EPTGreat, now that that's out of the way...
SC would work on TV. It's that simple. When the discussion comes up, we aren't *really* talking about SC on TV, what we're talking is SC on TV in the foreign scene. Why? Because in the Korean scene its already there. Naturally, then, it can work anywhere else. Yeah, I know Korea =/= NA, EU, etc., the cultures are different, blah blah. That doesn't actually matter, the idea is still the same. So then why isn't SC2 on TV already? Probably a lot of reasons. The better question is, how does it get there?
Let's first look at some major concerns:
1) Commercials
2) Dumbing the game down to reach a wider audience
3) Quality of the games
4) Risk for picking it up
The first three are obviously community concerns, with the third naturally being a concern that rises out of #1 and #2. The fourth is a potential industry concern that I can see.
In order to address these I am going to think about the NFL on TV as a comparison, which I will make apparent why later.
1) Commercials
Naturally, commercials are a pretty big issue. In any sport on TV this issue arises. Where do you put the commercials? In sports, such as football, you get "TV timeouts", which works because there is always an opportunity without seriously disrupting the game. In the NFL there are a huge number of opportunities, field goals, possession changes, etc. This doesn't really exist in SC2, you can't just pause in the middle of the game to take a 2 minute commercial break. It seriously disrupts the flow of the game. The only feasible solution is before/after each game in a series. That's it. Moving on...
3) Quality of the games
"Whoa what happened to #2?" - Don't worry. I'll get to it. I understand that the quality of the games is deeply tied into #2, but I just want to say - it won't matter. As already said on SotG, the game already gets dumbed down for the audience it currently reaches. Is furthering dumbing this down really going to hurt? It won't. Trust me. I will explain more later. Just trust me. This is a complete non-issue. Other game quality issues will happen inevitably. Sometimes watching the NFL is just pitifully painful, people still tune in. As long as the entire scene isn't complete garbage, a few misses here or there is fine.
2) Dumb the game down
Yes, the game will need to be dumbed down for it to reach the widest possible audience and thus turning the project into a success. The question is, how do we go about doing this? The answer is simple: follow the model of the NFL in Europe. I don't know how much of a success this is, broadcasting the NFL - but it's enough of a success to still be going on, so... it's doing well. The European broadcast of the NFL is the exact same as the American broadcast, with one major difference. The EU broadcast includes this incredibly dumbed down segment which breaks down whats going on during breaks. Yes, commercials still get played during breaks, and its entirely possible that you miss some action. But it explains the most basic fundamentals of the game. I was watching the other day, and during this segment, they explained what the flat was. Anyone who watches football probably just facepalmed and said "Who doesn't know what the flat is?" - Yeah well, who doesn't know what a Warp Prism is, and what it can do? You add this in before a broadcast of SC and after, explaining some basic ins and outs. And you just always do that. Not always an exact re-hash, but I'm sure this community is bright enough to get the basic idea.
So there you go, community issues solved. So what's the next step.
A network to pick it up.
4) Risks
There are several risks. Time issues, game quality (i.e. cheese vs. macro), commercials ($$$), etc. And to be honest, I don't have a solution for existing networks. These are serious issues that are hard to contend with. Timing issues factor into the NFL, but there is some control over this because the game itself is specifically timed. Unless you add some kind of a no-rush rule, you will probably get a bunch of broadcasts then end far quicker than expected. You might get a series of insane macro games that go way over. You have to worry about viewership when game quality is lower.
I could probably go on about this last section, but my solution bypasses it.
SC2 needs its own network. I'm thinking an exact replica of the NFL Network. As the game grows, the available shows will grow. Day9 dailies, Replays, Live Games, Expert Analyst shows, State of the Game, Inside the Game, Top 10s etc. etc. There is more than enough in the community to fill a network running 24/7. You could even expand this to E-Sports in general, and then you have probably way too much content, which forces competition between content providers to get the best of the best out there (if necessary, I really think SC2 could take off with it all by itself). The question is, would the community get behind this, and would sponsors get behind this? It could work. It would work.
Will it happen?
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Thanks for reading the blog (if you read it...). This is my first blog (ever, I'm not just talking TL, since that much is obvious) so I hope formatting and coherency are okay/good. Let me know what you think both about the blog as a whole, as well as the specific content/
-Dial
