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BGonline.org Forums
Possible Opposing Argument
Posted By: Michael Mesich In Response To: Possible Opposing Argument (Art Grater)
Date: Friday, 21 April 2017, at 6:33 p.m.
> Why not transfer the cost to viewers instead of tournament players who get recorded, never mind those who aren't?
Because it's an untenable business model?
I think the uncomfortable reality is that a small number of people like to watch streams but the endeavor is a huge failure when it come to trying to break even let alone reach a return on investment.
So then the question become, who benefits?
Do I as a tournament director benefit from streaming from my tournament? Questionable. Perhaps in PR and possibly marketing?
Is there a demand that I provide a stream? Yes. But at the moment it certainly seems like a bad business investment.
A relatively small number of viewers benefit from having access to streams. I guess Backgammon Studio and BMAB benefit from having the matches recorded and made available. But not to the point where they'd be willing to help subsidize or pay for that access.
The main beneficiary seems to be the hope and theory that more exposure online will grow the game. I'm not convinced of that, but I'm willing to put effort into it up to a point.
The users generally won't pay, at least not at the event level. Some may throw a little into a virtual tip-jar, but I don't see viewers being able to support ONE streaming event let alone all of them.
I think right now, streaming is provided for the love of the game (when done by tournaments and some individuals) ... or for sponsorship / personal marketing (like Victor Ashkenazi's streams.)
From the tournament director angle, I WANT to provide it. But it has to fit into my event budget. Obviously, the bigger the event, the easier it is to devote resources to more and more sophisticated streaming efforts.
But is that even the right place to put it? Some might argue that those funds could be better spent either upgrading the event experience for the attendees or helping to make sure the event doesn't run a deficit.
Lot's of angles when it comes to event-hosted streaming.
Maybe a better solution would be to form some kind of ABT Stream-team that brings equipment and streams from all the ABT events subsidized by the USBGF and perhaps even sells a subscription to the streaming in order to bring some kind of business model into the mix.
I don't think I could sell many streaming tickets to people for my one event. But I should think there may be a market for people to pay for a subscription to streams from ALL events with a guarantee of quality. This could even then take it off the plate of the Tournament Directors who can then focus more on everything else for the event!
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