I am not sure I agree with much of what is being said, other than a couple of things.
Pete: No, I am not implying that 'webcast is the future', or that there is no hope of a mainstream TV show. What I AM saying, is that for the moment, ESPN are not interested in paintball.
Whay I am also saying is that the webcast is the ideal vehicle for developing the way that the games are filmed. Here is a brief history of the webcast, so that people can put this in perspective:
HB06 - Webcast starts. It is offered up by a mate of mine in HB, who runs a successful company that runs live webcasts of Surfing events. They get great viewer numbers for surfing and are established in that field. They use one camera, no audio, and no commentators. It doesn't do well.
Tampa 06 - No webcast, after the first one the idea was shelved.
Boston 06 - New start, this time they use 2 camera's, have 3 technical people on-site to switch camera's and do audio, and pull in Mona to do commentary. The games start to make sense for the viewing ballers and their families, Its way better, but not great. Veiwers get to interact by sending questions and comments to the commentators in real time.
SD06 - added a snake-cam, which actually makes it more confusing at times. The surfing guys start to develop a bit of paintball knowledge, and start to switch between camera's depending on what the commentators are talking about at that time. Works way better, commentators include Dave Youngblood, Lasoya, Travis Dusek, and some other knowledgeable players.
OC06 - Same as SD06, veiwers rise by 200%, and the webcast footage is even viewed by refs and the NPPL to try to get to the bottom of the Dynasty/Joy call.
Now, remember I know this guy very well, and speak to him about the webcast all the time. He plans to put an over-head cam up on the center of the field, and add another snake-cam at the other end of the snake. It's an ongoing project and if some decent sponsors come in for it (Angel have sponsored it for the first 3 goes, but after viewing the footage at the Industry meetings in OC there are now 4 other companies that want to be involved) it could improve exponentially. Viewers could watch it in real time in low-def, or they could watch the games in hi-res if they download them. It enables PP to use relatively cheap technology to hone the filming.
The one thing that I take out of the wecast, is that I find it waaaay more exciting to watch the games live, than to watch them on DVD etc. I really get a lot more invested in the game, and I think that once the webcast footage is right, we will have a program, camera angles etc all set up ready.
I had an interesting chat with Matt Marshall in OC, remember this guy commentated on the NPPL show, the SP show, and most other shows including the original fox NPPL shows. He has seen all this TV **** from every angle, and his feedback to me was most useful. He is just as frustrated as everyone else, and I asked him to commentate the finals games on the webcast. he definitely preferred commentating live games.
In short, I think the webcast needs some refinement, but its a cracking tool, that can be used to further paintballs TV cause, attract sponsors etc. I think it's one of the best kept secrets in Paintball at the moment, but that next seaon there will be more people watching the finals online than there are at the event itself. If the NPPL can lay claim to 5000 online fans that are watching it on PPV, that makes a lot of difference to its TV chances.
Chicago - I think it's apples and oranges to be honest. There are many stations that the NPPL/SP/PSP could get airtime with, and plenty of it, but none of those stations are ESPN (THE sports channel). If we are talking about channels other than ESPN I don't think there is much of a problem getting on-air.
Also, your advice re. sponsors, though I am sure you meant it to be helpful, and thankyou, but it is not entirely correct. ESPN have thier own sponsor portfolio, and actually prefer them to be used. If your show already has a sponsor, and that sponsor is in competition with a stable ESPN sponsor, this does not help. Of course, if the league had a plethora of wealthy sponsors already this would not be a problem. Trouble is, the sponsors the league want, want a sport that has a TV spot, or at least are prepared to do a lot more for a sport with a TV spot.
sorry for the long post, I didn't even write everything I wanted to get across, particularly in regard to the webcast. When it comes to this, I would like people to think of the potential this has, rather than what has been done so far and how best to pick it apart. Give it some thought, because I was equally skeptical before I was advised of the many ways that quality and coverage can be continuously improved. Did you know that the charts now have a top 40 downloaded song list? Did you know that the downloaded song list No1 beats the purchased song list No1 by about a thousand percent? Did you know that there are as many people downloading soccer games in Europe as there are sky-sports subscribers? This is a trend that is completely re-inventing the film/music industries, and it is entirely inevitable. Technically You don't really need a show, you just need to advertise a website, that hosts all the shows, in Hi-res, so that people can pay to download them. No show-times, no "oh I missed it", none of that. On Demand Pantball events, either live (low-res) or downloaded (hi-res).
OK, so in a way I AM sayin that the webcast is the future, but even if I am wrong, it's still one of the most useful tools in Paintball today, and it should be getting a lot more support than it is in my opinion.
Don't leave home without it...