Let's not stop with CBS

[aallen88]

Originally Posted by RoboticsPhyre

I know that the Students @ Hartford in CETA mentor a team, I'm not sure which one though. I'll find out soon though. I can't wait to go up to Hartford as well. Biomed/Mech Engineering. I definately will be working with FIRST much after i grad from HS and College.

Hey let me know about the team when you find out! Helping out a nearby team would be greeeeatttt. I may not be going into engineering, but I definitely won't be able to get through a whole year without robotics.

I thought it would be cool to try and do a story on a local robotics team on ESPN 2 instead of just local sports teams for next year.

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by petek

My perspective on this:

Way back in the Dark Ages of televised motorsports (late 70s), almost all races were tape-delayed, pre-empted by golf or a local flower show and generally not a very interesting TV show. Most of the networks weren't interested in showing cars going round and round and most people weren't interested in watching these shows. A good crowd at most NASCAR races was probably one-tenth of what they draw now.

So what changed all that? NASCAR made some effort to appeal to a broader audience, but in my opinion, one event had the biggest single impact. In 1979 (I think), somebody at CBS took a risk and put together live coverage of the Daytona 500, complete with multiple camera coverage of the whole track and multiple in-car cameras - something rarely attempted and never done very well before that. The show was sensational, at least by the standard of the day, and it got really good ratings, at least for a non-ball sport.

One important item missing in this story is that there was a huge blizzard in the Northeast that weekend and many people were snow bound. At the time there were only 5 channels in most markets so this was the event every one watched. The blizzard was the real factor in bringing out the popularity.

I can try to float this to people I know who work at ESPN. (I live in CT and most of us here know some one who works at the Bristol office.) However I would rather see if we could get PBS live coverage. It would be garunteed to be in HD everywhere that way and I think they would see a pay back for the broadcast.

[George A.]

Well I know Cold Pizza (an ESPN morning show) already did a little segment on FIRST, and we had an article in ESPN the magazine...so the interest is already there...now we just have to seal the deal and get them to notice us hardcore.

[Rickertsen2]

Originally Posted by Budda648

I'm in... but it might take a lot more than us to get ESPN to consider it. Besides... I don't think they would cover the Championship b/c it's 2 full days of action. That would be 9-5 for two days. Maybe we could get them to cover the elimination rounds. Or maybe tape it then edit it. But I'd rather see NBC cover it like they would a football game or a NASCAR race.

I would prefer a condensed, edited version consisting of just the higher level matches. Edited footage is simply much more exciting. I think that an edited version without match downtime, etc would be much more pubicly appealing.

[RoboticsPhyre]

Originally Posted by Rickertsen2

I would prefer a condensed, edited version consisting of just the higher level matches. Edited footage is simply much more exciting. I think that an edited version without match downtime, etc would be much more pubicly appealing.

I completely agree, though the pauses in between the match ending and the score is still needed. Otherwise the suspense isn't there. My main concern with this, though, is the fact that they will have to film on all 5 fields. 4 of them at the same time! How will they air that? Back to back to back?

[Lil' Lavery]

I'd rather not see FIRST on ESPN again. They had to blur logoes off of robots, and other stuff like that, and it was barely watchable, much less entertaining.
Plus, it can't really be broadcast live anyway. No time for commercials, so a big network like ESPN, CBS, or Discovery would lose all the commercial money, which is alot more than a FIRST competition would draw. Unless you want to drop 1 commercial between each and every match, which would make the broadcast horribly choppy and barely watchable.
You could tape the event and play it later, as they used to do. Add interviews, and other things to spice it up a bit. But then, there's absolutely no way you could fit even close to the entire event in a single episode, it would take an entire season's worth of shows for each regional. You could go elimination rounds only, but then you lose half the fun.

[RoboticsPhyre]

I get what you mean.. they can't blur out anything otherwise it loses everything. Robotics is about Team and Sponsor pride. I think we just need to start talking to stations. Honestly, the best way to start is on a local station then try to move up.

[themagic8ball]

Actually a commercial every 2-3 matches wouldn't be bad, plus you would have to switch fields periodically, it would kind of be like how they broadcast multi-table poker games, having a "feature" table and rotating through. They could also have interviews and everything to spice it up and keep the matches live, you would just need to record interveiws before hand. I think a big network would find a way to make it work. In terms of sponsors and blurring out stuff I think that if we got a lot of the big sponsor's of FIRST to have commercials on the broadcast we could get rid of that. I mean look at nascar all the cars are sponsored by different companies.

am a news camera-operator in Toronto Ontario Canada and a couple of things came to mind when reading this threat about media coverage.

First, I would start by doing research and getting the accurate contact information on all of you're local newspapers, TV stations, radio stations in you're area, in additon the big networks and specialty channels and the wire services such as CP AP reuters etc AND news release services, we have canada newswire up here and there are many others.

Don't think you're small local community paper is too small, you would be surprised how many people and people who run small businesses in the communities read those papers (potential sponsors?).

Now the things that come to mind for writing a press release to help make sure it actually gets read...

Keep is simple: Believe me I work in news and well to keep this post somewhat "graciously professional" lets just say it's NOT always people of the caliber of FIRST who work on the assignment desks.

so keep it simple, bold, easy to read and understand.

Priorities I would make sure are on the press release are:

WHAT: a brief description of what FIRST is....not just about the robot
WHEN: exact times of you're event
WHERE: exact and accurate location of the venue
CONTACT: a phone and email contact of someone a reporter can call anytime on or before the event

When to send you're press releases? well in advance of the events, in advance of events and the day before the event and my reasoning for that is there are many people working assignment desks and if one person doesn't care maybe on a different day someone else will tweak to this story and say "hey let's check this out", you never know so you want to "gently" keep reminding them that there is a very interesting story to be covered here.

Agenda stories:

At least here in Toronto the media seem to be obsessed with agenda stories these days, so it's good to promote and strongly emphasize all aspects of FIRST not just the robot.

For example I was the camera-guy assigned to cover the GTR at the Hershey centre, I had no idea what it was all about, I had heard about robotics competitons a few years ago but thats about it.

So I just go there like every other event with no clue other than a robotics competition and the students built the robots.....

If I knew what I know now about what this all is about I sure would have asked different questions when doing clips.

You never know what the agenda is though...we don't half the time believe me...so you want to point out to prospective news organizations some highlights.

For example, when I entered the Hershy centre I was told I had to wear safety glasses, being media I though yea...ok..and then quickly I noticed "EVERYONE" had them on...everyone and all the time, I guess I'm going to have to learn to shoot video through the glasses and in about 20 minutes I got used to it and it didn't feel awkward, BUT what went through my mind was here are hundreds of students to take WORKPLACE SAFETY alot more seriously than many workplaces including then news industry. -THERE IS YOU'RE STORY ANGLE.

I started by shooting as much video in the pits as I could, some interview clips and shots of teams working on the robots and wide shots of the crowds....so I was walking all through the pits looking for stuff that would look "visual" and as I left for the field a thought went through my mind, "I HAVEN'T HEARD ONE SWEAR WORD" the whole hour in was in the puts...not one! I was thinking....theres a story idea here

so while our newspapers and TV news headlines were full of crime stories about youth crime and and gang violence etc etc....here was a large group making something of their lives. -THERE IS YOU'RE STORY ANGLE.

While the bad will always make the news the trend of doing more with news and all these sidebar stories means there is more chances to counter the bad with some good and hit the local and national media with this story idea about first not only around competitions but when big bad stories are front and centre in the news....

Here is what I came away with from covering the GTR at Hershy centre:

SAFETY FIRST...in practice...amazing eh?!
everyone working together not against each other
clean language....really noticable

Then of course there is the tech side to it, from the idea to the design/drafting to the building....the technical knowledge just blows me away and believe me I wish we had more people with that work ethic and knowldge in the business I am in, I have since read up on FIRST and found this site and really impressive and fun and ADDICTIVE!

Being a severe weather cameraguy as well maybe if the next game involves and waterproof robot I can steal some ideas for building a waterproof robot for covering severe weather

mark