What does FIRST need to be on TV?

[archiver]

Posted by Kevin Sevcik at 04/30/2001 9:41 PM EST


College Student on team #57, Leopards, from BT Washington and the High School for Engineering Professions and Exxon, Kellog Brown & Root, Powell Electrical.


In Reply to: Re: What does FIRST need to be on TV?
Posted by Al Skierkiewicz on 04/30/2001 2:46 PM EST:



Actually, a PBS station has picked up a FIRST special that's focusing on the season of 3 different teams. Since I was slightly involved in the whole thing, I think I'll let you in on a bit of what actually happens for these PBS things.
First off, PBS stations don't have much money. At all. To film this special, they actually had to fundraise the entire budget for the special. When they started filming, they actually had to have a contingency plan in case they couldn't get funding. I don't think PBS stations have much in the way of day-to-day funding. So, a coporate sponsor pretty much signs on just for one special, though I suppose they might come back later if they find another special they like.

That being said, corporate funding of these specials is apparently a VERY sensitive issue. Since they were focusing on our ExxonMobil funded team, Exxon couldn't actually donate money for the special. Apparently it doesn't look good to say "This special funded in part by X" and then have X's logo popup all over the place during the special.

I think this is part of the problem with getting a TV show about or extensive TV coverage of FIRST. Having corporations logos show up on a show could entail a rather lot of legal issues. A company might take offense if the producers focus on the losses of a robot they funded, etc. So I think our litigation happy society is atleast partially to blame for the lack of FIRST coverage.