tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post6095583337495728497..comments2024-01-19T00:21:36.058-05:00Comments on View from the Deadbox: Post Dallas Wrap-upBaca Locohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13014510414015288907noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-82682765595281355832013-03-25T13:30:10.644-04:002013-03-25T13:30:10.644-04:00The guy that said it has to be sustainable has the...The guy that said it has to be sustainable has the right of it. <br /><br />I think its an incredible product, and has been a truly impressive project. <br /><br />None of that matters if it doesn't pay though. 10 people watching at a BBq, some of whom 'haven't even played before' - sounds warm and fuzzy, but it doesn't make any difference. The guy that funded PBA does not plan to continue to pay for it. The strategy is (and has to be) for it to be paid for through 'revenue' it generates. Numbers will be inflated in attempt to draw more advertisers, and that's standard. When the 2014 budget comes around, most of those advertisers will pull, or parlay the ads into their PSP sponsorships. At that point there's a problem. All my experience tells me that its too much of a financial liability to be sustainable long-term. That isn't meant to detract from the quality of the webcast.<br /><br />The only way forward once the dust settles is to cut costs by killing 50% of the overhead, and going PPV. Thats the true test. How many people will pay? I watched some of the webcast. I also have disposable income, but I would not have paid to watch the webcast, even knowing it was going to be good.<br />This is not a new model. This is a high-cost/higher quality version of a model that has already failed at least once.<br /><br />....and I'm not anti-webcast, quite the opposite.Missy Qnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-31529181378757161672013-03-25T10:48:15.822-04:002013-03-25T10:48:15.822-04:00I watched just a tiny bit of the webcast, mostly b...I watched just a tiny bit of the webcast, mostly because I'm bitter about no longer being a part of it. What I saw blew my socks off. Those jerks just keep improving. I hate them. Can't wait for the next one.Don Saavedrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08556414730946720412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-1568199203954764102013-03-22T18:41:15.677-04:002013-03-22T18:41:15.677-04:00I for one watched every minute of the webcast and ...I for one watched every minute of the webcast and I'm living in Asia. Given the team are still on a huge learning curve in terms of producing the webcast Dallas was a vast improvement. <br /><br />I can see they are trying to create areas where they can sell advertising space but I'm wondering whether their ad sales team have any experience in real world advertising? <br /><br />They need to start pitching advertising space to media buying agencies or thinking about what sort of advertisers (other than paintball companies) could best benefit from exposure to I assume a predominate US based male market of 18-30 year olds watching a web cast. I'd target ISP's or mobile phone providers since many of them already budget a lot for online media campaigns.<br /><br />All those in paintball media know just how hard it is to sell advertising to the mainstream market (or even to the paintball market) so I wish them the best of luck.Grant Harrisonhttp://www.paintballnews.asianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-24484796469357399012013-03-22T01:12:26.080-04:002013-03-22T01:12:26.080-04:00Baca, claims of the "first returns" of u...Baca, claims of the "first returns" of unique webcast hits is hogwash. Analytics are delivered instantly. Two years ago they claimed over 100,000 views at Cup, which would be impressive if was real.....which it is not.<br /><br />The only time real provable uniques aren't published is when the numbers suck. <br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-68618824890716230262013-03-22T00:33:29.560-04:002013-03-22T00:33:29.560-04:00The webcast which relies on paintball advertisers ...The webcast which relies on paintball advertisers is doomed to fail. You can't suck more money out of the industry to cover these costs. They need someone else. And the fact of the matter is they are WAY too expensive for big brands. Why advertise coke or Verizon or apple or Pepsi or Nikon etc on the webcast when they can just run network ads on YouTube through Google for a fraction of the cost?<br /><br />The scary thing is there are dozens of people making 100x as much ad revenue on YouTube for 0.01% of the input costs. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-76552661074538075422013-03-22T00:28:16.625-04:002013-03-22T00:28:16.625-04:00For the record, that's poppycock. If you had a...For the record, that's poppycock. If you had an extra million in your pocket during a financial downturn its the difference between weathering the storm or abandoning ship. <br /><br />The casino show didn't put them out of business any more than their giving tons of money to lawyers. But combine all those things with bank loans and a down turn and you're in a perfect position to fail.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-49880922210119706772013-03-21T12:14:08.863-04:002013-03-21T12:14:08.863-04:00Anon 919
For the record there is no correlation be...Anon 919<br />For the record there is no correlation between the Gardners making their expensive show and what happened to Smart Parts.<br /><br />For those interested I'm told views was up substantially over World Cup. The first return numbers were impressive. (I'd love to tell y'all but I don't want to steal the PBA thunder if they're planning on making the numbers public themselves. If I can later I will.) While a net good for the PBA, PSP and tourney ball generally and even paintball overall there remains the question of the revenue model and how long can they continue to take losses.<br />There are fixed approximate costs to each webcast and at this stage the bandwidth required is the single biggest flexible cost so that continued "success" is driving up the cost of production. At some point the revenue model needs to begin working or an alternative will almost certainly have to be considered.Baca Locohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13014510414015288907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-5000334453043442742013-03-21T06:39:31.841-04:002013-03-21T06:39:31.841-04:00^Great post...I look at it this way, (if) there is...^Great post...I look at it this way, (if) there is an attempt in the works to garner outside monies, are you going to showcase prospective companies a half completed project or wait until your house is in order and then impress them. <br />I do believe the webcast is ready to launch to the masses...I had 10+ people watching the Dallas event on a 60" living room TV and they had a blast. All comments were of the same variety, "very professional, looks awesome, lets play", etc,etc.<br /><br />Its still sad to see people who were left out of the decision making process or part of a team, company etc whose own propduct has suffered at the hands of the PSP, bitching about how wrong it is how the PSP is choosing to spend their money.NewPronoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-43938351552458349912013-03-20T21:19:21.718-04:002013-03-20T21:19:21.718-04:00Downside? Not long after smart parts spent a milli...Downside? Not long after smart parts spent a million bucks on their tv show they went bankrupt. Dye owns the PSP, lets hope history doesn't repeat.<br /><br />But that's not our business how they spend their money. The webcast is cool, and if is to have any lasting effect it will be to re-claim tournament paintball as the pinnacle of the sport from the scenario upstarts of the last decade. I would bet money on the fact that the webcast increases participation in tournament leagues across the board, Psp, Nppl, regional and otherwise.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-23330684270542261032013-03-20T19:22:51.164-04:002013-03-20T19:22:51.164-04:00The real question about the webcast is, "Is i...The real question about the webcast is, "Is it sustainable in the long term?" If it is, we'll at least have the webcast on an ongoing basis. If it isn't, it'll end and in the meantime you get to enjoy a webcast. That's kind of win-win, isn't it?<br /><br />In the meantime, the webcast is a legitimate, professional effort that makes paintball look like a more serious sport.<br /><br />So where's the downside?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-84848316341877254492013-03-20T18:19:20.312-04:002013-03-20T18:19:20.312-04:00Well for those of us who do like watching this, PB...Well for those of us who do like watching this, PBA is a god-send.<br /><br />I started playing in 2006 and there was basically nothing available at all. I scoured the web for cheap copies of Traumahead Sports and ended up with a fairly sizeable collection.<br /><br />I wasn't as much about the clip fests that were featured by Derder and others, but the full games showing what lead to the spectacular moves - only Traumahead offered that. HB 2007 being their last event, I was pretty disappointed.<br /><br />Fast-forward to PBA - we get the ENTIRE tournament now, not just a few choice games here and there. Real-time commenting and analysis along with actual stats.<br /><br />I don't really care if the sport grows past what it is. Right now, it's as good as it has ever been.<br /><br />It will never be main-stream, but why would we even want that?Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08540411630997809855noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-70866653968584986962013-03-20T18:17:57.753-04:002013-03-20T18:17:57.753-04:00It doesn't matter what statshow says, just con...It doesn't matter what statshow says, just consider the numbers. How many people play paintball? And how small of a fraction of those people actually give 2 shits about tournament paintball? And now on top of that, how many people commit to spending ~4 days at their computer to watch the stream?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-22652809433206964482013-03-20T17:27:32.300-04:002013-03-20T17:27:32.300-04:00You do realize that statshow 1) isn't very acc...You do realize that statshow 1) isn't very accurate and 2) doesn't measure webcast viewership at all, right?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-33510370304619489862013-03-20T16:31:50.072-04:002013-03-20T16:31:50.072-04:00It's well known many remote analytics programs...It's well known many remote analytics programs inflat traffic based on previews, script calls, multiple sessions, robots, etc etc. <br /><br />Alexa, statshow and others are useful measures because they consider a particular site based on the comparative volume of world wide traffic. <br /><br />As was said, maybe those numbers were bogus at the top, but it's still far less than pbn or ans. I highly doubt there are more than 10-15k people overall, and that's favorable. Look at the meager comment traffic on their posts. Any site with 50k people actually using it would be flooded on comments, at least 100-200 per post.<br /><br />None of this speaks negatively to the quality of the webcast. But their reach really does seem limited to a relatively small pool of "influential users". <br /><br />It's great to keep the core excitement in tourney paintball alive. But it's not even close to having the same reach as pbn,mwhich is a shame.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-44792488156920511052013-03-20T16:17:51.753-04:002013-03-20T16:17:51.753-04:00Honestly, PBA and the webcast is the best thing to...Honestly, PBA and the webcast is the best thing to happen to this sport in previous years. Both at Cup and here for Dallas. I hooked my computer up via HDMI to one of my big screen and held a bbq. I had 20+ people watching it and enjoying it. The crazy part was probably half of the crowd had never played paintball. They can follow, understand, and most importantantly be excited about paintball! I truly think that if PBA continues to refine their product...it will be the spark that ignites a fire in "public" for paintball. <br /><br />As to using replays. No. A refs call is final. I think in this sport , that faith in refs is an important part of this game workingAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06969160172811908464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-83434986003301271022013-03-20T14:38:11.566-04:002013-03-20T14:38:11.566-04:00^^
were you another kept out of the sandbox, maybe...^^<br />were you another kept out of the sandbox, maybe you should take your thesauras and go homeNewPronoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-3814481179955790292013-03-20T09:52:00.895-04:002013-03-20T09:52:00.895-04:00Whether PBA is in first place or last place among ...Whether PBA is in first place or last place among the small pond, it does not matter.<br /><br />This Nation is not interested in playing paintball, playing less of it every day. For those of us interested in making money (among other things like having fun and taking an occasional vacation with friends), these programs are shortcuts to a petty and pathetic succession.<br /><br />Has PBA changed that? No.<br /><br />Did it advertise to do so? Yes, incidentally, by flipping the metrics of reality in quite a literal sense, once again to the tune of no less than entertainment.<br /><br />That's the difference.<br /><br />Some of us aren't lucid in this pretend world we seem to be so openly sold.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-52770597553584240652013-03-20T09:20:22.940-04:002013-03-20T09:20:22.940-04:00Webcast commentary was much improved, it appeared ...Webcast commentary was much improved, it appeared someone had told them to be more professional and indulge less in in-jokes. Todd is a worthwhile full-time addition to the crew, the third-wheel though could be seen to be wanting to interrupt all the time, when he did get airtime he often had to be corrected. Lauren on the sideline needs an earpiece, the amount of corpsing ofer team/players names etc. was hilarious, it may be the theme for the next webcast drinking game as the use of such trigger words as 'clutch' was noticeably reduced, which was good for my sobriety. <br /><br />It was hard to say if the penalties were overly harsh, they certainly added something to the viewing experience which could have been capitalised on more by the webcast, a camera on the penalty box curtain could be fun, though the ability in many points of the player to leave the box and rejoin the game rather than get blasted on exit was welcomed. it makes it more of a penalty rather than a death row box.<br /><br />Again, the champions/challengers format, with the promotion and relegation element adds more excitement to the experience and should keep the webcast games more evenly matched, as the lame duck teams will be relegated and the teams in the Championship should be broadly of a similar level.<br /><br />As for video reffing, no, if you introduce it on the Championship field the refereeing looses validation and the rest of the divisions will start to want it too, if they think the replay would go their way.<br /><br />Of all the webcasts, this was the most engaging and kept my attention the longest.Fullborehttps://www.facebook.com/fullboreimagesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-1295800493766894312013-03-20T00:17:08.980-04:002013-03-20T00:17:08.980-04:00thanks Baca. Good report, only wish you had some d...thanks Baca. Good report, only wish you had some divisional reporters like Mike of Pr1me used to do. I had a great time watching the event and one thing I will say having practiced the field for WCPPL is that I really think back center bunkers should be a thing of the past. Really turns the paradigm on it's head. Saw a few teams beat teams they usually lose to as a result.Nealnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-44103817179795253162013-03-19T21:27:16.648-04:002013-03-19T21:27:16.648-04:00statshow.com lol... that you chuck?statshow.com lol... that you chuck?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-29654597239830908572013-03-19T20:17:08.615-04:002013-03-19T20:17:08.615-04:00Okay - I'm curious now.
What's the ballpa...Okay - I'm curious now.<br /><br />What's the ballpark figure on the webcast viewership?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-3909638607850130162013-03-19T18:31:19.686-04:002013-03-19T18:31:19.686-04:00The scoreboard doesn't currently display tenth...The scoreboard doesn't currently display tenths/hundredths of a second. So when the horn sounds to start the match, the clock immediately flips to 19:59 and stays there for a second. Thus when it flips to 0:00, there's still a second left. I believe for MAO the software will get tweaked so that the board shifts the time to display tenths or hundredths of a second so that's more obvious to the casual observer.<br /><br />The numbers cited above are bogus. Not even close, at least according to Google Analytics. Although the final numers are not in yet, the Dallas webcast saw a significant viewership increase over the Cup webcast.raehlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14311405248370629057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3804718502406028481.post-52239053915221937922013-03-19T17:23:41.395-04:002013-03-19T17:23:41.395-04:00Whatever anyone says about PBA stats, here is a be...Whatever anyone says about PBA stats, here is a better measure:<br /><br />http://www.statshow.com/www/paintballaccess.com<br /><br />10k uniques during events, 5k during the off season.<br /><br />Unfortunately, it's a lagging indicator as we don't get an update for March for a few weeks.<br /><br />But PBA is not half the powerhouse of PBN or even Ansgear (who incidentally advertizes on PBA to get some of their meager traffic)<br /><br />http://www.statshow.com/www/pbnation.com<br />PBN shows around 75k uniques (but steadily declining...sinking ship alert)<br /><br />http://www.statshow.com/www/ansgear.com<br />ANS shows between 75k to 100k uniques<br /><br />SocialPaintball gets 3k-4k uniques.<br /><br />Maybe all these numbers are bogus, but together you can get a pretty good comparison as to the relative size and influence of PBA. <br /><br />No matter what they might say about the traffic of PBA, it's still a small fish in a small pond.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com