DCI Finals on ESPN2

[MikeD]

BINGO

Given the ridiculous number of typos in what I wrote...you probably should have written it as...

BNGO

:P

[Bob J]

Can you imagine if a sports network showed coverage of a sporting event the same way?

Maybe Cricket.

[2CoolVK]

Can you imagine if a sports network showed coverage of a sporting event the same way?

Maybe Cricket.

This ESPN2 show is NOT produced by ESPN. It's produced by DCI. DCI decides the content, direction, message, etc. Fans have many opportunities all summer long to view complete shows - Mid Season DVD, live webcasts, Quarter Finals in theaters, Semis on the web, etc. The ESPN show IS a promotional piece. It's to get new people into the act. It's to recruit new marchers.

Whether you like the format or not, enjoy the fact that it's on TV.

[sddolfan]

I take whatever I can get. The more the better.

My wife is not a drum corps fan. While I do purchase the DVD's each year, it's impossible to get my family to watch the full corps shows with me. They will, however, watch the ESPN2 broadcast, because it's fast-paced with corps highlights and features mixed in.

So, the way I see it:

I got to look forward to and enjoy the webcasts.

I got to look forward to and enjoy going to Nats.

I'm looking forward to watching the broadcast with family & friends.

I'll watch the DVD's when I need a hard-corps fix.

[year1buick]

I personally think the show has been way over-produced lately. While I don't want wide shots only, Blair (IMO) relies too heavily on close-ups, particularly of the guard. And I still wish the broadcast of Finals was live--yes, I know both 1/4's and semi's are, but they don't decide the winner and, for me, that's the exciting part. Many of us aren't fortunate enough to be able to travel to Finals. The live broadcast allowed the folks at home to be "in" on it as much as those sitting in the stands, but now we have to rely on one or two lines per minute from a BD web blog. Not nearly as much fun. (This isn't an "everything was better in the old days" rant. I certainly don't miss having to rely on out-dated issues of Drum Corps World or a 900 number for scores, etc. But this is one area that I think has changed for the worse.)

[duhurhurrr]

So did anyone see the "2007 World Sport Stacking Championships" on ESPN2 today? It's about stacking plastic cups as fast as possible, just to let you know what it takes to get on to that channel, haha

If DCI had produced it, they would have measured the heart rate of the cup stackers in order to beg for legitimacy

[skajerk]

I'm looking forward to it however, I'm not looking forward to seeing Coat's, Crown's and SCV's shows being chopped up. :(

[Walter]

Can you imagine if a sports network showed coverage of a sporting event the same way?

Maybe Cricket.

Something like this:

and here they come, in the last corner of the Daytona 500 Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart they're neck and neck and at the

finish line it's....The National Cheerleading Championships from Daytona Florida !!!!! :sshh:

[gdisney]

If DCI had produced it, they would have measured the heart rate of the cup stackers in order to beg for legitimacy

Hey, I thought that segment on the Star tenor player was pretty interesting. They measured oxygen too. That was from 1993 wasn't it?

[Tom Brace]

You may be right -- and they've only done the show on ESPN once, so I suppose we should all wait for this year's to decide whether or not there is a trend in the production :)

One theoretical question I would have, though, is who is the target audience? If it is potential marchers, I wonder if ESPN2 is the way to go vs the internet. Anyone interested can already get better views of corps on YouTube than with ESPN2 and I hazard to guess that a larger portion of this target audience (high schools age, etc) visits Youtube over ESPN2. Maybe not. But with all the effort and time and resources that have gone into (finally!!) getting this ESPN deal, I wonder what could be accomplished with a partnership with YouTube or similar. Not saying the ESPN thing isn't worthwhile -- it is. I guess I'm just throwing out there ideas for the next wave of marketing projects and the internet (now that video transmission is so prevalent and cheap) seems to be a fertile ground for attracting both members and fans with a coordinated, slick growth campaign.

Interesting points. I see an eventual convergence of media into a centralized single interface home "box." It's what Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have envisioned for at least 15 years. But, until then...the ESPN2 deal was a better one than PBS for new viewership. PBS always ran it with their September "Fall Fundraiser" in the Midwest and while seeing the corps was nice, after every performance we had to wade through 5 minutes of the local talent begging for cash. I believe it is realistic to expect an audience of over 1M to see the show on ESPN2 (it grew from just over 700K to 840K last year.)

I did mention potential marching members AND their parents. Imagine mom and dad (he is flipping through channels) and they fall across the DCI broadcast. Junior is up in his room surfing YuoTube and because he's a marching band geek is looking at a Blue Devils video snip online.

Dad and mom call for him to call down and BANG you have synergy created around drum corps. Now the broadcast is telling them to go to dci.org for audition schedules and the telecast NOW does what's it supposed to do....drive the consumer toward an action.

I know...I just made all that up, but I would suggest ADDING YouTube to the arsenal. It can't be that expensive and the cross marketing aspects are mind boggling. Again, it's Junior and mom and dad that DCI needs to appeal to. The extended family gets plugged in after Junior makes the corps and there's a drum corps show close to home. (If that's feasible.) Otherwise it's just a family vacation for a week in July or August.