn to take a Fu(k!ng joke. This is my first time seeing a fake caption thing like this, and I thought it was hilarious (Hitler is being made fun of as much as Steve Dodge). Get over it.

I'm in a similar boat, but less accepting of it. I watched it. I definitely laughed, the script was great - for sure. I actually laughed out loud, literally, at 14.4 modems, and other old equipment stuff. But the entire time I was cringing. There's absolutely no place for comparing Steve Dodge to a genocidal populist like Hitler just because he's failed in developing his media properly. It doesn't feel apt at all. There had to have been a million other comparisons that could have been made that would have been just as funny with a similar to near identical script.

 

[texasissouth]

As much as I've listened to the opinion on the Upshot, and couple times here; I don't think the future of disc golf coverage is live. I think there is a market for live DG, but it's not going to ever be the majority of sports.
What do golf and baseball have in common? They take forever to watch and the people who watch it are old. "The average age of a baseball viewer is 57, up from 52 in 2006. There won't be a youth movement, either, as just 7% of baseball's audience is below age 18.... On the other hand, the only sports with an average age higher than baseball's are Nascar (58), men's tennis (61), horse racing (63), figure skating (63) and any form of golf (63 to 64)."
I don't want to sit around all day watching 1 round, with 90% of that time being taken up with people walking around. There's a sweet spot for engagement of viewing activities, and I think that is about an hour. Coincidentally how long is a post-produced VOD of one round?

The biggest move forward I think would be what the NBA has done with social media to capture the larger casual audience. The NBA has used gifs of incredible moments, and live updates and everything to reach the people who don't even want to watch a whole game to provide them with a sense of involvement with minimal investment.

 

[SD86]

I disagree that the DGWT situation was different. They weren't flamed for wanting post production, they were flamed for Jussi Meresmaa wanting 100% control of DGWT media. To the point of having a European major being shown in a series of highlights with a not very funny "Hat Guy". We got zero full rounds from that tournament.

I don't want to try to describe the other situations Jussi caused at other DGWT events, but it wasn't much different from what Steve Dodge is doing. A better comparison might be they both wanted absolute media control, with Jussi providing high quality video of very little disc golf and Steve providing lots of disc golf at low quality. In the end, I actually like Steve's model better than Jussi's, but I'm still not happy.

My own $0.02 is that Jussi wanted and Dodge wants the same thing: to sell a media package to a sports outlet, or to have PPV for disc golf coverage. IMHO that is why they both want iron control of the DG coverage media, and why partnering with or using Jomez and CCDG would not work for them. No, they haven't and won't say this out loud, but it's what I believe is truly going on with Jussi and Dodge.

 

[ChrisWoj]

As much as I've listened to the opinion on the Upshot, and couple times here; I don't think the future of disc golf coverage is live. I think there is a market for live DG, but it's not going to ever be the majority of sports.
What do golf and baseball have in common? They take forever to watch and the people who watch it are old. "The average age of a baseball viewer is 57, up from 52 in 2006. There won't be a youth movement, either, as just 7% of baseball's audience is below age 18.... On the other hand, the only sports with an average age higher than baseball's are Nascar (58), men's tennis (61), horse racing (63), figure skating (63) and any form of golf (63 to 64)."
I don't want to sit around all day watching 1 round, with 90% of that time being taken up with people walking around. There's a sweet spot for engagement of viewing activities, and I think that is about an hour. Coincidentally how long is a post-produced VOD of one round?

The biggest move forward I think would be what the NBA has done with social media to capture the larger casual audience. The NBA has used gifs of incredible moments, and live updates and everything to reach the people who don't even want to watch a whole game to provide them with a sense of involvement with minimal investment.

The problem with golf is more that the investment cost to play is just too much for it to really GRAB the mainstream. The coverage of golf is anything but slow, it moves a lot faster than baseball. At least the coverage of larger events. I mean I agree with you that it can be slow when done poorly - I was bored to tears by the Pebble Beach Pro-Am that covered only Tony Romo. But the majors? It flies from shot to shot to shot to shot. It ties into my frustration with what disc golf is doing - trying too hard to be *LIVE* - they need to stop worrying. Run on a 30 second delay. Have a producer transitioning behind the scenes, make it easy to make good clean transitions between cameras.

 

[wolfmandragon]

The problem with golf is more that the investment cost to play is just too much for it to really GRAB the mainstream. The coverage of golf is anything but slow, it moves a lot faster than baseball. At least the coverage of larger events. I mean I agree with you that it can be slow when done poorly - I was bored to tears by the Pebble Beach Pro-Am that covered only Tony Romo. But the majors? It flies from shot to shot to shot to shot. It ties into my frustration with what disc golf is doing - trying too hard to be *LIVE* - they need to stop worrying. Run on a 30 second delay. Have a producer transitioning behind the scenes, make it easy to make good clean transitions between cameras.

I agree.

It takes a much larger crew to film 'live'. My opinion, and it is just an opinion., if you don't have at least 2 cameras on every hole, don't bother with live.

In a PGA major, how many people are on the film crew? 100? 150? I don't know, but it has to be horde.

P.S. unless one has the camera on gryostablized, or fixed, mount, super glue the bloody zoom button.

 

[sjberry2017]

My favorite thing about this whole thing is the DGWT started as live only and that flopped so hard they went only post produced

 

[teemkey]

You're assuming there actually was (paying) commercials to run?

I assumed so, because the announcers said they were cutting to commercial, and the cut failed. But I turned in today, and again a "commercial break" was announced; and all that occurred was a still photo with "We'll be right back" as text.

Wow, no commercial support. Super bad. And I'd call acquiring commercial support as preparation for a video business venture. Is there any way Dodge bringing the video in house is financially beneficial?

 

[JC17393]

My favorite thing about this whole thing is the DGWT started as live only and that flopped so hard they went only post produced

DGWT was never live only. Their first event was live but Jomez was there for the post-produced. Jussi was never a fan of live coverage and I think he got dragged kicking and screaming into covering La Mirada live, and tanked it so he could justify dropping it moving forward.

 

[sjberry2017]

DGWT was never live only. Their first event was live but Jomez was there for the post-produced. Jussi was never a fan of live coverage and I think he got dragged kicking and screaming into covering La Mirada live, and tanked it so he could justify dropping it moving forward.

I know that they were live only at first because I was very vocal in one of the old threads here saying that I hated that idea because I had 0 interest in love and felt 100% vindicated when they flip flopped but I can't find that thread right now. I'll submit that I could be misremembering what happened until such time as I can dig those posts up on this site though

 

[Halcón]

For the life of me, I'll never understand why people wouldn't want live sports. Even sub-par coverage like we're getting now is FAR better than waiting for it the next day.

 

[JC17393]

For the life of me, I'll never understand why people wouldn't want live sports. Even sub-par coverage like we're getting now is FAR better than waiting for it the next day.

Regardless of the quality of live, how many tournaments have had live coverage but not edited post-produced coverage as well? I can kinda understand those that prefer post-produced coverage of disc golf over live from a time-commitment standpoint. And generally, the edited will be of a higher picture quality too, if you're picky. That's fine. But it's never really been an either/or choice, at least from a viewer standpoint, yet some folks want to make it one. Headscratching.

 

[brutalbrutus]

Regardless of the quality of live, how many tournaments have had live coverage but not edited post-produced coverage as well? I can kinda understand those that prefer post-produced coverage of disc golf over live from a time-commitment standpoint. And generally, the edited will be of a higher picture quality too, if you're picky. That's fine. But it's never really been an either/or choice, at least from a viewer standpoint, yet some folks want to make it one. Headscratching.

Yea, there is no drama in the postpro vids. They just rush thru everything. If they just stopped for a few seconds here and there to get reactions from fans, players and get the commentators to build it up better, it might be closer to live. But I definitely prefer the live coverage especially on a day like today.:thmbup:

 

[davetherocketguy]

For the life of me, I'll never understand why people wouldn't want live sports. Even sub-par coverage like we're getting now is FAR better than waiting for it the next day.

Its simple really. I don't have time for live coverage every weekend.

-Dave

 

[Halcón]

Its simple really. I don't have time for live coverage every weekend.

-Dave

That's fine. And like JC said, every live broadcast is also taped, so you can watch it at your leisure. It's a win for everybody. :thmbup:

 

[Hyzflip10]

That's fine. And like JC said, every live broadcast is also taped, so you can watch it at your leisure. It's a win for everybody. :thmbup:

I prefer following the scores on udisc while I'm doing other things. And then watching post prod at another time. It's not interesting to me to watch nothing between throws.

 

[brutalbrutus]

I prefer following the scores on udisc while I'm doing other things. And then watching post prod at another time. It's not interesting to me to watch nothing between throws.

Thats what the chat is for...

 

[Jay Dub]

I loved the quality of the video. Clearest picture I've seen from a disc golf tournament.
I didn't like the camera work and the directing of the camera shots. I think if they would just concentrate on the basics for now they'd do a lot better.

 

[Hyzflip10]

Thats what the chat is for...

I'm selfish that way. I'm usually not even interested in watching the guys in my group throw during my Saturday league, lol. I bring my headphones and focus on music between throws.

 

[Keller]

Well, I watched the Waco final round live. Gave it a shot after giving up on the first round of the memorial.

It was O.K. rather boring. Nate was getting rather repetitive and the camera work hasn't gotten much better; oh look, Ricky takes a shot, lets focus on his back! What? we're supposed to follow the disc?

Live disc golf just isn't for me. But to be fair, it wasn't for me when Terry Miller was doing it either. I think it has a long way to go before it attracts anyone other than the hard core disc golfers.