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Post by fwalum on Jan 5, 2011 13:30:36 GMT -5
Current trend in business models is to have free access. Almost all games are available for free if you try hard enough. Even ESPN3 is free to a large segment of those using major ISP's for access, or the game is being re-streamed by some renegade. All of these attempts to proliferate events in the media are done as investments in advertising or as "giving back" to the alumni. None of them, even the major conferences, make any significant money.
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Post by wh on Jan 5, 2011 13:37:05 GMT -5
Right now I would say WSU has been drawing anywhere from 500 to 1000 less people to the games this year. These are the people that are on the fence about coming to watch and staying home to see the game for free. C'mon...500-1000 people aren't staying home due to the HLN. Get serious. WSU has 18,000 mostly commuter students. Universities always face a major challenge engaging commuter students socially. Most arrive on campus for classes and go home when they're done. Once they leave, it's hard to get them to come back. Under those circumstances, I don't think it would be a big stretch to think there might be a good number of students following the Raiders from home. As far as the numbers, it would be pretty easy to use web-based analytics to track how many are watching games via the HLN and the geographic locations from where they're connected.
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Post by bballraider on Jan 5, 2011 16:56:13 GMT -5
Right now I would say WSU has been drawing anywhere from 500 to 1000 less people to the games this year. These are the people that are on the fence about coming to watch and staying home to see the game for free. C'mon...500-1000 people aren't staying home due to the HLN. Get serious. First off, I didn't say all of those people were staying home due to HLN. I said the economy and the schedule had more to do with those staying home. But those 500-1000 is where the HLN viewrship is most likely to come from, since they have paid to watch games at the arena in the past. Now, lets say 75 of those people are staying home each game to watch on HLN, with tickets and maybe a minimum of one drink, we are looking at around $20 they are not spending at the arena. Now times that by 75 that's $1500/game. With 16 home games, that's roughly $24,000 dollars lost for the year. Now nothing says these people won't just drop watching basketball altogether if there was PPV, but who is to say these people would be a future benefit. Again, since I have no market research it's hard for me to tell which way to go with this. I was just throwing it out as an option. I'm not against continuing free access either, it has many merits too. Current trend in business models is to have free access. Almost all games are available for free if you try hard enough. Even ESPN3 is free to a large segment of those using major ISP's for access, or the game is being re-streamed by some renegade. All of these attempts to proliferate events in the media are done as investments in advertising or as "giving back" to the alumni. None of them, even the major conferences, make any significant money. Funny you bring up ESPN3. It's where I got my model from of offering free access to season ticket holders, students and big discounts for distant alumni. ESPN does not offer free access to everybody, trust me I know. I currently have Clearwire Internet and it is not one of the providers that is willing to offer ESPN money for access. My two year contract expires in a month and a half and I am changing to either AT&T or Time Warner only because of the ESPN3 access. I will probably pay more for a service that is not as good of a deal as I currently have, and I like my current service, but I love my sports too. I think people would consider becoming season ticket holders if there was an extra benefit of seeing all the HL games too. I am not proposing PPV as a major revenue stream, but as a benefit for becoming a season ticket holder, plus gaining small additional revenue that can be used to upgrade systems, or allow athletic depts to invest a little in other ways. I would have paid ESPN3 a small fee for access, but they do not offer that to my knowldege. I have used chanellsurfing.net quite a bit, but have also had games cut off half way through by the broadcaster and that is really frustrating.
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Post by milanmiracle on Jan 5, 2011 23:59:47 GMT -5
I'll add my .02, as if somebody asked. Anyway, I think taking away free access to the HLN would be a terrible idea. You need to build your fan base, not shrink it. I have a buddy who occasionally watches a few Valpo games on the HLN. He lives in the D.C. area. Why does this matter you ask? Because it keeps Valpo and their name out there. Would he watch if he had to pay? Certainly not. Would he be following the team at all if it wasn't free? Absolutely not. However, when he goes to ESPN Zone to watch the games, he sometimes brings up Valpo. It's yet another person who knows about the program and the basketball team...and that's never bad. I know I wouldn't follow the team nearly as much living out of the region as I do now. That said, I would prefer to watch from home for almost all sporting events, so I am a bad target for tickets. Colts games, Pacer games, Butler games, ect. The view is usually better on TV, the foods better and cheaper, and if need be I am not afraid to sit on the toilet . I do however purchase lots of team merchandise and apparel, so my support of the team comes in different ways. If I am in town and Valpo isn't playing the local YMCA, I'll come out and see a game but I will never be a season ticket holder and probably won't come to more than 2 games a year. That said, it's rare that I miss a game online. Would I pay for it, I don't know it's a question I would have to ask myself when the time came.
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Post by valpo84 on Feb 10, 2011 5:07:12 GMT -5
Pulling this discussion up. At some point we discussed the value of free HLN versus paid HLN broadcasts. Not sure I had seen this article posted which discusses the HLN and has some data on viewers of WSU HLN broadcasts. The number is a solid online following but doesn't necessarily translate into a view that it is hurting attendance. An average of 1056 per game are viewing WSU games through Jan 27. This, I would assumes, includes fans from both teams. Hence, it is not an inordinate number. Some survey data would be a next step to understand (a) students v alumni v casual fan, (b) local v non-local (greater than 30 miles or whatever definition to use). It would be nice to see the stats on all HL schools. Maybe the local media guys could do a story on Valpo numbers. www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/wright-state-university-raiders/network-grows-horizon-league-lands-more-fans-1065351.html?cxtype=fb_mlt
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Post by bigdwsu on Feb 10, 2011 6:47:24 GMT -5
Pulling this discussion up. At some point we discussed the value of free HLN versus paid HLN broadcasts. Not sure I had seen this article posted which discusses the HLN and has some data on viewers of WSU HLN broadcasts. The number is a solid online following but doesn't necessarily translate into a view that it is hurting attendance. An average of 1056 per game are viewing WSU games through Jan 27. This, I would assumes, includes fans from both teams. Hence, it is not an inordinate number. Some survey data would be a next step to understand (a) students v alumni v casual fan, (b) local v non-local (greater than 30 miles or whatever definition to use). It would be nice to see the stats on all HL schools. Maybe the local media guys could do a story on Valpo numbers. www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/wright-state-university-raiders/network-grows-horizon-league-lands-more-fans-1065351.html?cxtype=fb_mlt And if the HL charged $5 a game like the MVC, A-10, and MAC schools charge, we would be making another 5K a game off of internet fees or another 75K this year.
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