Convincing ESPN to Show Championships

[eli2410]

I know in the past, when Championships were at EPCOT, ESPN showed it on national television. Since then, I don't believe it's been shown. I know in the past others were talking about this on here and wondering why it isn't there anymore, other than the fact that we left Disney World (since Disney owns 80% of ESPN, they can tell them what to do). There isn't anything else big going on at the end of April in the sports world, as far as I remember. In fact, ESPN doesn't have anything for most March or April, since CBS owns the rights to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

Since the last time we were on ESPN, they have added a new channel, ESPNU (which will show high school sports too), and the online streaming option of ESPN3 or WatchESPN (which ever they are calling it this week). There are so many options, I think they could easily show robotics.

Here is my idea of how it goes down. Each field of championship is on a different stream, through ESPN3. One of the actual channels (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNU, etc.) switches around with the feed of each one, sort of like the ESPN Goal Line programming, depending on the excitement of each field's matches. There would be a College GameDay like program at the beginning of each day.

We have a big group of people that would watch this. You would probably get a lot of teams not at championships watching, plus the schools of the teams that are at championships watching this. I feel like the numbers would make it make sense.

I've been thinking of emailing the Vice President of Content Program & Integration, Carol Stiff, for a little while now about this idea. Her email, I believe, is carol.stiff@espn.com. What does the FIRST community think of this idea? Anyone else want to join me and try to email her?

[kuraikou]

This sounds like an awesome idea!!! I would be willing to help with getting us on ESPN.

[Steven Donow]

Does ESPN still only have streaming services that require you to have a cable subscription/they have an agreement with your cable provider? Becasue if so, having it streamed by ESPN would only restrict viewership.

[Woolly]

Originally Posted by DevenStonow

Does ESPN still only have streaming services that require you to have a cable subscription/they have an agreement with your cable provider? Becasue if so, having it streamed by ESPN would only restrict viewership.

I think they do some unrestricted streams, it really just depends on what is being streamed.

[dodar]

ESPN3 is their online streaming and it requires your TV service to be a part of it. For this to be viable, there would really have to be no major sporting events happening in late April; are there any?

[Anthony Galea]

Theres the NHL Playoffs, but ESPN never covers hockey.

[buildmaster5000]

Thinking out loud for a moment: would it be possible for ESPN to stream CMP without having the requirement that you login with your cable TV stream? Additionally, could we not still stream CMP on the 'normal' sites? Why restrict ourselves to ONLY letting ESPN cover the champs, but consider ESPN an addition to what is already done by the community?

[Cory]

This can't be live. It would have to be cut up and have only the best stuff shown. The average qual match is just way too crappy to watch and there's no hook for the average person.

Even if you were switching between the best teams playing on any given field, you'd have a lot of dead time.

[Link07]

Originally Posted by Cory

This can't be live. It would have to be cut up and have only the best stuff shown. The average qual match is just way too crappy to watch and there's no hook for the average person.

Even if you were switching between the best teams playing on any given field, you'd have a lot of dead time.

Perhaps just eliminations then?

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by Cory

This can't be live. It would have to be cut up and have only the best stuff shown. The average qual match is just way too crappy to watch and there's no hook for the average person.

Even if you were switching between the best teams playing on any given field, you'd have a lot of dead time.

This.

Also, it would need to be a donation/sponsorship deal as ESPN probably wouldn't be making money on it. That would be interesting to see as it would seem to force FIRST to pick between 'making it loud' and their criticism of the sports/entertainment culture or industry...

[DampRobot]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

Also, it would need to be a donation/sponsorship deal as ESPN probably wouldn't be making money on it. That would be interesting to see as it would seem to force FIRST to pick between 'making it loud' and their criticism of the sports/entertainment culture or industry...

Does FIRST really not like the entertainment industry? I always just thought they wanted kids to think that being an engineer was just as cool (and much more possible than) being a baseball player/rap star, etc.

[Lil' Lavery]

A couple of similar discussion have cropped up in the last year.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=118094
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=115983

Personally, I'm a little conflicted on the issue. I love the home-grown coverage that's springing up surrounding FRC (FRC Top 25, The Roboshow, GameSense, etc), and getting a foothold in streaming and VoD services makes a lot of sense given the technology-centric goals of FIRST. But most of this programming is more about current FIRST enthusiasts than it is about reaching out to new people.

However, the will.i.am/ABC special was pretty much a ratings bust and not particularly entertaining. The old ESPN coverage is only really enthralling to those interested in FRC history. FRC events are pretty poorly suited to live TV coverage, with the amount of downtime and the low level of excitement for most matches.

The next step, in my mind, is trying to find more companies to sponsor local, high-quality regional rebroadcasts of FRC elimination tournaments, similar to how GM sponsors the Michigan State Championship and Time Warner Cable sponsors the Greater Kansas City Regional. We need to figure out how to capture FRC for a TV audience, before going for broke and having to wait a long time for another opportunity, and need to find a way to make it more financially viable for the channels that broadcast it.

Originally Posted by eli2410

In fact, ESPN doesn't have anything for most March or April, since CBS owns the rights to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

I think it's unwise to downplay the significance of ESPN's regular programming. Things like "Pardon the Interruption," "Around the Horn," and the 6PM edition of "SportsCenter" are staples of ESPN and would be impacted by live FRC coverage. Additionally, there are regular season MLB games to be covered.

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

Does FIRST really not like the entertainment industry? I always just thought they wanted kids to think that being an engineer was just as cool (and much more possible than) being a baseball player/rap star, etc.

I remember hearing Dean say things like "Our culture is too focused on who can bounce a basketball better instead of things like who invented something to help people...". ESPN has a major role in getting our culture focused on sports and could be partially 'to blame' for it.

Does anyone have ratings on the championship when NASA showed it on their station?

[JohnSchneider]

Originally Posted by Cory

This can't be live. It would have to be cut up and have only the best stuff shown. The average qual match is just way too crappy to watch and there's no hook for the average person.

Even if you were switching between the best teams playing on any given field, you'd have a lot of dead time.

Just tape the division eliminations and Einstein and make it an hour or two long special. In the same capacity that MSC gets.

[PayneTrain]

The best way to feature FIRST Championships on television would require to fundamentally change the way FRC picks a championship alliance. You would have to change the pre-event bid system, cut down bids themselves and in turn, divisions, and basically do everything possible to turn it into a television event. FIRST has made it clear that for the time being (at least until 2017) that the FRC Championship format will remain mostly unchanged.