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On December 03 2010 15:28 LegendaryZ wrote:
If this is going to happen, it's much more likely to happen on G4 or SyFy than ESPN. G4, of course, did run MLG broadcasts for a bit, and SyFy seems like it's open to the idea of gaming with WCG Ultimate Gamer.
I saw a quote somewhere in which ESPN talked about WCG and about maybe wanting to get involved with esports when the audience was large enough... Let me try and find it now.
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On December 03 2010 05:41 gozima wrote:
Do you honestly believe ESPN will be remotely interested in promoting some niche RTS game that draws at most some 20-40 thousand online viewers?
ESPN viewership is in the millions, and I doubt advertisers would be interested in promoting SC2.
Lets be happy with our little corner of the internet and help ensure that it stays alive for years to come. Expanding our E-Sports universe is going to take baby steps not giant leaps of faith.
Accessibility is a huge thing about it. If there were no sports at ALL on the TV and there never had been any on the TV, and you needed to download different media players and plugins to watch it with poor quality, how many viewers do you think the currently mainstream sports would have?
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On December 03 2010 15:36 Shikyo wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2010 05:41 gozima wrote:
Do you honestly believe ESPN will be remotely interested in promoting some niche RTS game that draws at most some 20-40 thousand online viewers?
ESPN viewership is in the millions, and I doubt advertisers would be interested in promoting SC2.
Lets be happy with our little corner of the internet and help ensure that it stays alive for years to come. Expanding our E-Sports universe is going to take baby steps not giant leaps of faith. Accessibility is a huge thing about it. If there were no sports at ALL on the TV and there never had been any on the TV, and you needed to download different media players and plugins to watch it with poor quality, how many viewers do you think the currently mainstream sports would have?
a lot. because the currently mainstream sports were popular before tv.
but starcraft was never popular or in existence before computers.
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Starcraft is more interesting than darts/pool/paintball ect.. i dont see why they wouldnt consider looking at esports with such a rich and growing history behind the scene
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On December 03 2010 14:21 Joementum wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2010 13:17 TheGiftedApe wrote:
ESPN is not "looking for more programming" they have plenty, if you notice espn is basically the only channel that doesnt go infomercials for 4 hours at 3am, and theres a reason for that. Have you ever watched ESPN at 3 in the morning, or some other early hour? All they do is rerun the same garbage over and over. How many times do they run ESPNews in a day? I was over my friend's house the other day and in the 2 hours I was there drinking, I watched the same damn play on ESPNews 4 damn times, because all ESPNews does is repeat itself for about 12 hours each day. They could do much better if they varied their shows. I highly doubt that they get good viewership at 3 in the morning anyway.
No, the previous poster is correct; ESPN has way more programming than they know what to do with. You mentioned ESPNnews- you do know that ESPNnews is its own channel, right?
The reason ESPN shows Sportscenter so often and repeats at the middle of the night is because the majority of people miss its original airing so they still get a shitload of viewers when they replay it.
ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNnews, ESPNclassic, ABC are all stations that ESPN uses to show their programming- and they still don't have enough room to broadcast all their content. Go to espn3.com- that's where they throw everything else (Premier League Games, Golf, Rugby, Women's Sports, Racing, some NCAA basketball games, etc., and it is ALOT)
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On December 03 2010 15:52 eggs wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2010 15:36 Shikyo wrote:On December 03 2010 05:41 gozima wrote:
Do you honestly believe ESPN will be remotely interested in promoting some niche RTS game that draws at most some 20-40 thousand online viewers?
ESPN viewership is in the millions, and I doubt advertisers would be interested in promoting SC2.
Lets be happy with our little corner of the internet and help ensure that it stays alive for years to come. Expanding our E-Sports universe is going to take baby steps not giant leaps of faith. Accessibility is a huge thing about it. If there were no sports at ALL on the TV and there never had been any on the TV, and you needed to download different media players and plugins to watch it with poor quality, how many viewers do you think the currently mainstream sports would have? a lot. because the currently mainstream sports were popular before tv. but starcraft was never popular or in existence before computers.
Are you sure? I can't think of anyone who's crazy about sports but who'd go through all the trouble of setting up internet streams and downloading media players etc. They mostly just watch what's on the TV, but meh I don't even know. <_>
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Oh how I wish G4TV showed gaming content still, and not 24/7 re-runs of Cops.
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On December 03 2010 05:29 Torture wrote:
With the release of Starcraft II, e-Sports is continuing to grow in South Korea and in North America. Starcraft II is considered a national pastime in South Korea and is considered the most successful e-Sport in the world.
How can it be a national pasttime when it basically just came out? Who considers it the most successful e-sport in the world? Hell, can you even consider it a success yet?
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On December 03 2010 17:44 Aus)MaCrO wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2010 05:29 Torture wrote:
With the release of Starcraft II, e-Sports is continuing to grow in South Korea and in North America. Starcraft II is considered a national pastime in South Korea and is considered the most successful e-Sport in the world.
How can it be a national pasttime when it basically just came out? Who considers it the most successful e-sport in the world? Hell, can you even consider it a success yet?
Actually I'd say its a huge success. I agree that it's not yet Korea's national pasttime nor most successful e-sport.
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On December 03 2010 15:36 Shikyo wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2010 05:41 gozima wrote:
Do you honestly believe ESPN will be remotely interested in promoting some niche RTS game that draws at most some 20-40 thousand online viewers?
ESPN viewership is in the millions, and I doubt advertisers would be interested in promoting SC2.
Lets be happy with our little corner of the internet and help ensure that it stays alive for years to come. Expanding our E-Sports universe is going to take baby steps not giant leaps of faith. Accessibility is a huge thing about it. If there were no sports at ALL on the TV and there never had been any on the TV, and you needed to download different media players and plugins to watch it with poor quality, how many viewers do you think the currently mainstream sports would have?
You're very right about this, was about to post the same thing.
I have several RL-examples of people that actually stopped following their favorite sport of years and years all together due to a sudden lack of accessibility. It went from being shown on national tv for free to pay-tv.
I'm talking Premier League Football.
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If you want to get taken seriously, you'd need to mention the fact that the current audience for SC2 matches up with the target market for ESPN, ie: (from Wiki) "Advertising on ESPN is sold out for months in advance. Major advertisers such as Apple, FedEx, and United Parcel Service are continually buying advertisements to reach the 15-35 year old male audience. ESPN's ad revenue averages $441.8 million with an ad rate of $9,446 per 30 second slot."
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On December 03 2010 20:26 Garrl wrote:
If you want to get taken seriously, you'd need to mention the fact that current ESPN advertising matches up with the target market for ESPN, ie: (from Wiki) "Advertising on ESPN is sold out for months in advance. Major advertisers such as Apple, FedEx, and United Parcel Service are continually buying advertisements to reach the 15-35 year old male audience. ESPN's ad revenue averages $441.8 million with an ad rate of $9,446 per 30 second slot."
Good thing that is the exact audience competitive Starcraft 2 attracts.
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On December 03 2010 16:34 Shikyo wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2010 15:52 eggs wrote:On December 03 2010 15:36 Shikyo wrote:On December 03 2010 05:41 gozima wrote:
Do you honestly believe ESPN will be remotely interested in promoting some niche RTS game that draws at most some 20-40 thousand online viewers?
ESPN viewership is in the millions, and I doubt advertisers would be interested in promoting SC2.
Lets be happy with our little corner of the internet and help ensure that it stays alive for years to come. Expanding our E-Sports universe is going to take baby steps not giant leaps of faith. Accessibility is a huge thing about it. If there were no sports at ALL on the TV and there never had been any on the TV, and you needed to download different media players and plugins to watch it with poor quality, how many viewers do you think the currently mainstream sports would have? a lot. because the currently mainstream sports were popular before tv. but starcraft was never popular or in existence before computers. Are you sure? I can't think of anyone who's crazy about sports but who'd go through all the trouble of setting up internet streams and downloading media players etc. They mostly just watch what's on the TV, but meh I don't even know. <_>
have you never seen movies or sitcom episodes where the football fan is sneaking game updates during church either from phone calls, a walkman, or even portable tv?
it's hard to say how far people would go if it weren't on TV at all though because it really is so accessible even without TV. there are countless internet sites with live updates for scores, smart phones have apps, and even before i had a smart phone i was able to text message google for scores during work.
baseball/football/basketball/hockey radio broadcasts get a lot of listeners. a radio play-by-play for an e-sport just wouldn't be enough for most fans.
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On December 03 2010 21:19 LunarC wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2010 20:26 Garrl wrote:
If you want to get taken seriously, you'd need to mention the fact that current ESPN advertising matches up with the target market for ESPN, ie: (from Wiki) "Advertising on ESPN is sold out for months in advance. Major advertisers such as Apple, FedEx, and United Parcel Service are continually buying advertisements to reach the 15-35 year old male audience. ESPN's ad revenue averages $441.8 million with an ad rate of $9,446 per 30 second slot." Good thing that is the exact audience competitive Starcraft 2 attracts.
Oops, I meant "the audience for competitive SC2 matches up with the target market for ESPN", edited to fix.
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I dont know if this has been posted yet, but in germany we get a little televised coverage of the Intel Extreme Masters.
They cover a few global challenges and show Counterstrike and StarcraftII and follow the teams and players throughout the tournaments and interview them and stuff.
Its pretty decent and they had more than 1million viewers on the first show.
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Everyone commenting on the viability of this is really trolling and/or spamming because this thread is not about the viability of it happening.
The worst case scenario of the OPs suggestion is that we lose nothing. If all the people who spend their time trying to explain why it will never happen would just join in and send an email, it would greatly increase any potential impact.
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I wanted to be a part of this initiative so I drafted a letter for anyone who would like to use it:
Dear ESPN,
I write you today with gusto over the prospect of introducing you to a wild, untapped world of entertainment. What if I told you there was a programming option that would appeal exclusively to a prime advertising demographic and draw in incredible viewing numbers? Is that something you might be interested in? Of course it is, and I have something very similar!
It’s called Starcraft II. Imagine all the excitement of chess combined with furious clicking and typing and you have Starcraft. It’s like a strategy game… on steroids! I don’t think any of the actual players are on steroids though, so no worries there. Now, you might be asking yourself, “What is Starcraft exactly and how can we get involved?” You also might not be asking yourself that question, but on the off chance that you are, let me give you the answer.
Starcraft is a real-time strategy game that takes place in a probably fictional future, in space. “But wait,” it’s possible you might say, “wouldn’t the physics of space alter our perception of ‘real time’?” Good question and the answer is yes. Starcraft II utilizes a proprietary model of “in-game time” that maintains the integrity of space time in the sense that it is confusing and arbitrary to the viewer. Are you still with me? Since it only makes sense for me to continue writing if you said, “yes,” I’m going to assume you did.
In this inevitable future, the humans, known as “terrans” (probably from the Latin ‘Tyrannis’), do battle with two alien races. You have the zerg, who are basically an infestation of giant, aggressive bugs, and the protoss, a race of energy-manipulating, space-faring telepaths with a confusing fondness for hand-to-hand combat. I know what you’re thinking, and I agree that it’s wholly improbable that we’d ever rebrand ourselves from “humans” or “earthlings” to “terrans”, but you have to remember that it’s partially theoretical so you have to suspend belief a little bit.
The player assumes control of one of the three races and does battle with an opponent who has done the same. The player must juggle a multitude of tasks in harmony to win the game. Some of the things he must do are:
Economy Management: Players must meticulously manage their in-game economy of mineral extraction. The player spends their initial capital and re-invests subsequent earnings into building up a work force of miners. The game raises interesting philosophical questions with the re-introduction of slavery into the futuristic landscape. The miners are forced to work for no pay and receive few, if any, breaks. Armies will frequently target this group of the population, killing them indiscriminately, with little or no regard for the fact that they are essentially an unarmed, untrained group of laborers. How the player manages these slaves and their work flow is crucial.
Micromanagement: Do you enjoy constantly having to tell all your employees what to do for every waking minute of every hour of every day? If so, then you’ll really love Starcraft. After cementing an income from your slave economy, you can pay to train a rag-tag militia of various fighters with different abilities. Some of these fighters have oddly specific abilities that seem largely impractical for the chaos and variables of war, but again this is the future where things will certainly be different and advanced. There are no cowboys in this man’s army! Every soldier awaits your command before doing as much as taking a piss (which they apparently do inside their advanced space-suits, as I am unable to construct a latrine as of yet). You can then manage an attack with your soldiers or choose to let them stand around.
Athletic use of peripheral equipment: Starcraft wouldn’t be a sport if there weren’t rigorous physical demands imposed. The game demands that the user achieve and maintain an unnaturally high clicking and typing rates to be able to execute all the different commands he needs. Viewers will be no doubt impressed with the marvels of “actions per minute” and how fast the screen jumps around.
I hope I haven’t overloaded you with information. I think after one look, you’ll realize the potential here. With viewership in the low to mid-thousands, Starcraft shows are already screamingly popular, and when combined with off-peak timeslot on ESPN2, have the potential to become a juggernaut. If you have any questions please visit the teamliquid forums, but please use the search function as another national network may have already asked your question.
Best regards,
The Starcraft Community
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On December 04 2010 00:23 PackofHighly wrote:
Everyone commenting on the viability of this is really trolling and/or spamming because this thread is not about the viability of it happening.
The worst case scenario of the OPs suggestion is that we lose nothing. If all the people who spend their time trying to explain why it will never happen would just join in and send an email, it would greatly increase any potential impact.
they sent an email back saying that mass emails will not benefit our position, so no that wont help, in fact all the internet crusaders fighting for sc2 to be mainstream are hindering its growth more than supporting it.
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On December 04 2010 01:48 JackMcCoy wrote:
If you have any questions please visit the teamliquid forums, but please use the search function as another national network may have already asked your question.
Best regards,
The Starcraft Community
This is an absolutely brilliant line.
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EPT
