MBCGame to shutdown in January [KCM's post] - Page 9

On September 07 2011 01:03 dtz wrote:


We know that the ProLeague 10-11 numbers were highest among all cable shows which was good, but the only other thing we heard about overall ratings is from Milkis' twitter :

OrangeMilkis Wooju Lee
Someone got some hard numbers regarding TV ratings for OGN and MBC Game... it doesn't look good. (70th and 60th respectively).

OrangeMilkis Wooju Lee
Basically: OGN has a sixth of the rating they had in 2007, MBC has a third of what they had in 2007.


So yeah looked grim if that's the case =(

But, the two "contradicting statistics" show that maybe there is something wrong with the overall format then because the PL finals shows the interest in the game as a whole is still very high. But probably the format in which teams play each other over and over and over again feels very draggy and reduces the significance of each matches. Therefore, people do not feel compelled to watch it.

And the playoff format is also a little weird imo and bad for viewership. Why have the format as one in which the best and most successful team ( as well as the most popular) wait in the final and only play one game? This is the team that will attract the viewers. In normal sports, the broadcasters will sell Yankess / Redsox / Lakers / Celtics / Manchester United / Liverpool / Barcelona games and show it at the best time and try to "exploit " them by showing these teams as much as possible because of their huge number of supporters.

PL does the contrary. I think just normal playoff system with seedings should be fine. Maybe this unusual format caused the decline in non- final ratings as well.

On September 07 2011 02:47 supernovamaniac wrote:
UPDATE: Fomos has investigated into the situation, and no such request has been filed by the Korean Broadcasting Communication.... whatever its called (which means MBCGame is still alive, till the thing's filed). However, they did receive some questions and interest in the past.

On September 07 2011 06:46 xBillehx wrote:
The KCC won't deny it, so anyone holding their breath hoping they will should know that they only block inappropriate stuff. (It's literally modeled after the FCC of the US with the exception of not being independent.) MBC Game changing to a music channel is hardly inappropriate so it's doubtful the KCC would do anything whatsoever, it's just a small legality they have to go through to finalize the switch. So really, the only way MBC Game won't be changing is if MBC Game doesn't want to.

On September 07 2011 01:49 OpticalShot wrote:

Interesting point there, and I believe it is very applicable to the SCBW scene as well. During regular season SPL matches, the live audience numbers stagger significantly from match to match. I don't have official numbers or counts or anything, but just from the quick view of the camera in the few audience-capture moments, it's easy to see whether the two teams are popular or not.

In this regard, the teams are somewhat at fault, too. Their goal is to win, of course, but more and more so they are generating generic players who practice, play, bow, and exit. "Practice made me play good today" "I was lucky" "Coach helped me calm down and prepare" how many of these have you read in interviews lately? With our dear FBH in Ace and unable to do his thing, we don't have too many radical personalities in SPL that fans would actually bother coming out to watch (or tune into on cable TV, for that matter). Arguably, the "leaders" of this generation (TBLS) aren't really leading the scene - practice, play well, bow, and exit. "I practiced hard, I am happy that I won and I'll practice even harder to win the next match." For WHAT? "Thanks to the fans that came out, I'll try my best to show you better games next time." You know what, how about a kickass ceremony?

Then we move onto why the players are bred the way they are. I briefly mentioned that teams train them so. True, but there's more to the story. We are well-aware of how vicious Korean netizens can be. Let me recall one example: Stork made a small half-joke insult at Kwanro about losing on his birthday. Kwanro took slight offense to it (as intended) and was fired up for their next encounter. While that's all good and not over the limit by any means, netizens went wild over the incident, terrorizing each player's personal space. Korean players all know the consequences of breaking the norm. Slight deviation and minute offense can snowball into career-threatening incidents, and that's why the players pretty much keep quiet. Even today, when I check Fomos for news articles, I scroll down to see a familiar scene - "fans" (deliberate quotations) fighting against each other about stuff absolutely off-topic (for example, SCBW vs. SC2 in a SCBW article, which we are too familiar with right here on TL). If Manifesto revived into a Korean moderator working for Fomos tomorrow, 90% of users would be perma-banned. Anyways, the point is, the fanbase also made contributions to the current downfall.

I may have derailed myself a bit, so back to playoff format. Yes, I think the current format does not take full advantage of unbalanced team-specific viewership. It's undeniable that the match-fixing scandal and Blizzard vs. KeSPA drama dealt serious damage to our beloved SCBW scene, but the players and the fans haven't been helping themselves either.

On September 07 2011 01:49 OpticalShot wrote:

Interesting point there, and I believe it is very applicable to the SCBW scene as well. During regular season SPL matches, the live audience numbers stagger significantly from match to match. I don't have official numbers or counts or anything, but just from the quick view of the camera in the few audience-capture moments, it's easy to see whether the two teams are popular or not.

In this regard, the teams are somewhat at fault, too. Their goal is to win, of course, but more and more so they are generating generic players who practice, play, bow, and exit. "Practice made me play good today" "I was lucky" "Coach helped me calm down and prepare" how many of these have you read in interviews lately? With our dear FBH in Ace and unable to do his thing, we don't have too many radical personalities in SPL that fans would actually bother coming out to watch (or tune into on cable TV, for that matter). Arguably, the "leaders" of this generation (TBLS) aren't really leading the scene - practice, play well, bow, and exit. "I practiced hard, I am happy that I won and I'll practice even harder to win the next match." For WHAT? "Thanks to the fans that came out, I'll try my best to show you better games next time." You know what, how about a kickass ceremony?

Then we move onto why the players are bred the way they are. I briefly mentioned that teams train them so. True, but there's more to the story. We are well-aware of how vicious Korean netizens can be. Let me recall one example: Stork made a small half-joke insult at Kwanro about losing on his birthday. Kwanro took slight offense to it (as intended) and was fired up for their next encounter. While that's all good and not over the limit by any means, netizens went wild over the incident, terrorizing each player's personal space. Korean players all know the consequences of breaking the norm. Slight deviation and minute offense can snowball into career-threatening incidents, and that's why the players pretty much keep quiet. Even today, when I check Fomos for news articles, I scroll down to see a familiar scene - "fans" (deliberate quotations) fighting against each other about stuff absolutely off-topic (for example, SCBW vs. SC2 in a SCBW article, which we are too familiar with right here on TL). If Manifesto revived into a Korean moderator working for Fomos tomorrow, 90% of users would be perma-banned. Anyways, the point is, the fanbase also made contributions to the current downfall.

I may have derailed myself a bit, so back to playoff format. Yes, I think the current format does not take full advantage of unbalanced team-specific viewership. It's undeniable that the match-fixing scandal and Blizzard vs. KeSPA drama dealt serious damage to our beloved SCBW scene, but the players and the fans haven't been helping themselves either.

On September 06 2011 02:50 DarkMatter_ wrote:

Actually, the last MSL already finished. The news seems to suggest that the upcoming MSL will just be cancelled.

On September 09 2011 22:24 Sawamura wrote:


Not today my friend there was lots of emotion hovering around the booth and off booth and I can see all the emotions on Soo face which blatantly showed everything he was thinking off screen . So much emotions going back and forth between the players and jangbi smirking today did it for me . Dead ?Time to move on ? The crowd today attending todays semi final might beg to differ.