|
Calgary25980 Posts
On February 01 2011 07:19 jalstar wrote:Show nested quote +On February 01 2011 06:57 Chill wrote:On February 01 2011 06:53 Djzapz wrote:On February 01 2011 06:45 Freak705 wrote:
To any college/university student: Take 1 night off from partying, BAM! 2 months of GSL right there. I'm a broke ass student too, I don't get handouts from my parents, but $10 is really not *that* hard to come by.. Volunteer for a psychology experiment, they often pay subjects $10-15 for an hour of your time :p It's not about the money, it's about the principle. I don't care to pay for content which, while it's good, I expect to get for free through various sponsorships. If Dexter episodes were 50 cents each, some people wouldn't bother - not necessarily because it's not worth it - the entertainment value is definitely worth 50 cents, but there's other things to do, therefore the show would watch a large part of its audience. Maybe GOMTV figured that that was the optimal business model because it creates the perfect balance between ad revenue and customer money. I just think it's a shame because a couple of days ago, my friend told me "I wish you'd seen this game, Nestea pulled off something amazing". Oh well, I've never seen that game and probably never will. The contrary is also true. I've been "initiating" some friends to Starcraft and Starcraft 2, and I can't redirect them to the absolute best Starcraft 2 ever played... And yet I can easily point them at free, commentated SCBW games. Public domain man, it rocks. And it helps things grow. You can go on and on about how people should just pay $10, but at the end of the day, less people are exposed to the game because I can't copy paste a youtube link to show you someone doing something amazing. On February 01 2011 06:47 LagT_T wrote:On February 01 2011 06:40 Djzapz wrote:On February 01 2011 06:14 LagT_T wrote: If I can get billions of hours of free content(youtube, hulu etc) and thousands of hours of free starcraft2 content by paying 40$/mo for internet, I shouldn't have to pay 10$/mo for a few GSL games. You can watch the games live for free. If you want the luxury of watching them whenever you want you have to pay. You are renting storage and web hosting. Was your hard drive free? Consider this argument: Youtube is free because it's done right. If I don't catch GSL late, I don't watch it - because of that I don't care so much about the results because usually, I can't see all the games. I don't even know how much it is - I just think it's silly that I'd have to pay. Youtube is free because it is another business model because it is another market. How much content was produced by Youtube when it was the size of GomTV? Please people... ... What about MBC and OGN which have business models similar to GOMTV but their content is free? Please dude. Where is it free? Show me where I can go to OGN.com and watch VODs for free now please. Wait, you really didn't know about free VODs on OGN.com? Here you go.
Blocked at work, but I'll take your word for it. Are there ads on the page, or ads on the broadcast, or can I actually just load any vod adfree? The latter would be really surprising.
|
Calgary25980 Posts
On February 01 2011 07:20 ShcShc wrote:Show nested quote +On February 01 2011 07:12 UruzuNine wrote:On February 01 2011 07:10 ShcShc wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On February 01 2011 06:56 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On February 01 2011 06:51 ShcShc wrote:On February 01 2011 04:19 Chill wrote:On February 01 2011 03:49 TheGiftedApe wrote:
The answer here is obvious imo:
Pay per View = Lower viewer counts, but Gom makes more profit in the short term.
Free per View = Higher Viewer counts, less profit in the short term, (more profit in the long term from sponsors and advertisers though) I think there's a lot of assumptions in that post that you're just glossing over. What are GOM's total viewership on their VODs? I'm at work but I'd assume a Ro16 game gets somewhere between 30,000 - 70,000 views. How many views do you think it would get if it was free? Now, do you think the costs associated with streaming content for free to those users could be supported by completely untargeted, global ads? And do you think they would end up further ahead this year if they went that route, or stuck with the $10 / season model? At what point does the profit / season cross over that threshold? I don't think it's as cut and dry as "more profit in the long term". The foreign market isn't even on a sponsor's radar, so we can ignore that. Advertising is of course something GOM is looking at. But I don't think you can just say "GOM, if you took a loss to provide free content now, you'd make a 50% return by 2012." It's not that simple. It's a pretty huge risk. I think GOM is playing it right. We really have to stop focusing on GOM per say, but rather the reasons why MBC and OGN have no rights to broadcasting Starcraft 2. With MBC and OGN, you would finally have: 1) Free Games on Youtube 2) More Prize pools (2 or 3 tournaments with 40-50k prizes rather than 1 tournament) 3) Televised games, bigger fanclubs and better growth. GOM is right in making people pay for streams (NHL/NFL/NBA does it too) However, GOM is wrong in preventing their game from growing by barring other major companies from televising it. Starcraft 2 has a very decent chance of getting exposure outside of Korea because its new and shiny, but we're blowing it in a very critical moment. Just my 2 cents. You know those OGN/MBC VODs were all pirated, right? They just didn't care. Yes and GOM cares. They actively take down the VODs from youtube. ...which is the whole point. If the whole reason for the payment is because of the VODs hosted by GOM, then just let youtube take care of it. GOMtv cares because they're catering to a global audience. OGN/MBC don't care because their business model is purely focused on Korea. If they ever tried distributing their content to other countries, you can bet they'd be flexing their IP rights as well and having that pirated content taken down. GOM cares because they see the potential of what Starcraft 2 can be in terms of audiences. They've seen it in the GOM MSL days (5 seasons) and wanted to expand into SC1 to take advantage of it. That's fine. But this time, because they are the only one allowed to Starcraft 2 contents, there won't be that many people who will be exposed to it. OGN made people pay tickets for a Finals, but stopped (I wonder why).
Do you think the average American gamer is more likely to know about the GSL or OSL?
|
On February 01 2011 07:22 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On February 01 2011 07:19 jalstar wrote:On February 01 2011 06:57 Chill wrote:On February 01 2011 06:53 Djzapz wrote:On February 01 2011 06:45 Freak705 wrote:
To any college/university student: Take 1 night off from partying, BAM! 2 months of GSL right there. I'm a broke ass student too, I don't get handouts from my parents, but $10 is really not *that* hard to come by.. Volunteer for a psychology experiment, they often pay subjects $10-15 for an hour of your time :p It's not about the money, it's about the principle. I don't care to pay for content which, while it's good, I expect to get for free through various sponsorships. If Dexter episodes were 50 cents each, some people wouldn't bother - not necessarily because it's not worth it - the entertainment value is definitely worth 50 cents, but there's other things to do, therefore the show would watch a large part of its audience. Maybe GOMTV figured that that was the optimal business model because it creates the perfect balance between ad revenue and customer money. I just think it's a shame because a couple of days ago, my friend told me "I wish you'd seen this game, Nestea pulled off something amazing". Oh well, I've never seen that game and probably never will. The contrary is also true. I've been "initiating" some friends to Starcraft and Starcraft 2, and I can't redirect them to the absolute best Starcraft 2 ever played... And yet I can easily point them at free, commentated SCBW games. Public domain man, it rocks. And it helps things grow. You can go on and on about how people should just pay $10, but at the end of the day, less people are exposed to the game because I can't copy paste a youtube link to show you someone doing something amazing. On February 01 2011 06:47 LagT_T wrote:On February 01 2011 06:40 Djzapz wrote:On February 01 2011 06:14 LagT_T wrote: If I can get billions of hours of free content(youtube, hulu etc) and thousands of hours of free starcraft2 content by paying 40$/mo for internet, I shouldn't have to pay 10$/mo for a few GSL games. You can watch the games live for free. If you want the luxury of watching them whenever you want you have to pay. You are renting storage and web hosting. Was your hard drive free? Consider this argument: Youtube is free because it's done right. If I don't catch GSL late, I don't watch it - because of that I don't care so much about the results because usually, I can't see all the games. I don't even know how much it is - I just think it's silly that I'd have to pay. Youtube is free because it is another business model because it is another market. How much content was produced by Youtube when it was the size of GomTV? Please people... ... What about MBC and OGN which have business models similar to GOMTV but their content is free? Please dude. Where is it free? Show me where I can go to OGN.com and watch VODs for free now please. Wait, you really didn't know about free VODs on OGN.com? Here you go. Blocked at work, but I'll take your word for it. Are there ads on the page, or ads on the broadcast, or can I actually just load any vod adfree? The latter would be really surprising.
It's straight rip from TV (this is what you get on tv VoDs as well), so it gives you the opening.
But you can also skip forward just like youtube.
|
On February 01 2011 07:22 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On February 01 2011 07:19 jalstar wrote:On February 01 2011 06:57 Chill wrote:On February 01 2011 06:53 Djzapz wrote:On February 01 2011 06:45 Freak705 wrote:
To any college/university student: Take 1 night off from partying, BAM! 2 months of GSL right there. I'm a broke ass student too, I don't get handouts from my parents, but $10 is really not *that* hard to come by.. Volunteer for a psychology experiment, they often pay subjects $10-15 for an hour of your time :p It's not about the money, it's about the principle. I don't care to pay for content which, while it's good, I expect to get for free through various sponsorships. If Dexter episodes were 50 cents each, some people wouldn't bother - not necessarily because it's not worth it - the entertainment value is definitely worth 50 cents, but there's other things to do, therefore the show would watch a large part of its audience. Maybe GOMTV figured that that was the optimal business model because it creates the perfect balance between ad revenue and customer money. I just think it's a shame because a couple of days ago, my friend told me "I wish you'd seen this game, Nestea pulled off something amazing". Oh well, I've never seen that game and probably never will. The contrary is also true. I've been "initiating" some friends to Starcraft and Starcraft 2, and I can't redirect them to the absolute best Starcraft 2 ever played... And yet I can easily point them at free, commentated SCBW games. Public domain man, it rocks. And it helps things grow. You can go on and on about how people should just pay $10, but at the end of the day, less people are exposed to the game because I can't copy paste a youtube link to show you someone doing something amazing. On February 01 2011 06:47 LagT_T wrote:On February 01 2011 06:40 Djzapz wrote:On February 01 2011 06:14 LagT_T wrote: If I can get billions of hours of free content(youtube, hulu etc) and thousands of hours of free starcraft2 content by paying 40$/mo for internet, I shouldn't have to pay 10$/mo for a few GSL games. You can watch the games live for free. If you want the luxury of watching them whenever you want you have to pay. You are renting storage and web hosting. Was your hard drive free? Consider this argument: Youtube is free because it's done right. If I don't catch GSL late, I don't watch it - because of that I don't care so much about the results because usually, I can't see all the games. I don't even know how much it is - I just think it's silly that I'd have to pay. Youtube is free because it is another business model because it is another market. How much content was produced by Youtube when it was the size of GomTV? Please people... ... What about MBC and OGN which have business models similar to GOMTV but their content is free? Please dude. Where is it free? Show me where I can go to OGN.com and watch VODs for free now please. Wait, you really didn't know about free VODs on OGN.com? Here you go. Blocked at work, but I'll take your word for it. Are there ads on the page, or ads on the broadcast, or can I actually just load any vod adfree? The latter would be really surprising.
I'm watching it now, there's no ads or registration required, kssn or otherwise. Not even a commercial at the start.
This has got to be pretty new though. Also it's awesome
|
On February 01 2011 07:22 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On February 01 2011 07:19 jalstar wrote:On February 01 2011 06:57 Chill wrote:On February 01 2011 06:53 Djzapz wrote:On February 01 2011 06:45 Freak705 wrote:
To any college/university student: Take 1 night off from partying, BAM! 2 months of GSL right there. I'm a broke ass student too, I don't get handouts from my parents, but $10 is really not *that* hard to come by.. Volunteer for a psychology experiment, they often pay subjects $10-15 for an hour of your time :p It's not about the money, it's about the principle. I don't care to pay for content which, while it's good, I expect to get for free through various sponsorships. If Dexter episodes were 50 cents each, some people wouldn't bother - not necessarily because it's not worth it - the entertainment value is definitely worth 50 cents, but there's other things to do, therefore the show would watch a large part of its audience. Maybe GOMTV figured that that was the optimal business model because it creates the perfect balance between ad revenue and customer money. I just think it's a shame because a couple of days ago, my friend told me "I wish you'd seen this game, Nestea pulled off something amazing". Oh well, I've never seen that game and probably never will. The contrary is also true. I've been "initiating" some friends to Starcraft and Starcraft 2, and I can't redirect them to the absolute best Starcraft 2 ever played... And yet I can easily point them at free, commentated SCBW games. Public domain man, it rocks. And it helps things grow. You can go on and on about how people should just pay $10, but at the end of the day, less people are exposed to the game because I can't copy paste a youtube link to show you someone doing something amazing. On February 01 2011 06:47 LagT_T wrote:On February 01 2011 06:40 Djzapz wrote:On February 01 2011 06:14 LagT_T wrote: If I can get billions of hours of free content(youtube, hulu etc) and thousands of hours of free starcraft2 content by paying 40$/mo for internet, I shouldn't have to pay 10$/mo for a few GSL games. You can watch the games live for free. If you want the luxury of watching them whenever you want you have to pay. You are renting storage and web hosting. Was your hard drive free? Consider this argument: Youtube is free because it's done right. If I don't catch GSL late, I don't watch it - because of that I don't care so much about the results because usually, I can't see all the games. I don't even know how much it is - I just think it's silly that I'd have to pay. Youtube is free because it is another business model because it is another market. How much content was produced by Youtube when it was the size of GomTV? Please people... ... What about MBC and OGN which have business models similar to GOMTV but their content is free? Please dude. Where is it free? Show me where I can go to OGN.com and watch VODs for free now please. Wait, you really didn't know about free VODs on OGN.com? Here you go. Blocked at work, but I'll take your word for it. Are there ads on the page, or ads on the broadcast, or can I actually just load any vod adfree? The latter would be really surprising.
its direct recording of the matches sans commercials. there are short game commercials like what you see on the channel, when you first get into the player and switch vods, but nothing as bad as ustream for sure.
on the subject, you cant really blame GOM. yes it sucks that you have to pay for everything but that's how GOM's business model is built, from payperview internet streaming. asking them to stream for free is asking them, well, to just abandon making money. ogn and mbc have traditional revenue channels to support themselves.
|
On February 01 2011 07:27 floor exercise wrote:Show nested quote +On February 01 2011 07:22 Chill wrote:On February 01 2011 07:19 jalstar wrote:On February 01 2011 06:57 Chill wrote:On February 01 2011 06:53 Djzapz wrote:On February 01 2011 06:45 Freak705 wrote:
To any college/university student: Take 1 night off from partying, BAM! 2 months of GSL right there. I'm a broke ass student too, I don't get handouts from my parents, but $10 is really not *that* hard to come by.. Volunteer for a psychology experiment, they often pay subjects $10-15 for an hour of your time :p It's not about the money, it's about the principle. I don't care to pay for content which, while it's good, I expect to get for free through various sponsorships. If Dexter episodes were 50 cents each, some people wouldn't bother - not necessarily because it's not worth it - the entertainment value is definitely worth 50 cents, but there's other things to do, therefore the show would watch a large part of its audience. Maybe GOMTV figured that that was the optimal business model because it creates the perfect balance between ad revenue and customer money. I just think it's a shame because a couple of days ago, my friend told me "I wish you'd seen this game, Nestea pulled off something amazing". Oh well, I've never seen that game and probably never will. The contrary is also true. I've been "initiating" some friends to Starcraft and Starcraft 2, and I can't redirect them to the absolute best Starcraft 2 ever played... And yet I can easily point them at free, commentated SCBW games. Public domain man, it rocks. And it helps things grow. You can go on and on about how people should just pay $10, but at the end of the day, less people are exposed to the game because I can't copy paste a youtube link to show you someone doing something amazing. On February 01 2011 06:47 LagT_T wrote:On February 01 2011 06:40 Djzapz wrote:On February 01 2011 06:14 LagT_T wrote: If I can get billions of hours of free content(youtube, hulu etc) and thousands of hours of free starcraft2 content by paying 40$/mo for internet, I shouldn't have to pay 10$/mo for a few GSL games. You can watch the games live for free. If you want the luxury of watching them whenever you want you have to pay. You are renting storage and web hosting. Was your hard drive free? Consider this argument: Youtube is free because it's done right. If I don't catch GSL late, I don't watch it - because of that I don't care so much about the results because usually, I can't see all the games. I don't even know how much it is - I just think it's silly that I'd have to pay. Youtube is free because it is another business model because it is another market. How much content was produced by Youtube when it was the size of GomTV? Please people... ... What about MBC and OGN which have business models similar to GOMTV but their content is free? Please dude. Where is it free? Show me where I can go to OGN.com and watch VODs for free now please. Wait, you really didn't know about free VODs on OGN.com? Here you go. Blocked at work, but I'll take your word for it. Are there ads on the page, or ads on the broadcast, or can I actually just load any vod adfree? The latter would be really surprising. I'm watching it now, there's no ads or registration required, kssn or otherwise. Not even a commercial at the start. This has got to be pretty new though. Also it's awesome
It's been there since 2008ish. Sorry checked again and theres vods going as far back as 2004.
|
On February 01 2011 07:20 ShcShc wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On February 01 2011 07:12 UruzuNine wrote:Show nested quote +On February 01 2011 07:10 ShcShc wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On February 01 2011 06:56 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On February 01 2011 06:51 ShcShc wrote:On February 01 2011 04:19 Chill wrote:On February 01 2011 03:49 TheGiftedApe wrote:
The answer here is obvious imo:
Pay per View = Lower viewer counts, but Gom makes more profit in the short term.
Free per View = Higher Viewer counts, less profit in the short term, (more profit in the long term from sponsors and advertisers though) I think there's a lot of assumptions in that post that you're just glossing over. What are GOM's total viewership on their VODs? I'm at work but I'd assume a Ro16 game gets somewhere between 30,000 - 70,000 views. How many views do you think it would get if it was free? Now, do you think the costs associated with streaming content for free to those users could be supported by completely untargeted, global ads? And do you think they would end up further ahead this year if they went that route, or stuck with the $10 / season model? At what point does the profit / season cross over that threshold? I don't think it's as cut and dry as "more profit in the long term". The foreign market isn't even on a sponsor's radar, so we can ignore that. Advertising is of course something GOM is looking at. But I don't think you can just say "GOM, if you took a loss to provide free content now, you'd make a 50% return by 2012." It's not that simple. It's a pretty huge risk. I think GOM is playing it right. We really have to stop focusing on GOM per say, but rather the reasons why MBC and OGN have no rights to broadcasting Starcraft 2. With MBC and OGN, you would finally have: 1) Free Games on Youtube 2) More Prize pools (2 or 3 tournaments with 40-50k prizes rather than 1 tournament) 3) Televised games, bigger fanclubs and better growth. GOM is right in making people pay for streams (NHL/NFL/NBA does it too) However, GOM is wrong in preventing their game from growing by barring other major companies from televising it. Starcraft 2 has a very decent chance of getting exposure outside of Korea because its new and shiny, but we're blowing it in a very critical moment. Just my 2 cents. You know those OGN/MBC VODs were all pirated, right? They just didn't care. Yes and GOM cares. They actively take down the VODs from youtube. ...which is the whole point. If the whole reason for the payment is because of the VODs hosted by GOM, then just let youtube take care of it. GOMtv cares because they're catering to a global audience. OGN/MBC don't care because their business model is purely focused on Korea. If they ever tried distributing their content to other countries, you can bet they'd be flexing their IP rights as well and having that pirated content taken down. GOM cares because they see the potential of what Starcraft 2 can be in terms of audiences. They've seen it in the GOM MSL days (5 seasons) and wanted to expand into SC1 to take advantage of it. That's fine. But this time, because they are the only one allowed to Starcraft 2 contents, there won't be that many people who will be exposed to it. OGN made people pay tickets for a Finals, but stopped (I wonder why).
GOM isn't the only one allowed to provide SC2 content. In Korea, they have the broadcasting rights. So, speaking of Korea only, GOM can either have exclusive rights or contract out rights to other broadcasting companies in the country. Outside of Korea, there's always events/pro-leagues like MLG or ESL. SC2 is different from SC1 in that the non-Korean scene is much, much larger this time around.
|
I probably would've bought season tickets for GSL already if it were easier to get the stream working. I have yet to get the official (free SD) livestream to play in about 3 or 4 attempts (Windows XP and Mac). (However, I have been able to watch a couple matches on restreams.) I'm hoping to get the official stream working via reddit's bookmarklet and mplayer (Linux) for the upcoming season.
|
I could join the crowd and cry foul but in all honesty, I'm a paying customer. I'm a poor student who hardly affords any fun after my rent/school books (every course is like 500$ in books) yet I gladly pay for GomTV. Not because I can watch HQ live but because they need my support and I love the content they provide.
Will this be a doubble-edged sword? Yes.
I hope it works out for them...
|
I believe it may have been pointed out once in the thread, but this system is pretty bad for teenagers with no money but want to watch it, and typically a teen that young cant stay up and watch the live stream 2 o clock in the morning.
however, this isn't really a problem with GSL as much as people that don't have any means of purchasing it. the only thing that these people can do is try and watch the stream, and hope the ads might help with the expenses. But as I said before, it's damn near impossible to actually watch that early in the morning.
My standing on the issue is that it is needed, but only because no sponsor pays for the stream. which I find interesting because having such a crazy prize pool means the sponsor for the event has a lot of cash they can spare.
It probably will get to the point that the sponsor will pay for the stream expenses so we don't have too. Which will make everyone happy, but that seems a ways off since it's already season 5 and vods, stream still costs money.
|
|
|
On January 31 2011 06:30 StarBrift wrote:
It absolutely cuts exposure for the GSL. But it's the path they've chosen to go as worldwide streaming is not free and they have to finance it somehow. Hopefully they can get sponsors abroad and have a high quality free stream + vods in the future.
I really don't understand why GSL haven't implemented commercials for the foreign stream already. On the live stream they have ample time to add a ton of commercials in between games, and they could attach commercials to the VODs aswell.
I think pay to watch should be the last resort, they really need to explore other sources of revenues first (SMALL HINT: COMMERCIALS/SPONSORS!).
|
the OP seems to frame most of his argument around what gom should be doing to promote esports but don't forget its our individual duties to promote esports as well. the only way esports can be grow is if companies see it as a profitable venture. this includes the sponsors and providers. we need to contribute our part, running a global stream is by no means cheap. gom has not only given us an increasingly better quality stream with better games each season but its getting cheaper and cheaper every season. because they found sponsors, the price went down to 10 dollars a month and if you buy now its only 5 bucks. you get so much content and dont have to plan your sleeping around it. its well worth it. 5 bucks is the equivalent of one cheap sandwich. so just skip one meal and your even.
|
On January 31 2011 14:06 OptimusYale wrote:
if you buy the vods...share login and password with your friends and win....
I think thats what mostly everyone do. 5 people sharing an account and each pays 2 bucks.
|
People should also stop bringing up the "can't watch live cause its on at 2am" argument. The world does not revolve around North America.
|
It should eventually go to free VoD's with other extra content to supply value to the subscription. But at this current time, there is not a large enough foreign market to sustain running and maintaining the infrastructure required to stream all over the world. So they need to scrap money together every way they can in order to better the organization. The quicker more people show interest in the GSL the quicker GOM can move things likes VoD's into the free realm, but as of now they need the money and VoD's are a good reason for many people to purchase the subscription.
Sponsorship is great, but they will only get sponsors if they can assure a viewer count for the investor, which is not there yet. Team Liquid is a microcosm. I would love this to blow up and be successful, but it is going to be a slow burn and you are going to have to make the environment more suitable for a larger market in what little ways you can. Tell you friends, family, anyone about competitive SC2. If you are part of another forum, create a GSL or Team Liquid thread.
If you want to build a stronger e-sports scene, you need to spread the creep of interest over EVERYTHING. We can see that the Korean experts do not tend to do this, but as foreigners, we link our passions together with our creep. We are Zer-....er....GSL watchers!
|
On February 01 2011 07:24 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On February 01 2011 07:20 ShcShc wrote:On February 01 2011 07:12 UruzuNine wrote:On February 01 2011 07:10 ShcShc wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On February 01 2011 06:56 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On February 01 2011 06:51 ShcShc wrote:On February 01 2011 04:19 Chill wrote:On February 01 2011 03:49 TheGiftedApe wrote:
The answer here is obvious imo:
Pay per View = Lower viewer counts, but Gom makes more profit in the short term.
Free per View = Higher Viewer counts, less profit in the short term, (more profit in the long term from sponsors and advertisers though) I think there's a lot of assumptions in that post that you're just glossing over. What are GOM's total viewership on their VODs? I'm at work but I'd assume a Ro16 game gets somewhere between 30,000 - 70,000 views. How many views do you think it would get if it was free? Now, do you think the costs associated with streaming content for free to those users could be supported by completely untargeted, global ads? And do you think they would end up further ahead this year if they went that route, or stuck with the $10 / season model? At what point does the profit / season cross over that threshold? I don't think it's as cut and dry as "more profit in the long term". The foreign market isn't even on a sponsor's radar, so we can ignore that. Advertising is of course something GOM is looking at. But I don't think you can just say "GOM, if you took a loss to provide free content now, you'd make a 50% return by 2012." It's not that simple. It's a pretty huge risk. I think GOM is playing it right. We really have to stop focusing on GOM per say, but rather the reasons why MBC and OGN have no rights to broadcasting Starcraft 2. With MBC and OGN, you would finally have: 1) Free Games on Youtube 2) More Prize pools (2 or 3 tournaments with 40-50k prizes rather than 1 tournament) 3) Televised games, bigger fanclubs and better growth. GOM is right in making people pay for streams (NHL/NFL/NBA does it too) However, GOM is wrong in preventing their game from growing by barring other major companies from televising it. Starcraft 2 has a very decent chance of getting exposure outside of Korea because its new and shiny, but we're blowing it in a very critical moment. Just my 2 cents. You know those OGN/MBC VODs were all pirated, right? They just didn't care. Yes and GOM cares. They actively take down the VODs from youtube. ...which is the whole point. If the whole reason for the payment is because of the VODs hosted by GOM, then just let youtube take care of it. GOMtv cares because they're catering to a global audience. OGN/MBC don't care because their business model is purely focused on Korea. If they ever tried distributing their content to other countries, you can bet they'd be flexing their IP rights as well and having that pirated content taken down. GOM cares because they see the potential of what Starcraft 2 can be in terms of audiences. They've seen it in the GOM MSL days (5 seasons) and wanted to expand into SC1 to take advantage of it. That's fine. But this time, because they are the only one allowed to Starcraft 2 contents, there won't be that many people who will be exposed to it. OGN made people pay tickets for a Finals, but stopped (I wonder why). Do you think the average American gamer is more likely to know about the GSL or OSL?
Obviously GOM stands to make more money THIS YEAR if they charge per access, that's the whole point of what I was trying to say, while Making viewers PAY now is good for the short term success of GOM, the Bigger picture is that this will never go mainstream if it's a pay to access premium. Gom is taking the road of, we want money now, instead of taking the long-term road of giving it away for free and charging advertisers/sponsors.
and your average american knows way more about GSL, than OSL, as yoru average American doesn't remember that starcraft1 exists.
|
On February 01 2011 08:02 stangstang wrote:
People should also stop bringing up the "can't watch live cause its on at 2am" argument. The world does not revolve around North America.
The whole time thing is irrelevant for an "E"-sport.
And the talk of restreaming is retarded. Hello, what is a VOD if not a "re-stream".
There is enough SC2 content out there for casual and pro alike. Just because GOM is charging for content is not going to keep people away from SC2. Some of you make it seem like GOM is keeping SC2 hidden and away from new players.
And I've paid for a subscription every season since GSL3 and think it's a great deal.
|
On February 01 2011 07:58 Creem wrote:Show nested quote +On January 31 2011 06:30 StarBrift wrote:
It absolutely cuts exposure for the GSL. But it's the path they've chosen to go as worldwide streaming is not free and they have to finance it somehow. Hopefully they can get sponsors abroad and have a high quality free stream + vods in the future. I really don't understand why GSL haven't implemented commercials for the foreign stream already. On the live stream they have ample time to add a ton of commercials in between games, and they could attach commercials to the VODs aswell. I think pay to watch should be the last resort, they really need to explore other sources of revenues first (SMALL HINT: COMMERCIALS/SPONSORS!).
If you look at the GSTL pricing model, it seems like it's gonna be cheaper ($5) with supporting ads. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if GOM eventually managed to switch over to an ad-only model, but that model only works if you actually have advertisers. Up until now, GOM hasn't had any foreign advertising, hence the premium package for services at GOMtv.net.
|
On January 31 2011 06:34 heyoka wrote:Show nested quote +On January 31 2011 06:30 mprs wrote:
I think people can still watch SQ live for free, which isn't too bad... Not VODs. I think its an awful policy that shows very little understanding of how to grow a sport. Historically things like baseball became much bigger when they began to give out content for free (like when baseball was first put on the radio).
Wow. You think because something is on the radio it's free? Those things they play between half innings in baseball games on the radio are called "commercials" and are paid for by "advertisers".
Find enough advertisers willing to pay GOM for the right to play commercials between games and then the GSL content will be "free".
Of course, then people will complain about all the commercials between the games and how it's ruining SC2.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
