If Channel 5 can buy Robot Wars... why can't we have paintball?

[Skeet]

What about getting that Louis Theroux down to do a Fly on the wall thing...if someones there asking questions and having a go, we can get the best bits in there...he might find it more enjoyable than spending time with the Hamiltons.....tho I did enjoy the bit outside the police station, when their lawyer read out the accusations (to which there was no truth, and this was proven!)
"...Mrs Hamilton squatted over her face.."
Must have been terrible for them, tho really.
Much respect to Christine and hubby.

So, yeah, paintball..get that bloke down to do it..or someone else who's into that sort of genre.

How about William and Harry...they might be up for it!
You never know....they are only wealthy, important young men..they are still young men..Harry would possibly be into the shenanigans side of things ....." One thinks the Evil Pipe sounds interesting, could one have a toke?"

 

[rancid]

And how many people would tune in to watch this do you reckon?

You know I've just been over to Tractor Insight.com, and there's a conversation there about why they can't get more Tractors on TV - they can't understand why Theroux isn't hammering on the door.

The key is the US model. Let's see where we are in two years time.

 

[Hotpoint]

Originally posted by rancid
And how many people would tune in to watch this do you reckon?

You know I've just been over to Tractor Insight.com, and there's a conversation there about why they can't get more Tractors on TV - they can't understand why Theroux isn't hammering on the door.

Making your point with a sledgehammer there Rancid... but there is a difference in that a very large number of people in the UK have been Paintballing before (and enjoyed it) which puts us in a different situation than Tractor enthusiasts

Over the last 15 years somewhere between 250,000 and 400,000 people annually have been paintballing in the UK. This means that literally millions of people in the UK not only know what paintball is but have actively participated in it (even if only one or two times)

Quite how that would convert into viewers I don't know but it's a great spin to take to a TV executive

 

[rancid]

Did you know that Tractor magazines (and there are four or five in the UK) collectively sell 100,000 copies a month! Now that's not people going on a works outing to darkest Doncaster to save the President. There's a genuine interest there.

 

[Hotpoint]

Originally posted by rancid
Did you know that Tractor magazines (and there are four or five in the UK) collectively sell 100,000 copies a month! Now that's not people going on a works outing to darkest Doncaster to save the President. There's a genuine interest there.

Come on Rancid there's a big difference in that with Tractors you've got 100,000 hard-core enthusiasts and 59,100,000 other people who don't care in the slightest whereas for us you've got a couple of thousand hard-core enthusiasts and say 5,000,000 people who have at least participated

The British Bobsleigh Association has about 100 members but that activity gets quite a lot of TV coveridge. It's not the numbers that compete its the interest outside that group that matters

 

[MrDan]

Consider the World Rally............

Now i love watching the rally prog on channel 4, but i dont think i would like just the view of 1 car driving for an hour,
but the programme is good because it has so much variation and info that it gets the point across:
interviews
technical info
clips
crashes
virtual spectator
and people driving at ridiculous speed!

and i definately wouldnt watch it if it had tractors in it!

maybe paintball games arent the most intersting thing to watch but it doesnt mean you cant make a very good tv show about our beloved sport, it will just take a good format!

 

[rancid]

Jon, I can't get drawn into a thread about Tv, I always get fkin roasted (as in a witch at a protestant convention). However, my point re tractors was that one's passion for a subject can sometimes blind you to what is achievable and what is actually 'of interest' to the public at large.

Out of our 5mill people (which I completely reject anyway), less than a thousendth of a per cent have played more than once. Now, I don't think the TV exec would be reaching for his cock with those stats.

 

[Hotpoint]

Originally posted by rancid
Jon, I can't get drawn into a thread about Tv, I always get fkin roasted (as in a witch at a protestant convention

This thread does rather provoke a feeling of Deja Vu

Originally posted by rancid
However, my point re tractors was that one's passion for a subject can sometimes blind you to what is achievable and what is actually 'of interest' to the public at large.

No doubting that but I think it's primarily a problem of presentation rather than substance. There is a lot of really dull stuff on TV which keeps getting shown despite poor ratings. As the number of channels increases the quality on those channels will drop.... I mean look at Mission Paintball!

Originally posted by rancid

Out of our 5mill people (which I completely reject anyway), less than a thousendth of a per cent have played more than once. Now, I don't think the TV exec would be reaching for his cock with those stats.

In terms of numbers lets think about it. Paintball has been in the UK since about 1984/85. Five million would be an average of 277,777 per annum (if most people really only ever play once as you contend). In reality the number has been well in excess of that for quite some time

Actually repeat business is far higher than you think (I can't remember the numbers off the top of my head... must be slipping) so my 5 million is high but only because people really do come back and play again

 

[Hotpoint]

Numbers

Slightly O/T but after reading my previous post I just thought I'd post this in case anybody is thinking about the numbers:

Based on the last UKPSF Survey 2001/2002 around 400,000 people play annually in the UK. This sounds like a lot but could be a sizeable underestimate if anything

There are 180 UKPSF Member Sites in the UK. This means that they would average 2222 players per annum or only 42 players per week

Quite a few of the smallers sites are closed for much of the year but there are a few that regularly see hundreds every weekend. A single site which sees 500+ players in a week makes up for over a dozen sites being closed

 

[JoseDominguez]

If it was a viable programme, it would be on one of our 200 channels. maybe between the scalextric coverage on men and motors?
Face it, TV execs will show anything if it gets ratings, they obviously know something we don't, or just won't accept.