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?

[Anthony Galea]

Originally Posted by 3175student17

Theres the NHL Playoffs, but ESPN never covers hockey.

Correcting my mistake, the NBA playoffs start around April 20, so we probably couldn't get it live.

[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...

[mechanical_robot]

Depends do you think ESPN can make money off this?

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by antimatter_john

Depends do you think ESPN can make money off this?

I'm not sure ESPN would be able to make money, but I believe Discovery Channel might.

[mechanical_robot]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

I'm not sure ESPN would be able to make money, but I believe Discovery Channel might.

Yes I do think a "educational" channel might be able to make money off a robotics show. Just not a dedicated sports channel.

[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.