I originally wanted to write something about how if FIRST decides to add somebody to it's leadership brass, it would be wise of them to add someone with Sports and Broadcasting experience... This thread and the broadcast yesterday sort of suffice for my points on that idea.
Watching the DPTV feed yesterday during the elimination rounds was absolutely amazing. It truly did add a level of excitement to the competition. I remember in 2008 when GTR was broadcast online by Discovery Canada. I thought those were good broadcasts. The MSC broadcast yesterday ran laps around that.
I think getting FIRST on a major television network would be the major challenge. not just because of making it marketable, but also because of scheduling. The NBC Universal channels are usually locked down with College Basketball conference tournaments in early March and deal with the NHL playoffs right around the time for CMP. CBS has the Masters, NCAA tournament and other college basketball conference tournaments taking up the time needed for Regional broadcasts. FOX has baseball, which means that broadcasting CMP would be an issue. ABC has the same thing, but with the NBA Playoffs. Finding commentators who are likely to know their stuff shouldn't be as difficult as many people think it would be.
I think there are three options that FIRST can take if they really did want to get on TV.
FOX Sports Network channels that operate regionally may be a good landing spot. channels such as FOX Sports Southwest and FOX Sports Florida may be interested in carrying an event like a local FIRST regional. The main concern then would be to get a simulcast of the Championship Event, not all the teams would be regional anymore, and that may mean some of these affiliates lose interest in broadcasting this over a college baseball game on a Saturday afternoon.
ABC/ESPN may also have an opportunity to work out; If ESPN gave FIRST the same opportunity that they gave
Cricket. We would likely see regional events could be broadcasted on ESPN3 and the Championship Event could be run on either ESPN or ABC (whichever isn't broadcasting the NBA Playoffs). District Championships could also be shown on ESPNU or ESPN2
The major drawback to this would be that ESPN3 doesn't really bother with improving production quality for the events broadcasted online. This would likely mean regional events would be left the same, just a plain webcast similar to the one on the big screen at the event. unless the regional thought it would be important to make sure home viewers have something better to watch rather than the big screen.
FIRST could also settle for a network like HDNet, which does UFC and used to do UFL games.... Come to think of it, one of the investors, Mark Cuban, would be the perfect person to add to the FIRST leadership...
Remember that television is all about ratings, the last time FIRST was on TV,
this is what happened.
If FIRST wants to get on TV. I think FIRST will likely have to build some infrastructure to ensure that regionals/district broadcasts are standardized. (ie: they're broadcasted using the same service, same resolution etc.) before a network executive would really take a serious look at putting a competitive high school robotics competition on television.
Again, this was a great broadcast. I'm really hoping to see more of these. But for the reasons i listed above. I don't see that happening for a while.