paul Posted June 28, 2008 Share Posted June 28, 2008 I just spoke to one of my former colleagues at the PBS affiliate in St. Paul, MN (he is their membership fundraising manager and marched with the Riverman in the early 80's). He said the last year DCI was on PBS was 2003. DCI has not offered the broadcast to PBS stations since then. I would bet that a number of PBS affiliates would be willing to broadcast DCI again. Probably not live or during early August (PBS affiliates are doing heavy pledge broadcasting then, hence the duop shows) but probably the condensed version that DCI was offering in the earlier part of the decade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted June 28, 2008 Share Posted June 28, 2008 (edited) The lack of followthrough by DCI pledgers has been posted by lots of people over time...some of them had called their affiliates and were told that information. Wasn't arguing that point. That's why I posted that things were probably different from place to place. Would be interesting to know how the amounts pledged vs amounts actually worked out in areas with corps vs areas without. Also some stations were known for holding the telelcast "hostage", that is threatening not to return to the broadcast until a certain amount of $$$ was raised during the pledge break during the show. Sure that brought in some phony pledges just to see the telecast again. I'm sure Hershey got fake pledges but $$$ they received in the 70s was still the biggest night of their year. To show the DCI live event was up to the individual affiliate, so it became a patchwork sort of thing as stations dropped out. Eventually the show ended up being taped and broadcast after the pledge week so as not to interfere with the real money-making events.Some just dropped it totally. Hershey started with live then live with a rebroadcast (without pledges) later in the year. Then the two hours was a big deal during Thanksinggiving Friday in the 80s. Sometime during the later 80s it was "sometime" over the holidays with no advance publicity. Have no idea when it was totally dropped. Edited June 28, 2008 by JimF-3rdBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetman1287 Posted June 28, 2008 Share Posted June 28, 2008 Someone mentioned earlier the fact that we can't get a few hours on one of the MANY channels offered nowadays. I don't see why we can't get live finals coverage on anything. I know the ratings would be relatively low, but with hundreds of channels, who expects much? There's got to be someone out there that can broadcast this for us. How about Versus? They cover stuff like cycling and hunting, and they have relatively wide coverage. They have less exposure but is still a pretty well known network. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntheMood Posted June 28, 2008 Share Posted June 28, 2008 Just some months ago the local PBS station aired 2 hours of the Indiana State band Championships. Seeing that the DCI Finals will be in Indiana for the next 10 years or so, what would be the harm in offering the Finals to the Indiana PBS stations? I did call the local station and what they told me had nothing to do with the fund drive. In fact I was told that over 90% of all money pledge was received. Which is very good in their eyes. They told me that DCI just stoped offering the Finals to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwillis35 Posted June 28, 2008 Share Posted June 28, 2008 To my knowledge, here is what happened: DCI did not lose the contract with ESPN, they simply decided to end it (DCI). The cost is very high, I believe in the 250K neighborhood. However, ESPN had originally signed DCI to a 3 year term, which means that DCI cannot air championships this year unless they use ESPN. ESPN would have the rights to any championships aired, live or not. Now I suppose they could still air them with ESPN, but they need cash, and that's not always easy to come by. So short of a big donor stepping in and paying the service fee, finals cannot be aired at all this particular year. Like I said, anything could happen, and someone could come up with the fee, but I don't think DCI can afford that at the moment, especially after their move to Indianapolis and the cost put into some of the web services and other marketing campaigns. Now next year they can shop around again and look into PBS, Pay-Per-View, On Demand, and other avenues that might present themselves. Honestly, being able to see Quarters in the theater, and then stream Semi Finals in my home through the web is such a kick...I love it. That is more than we have ever had. JW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmo Blatch Posted June 28, 2008 Share Posted June 28, 2008 Nancy, Nancy, Nancy....you KNOW DCI will not do that.....that would actually be supporting the majority of the existing corps.... Remember, its quality, not quantity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntheMood Posted June 28, 2008 Share Posted June 28, 2008 To my knowledge, here is what happened:DCI did not lose the contract with ESPN, they simply decided to end it (DCI). The cost is very high, I believe in the 250K neighborhood. However, ESPN had originally signed DCI to a 3 year term, which means that DCI cannot air championships this year unless they use ESPN. ESPN would have the rights to any championships aired, live or not. Now I suppose they could still air them with ESPN, but they need cash, and that's not always easy to come by. So short of a big donor stepping in and paying the service fee, finals cannot be aired at all this particular year. Like I said, anything could happen, and someone could come up with the fee, but I don't think DCI can afford that at the moment, especially after their move to Indianapolis and the cost put into some of the web services and other marketing campaigns. Now next year they can shop around again and look into PBS, Pay-Per-View, On Demand, and other avenues that might present themselves. Honestly, being able to see Quarters in the theater, and then stream Semi Finals in my home through the web is such a kick...I love it. That is more than we have ever had. JW Thank you for this info. If I have read this right DCI Fianls still can be seen on ESPN this year if $250,000 or more is raised. If this is right, does anyone know if, Aerobed Festival Disney ( Does Disney ESPN?) Pearl Stanbury Dynasty Yamaha Indianaoplis King FJM Remo Zildjian Sticktape.com Guardtape.com The Cook Group And of course there are others have been asked to donate money or time to make sure Finals are seen on ESPN this year, the last year of DCI's contract? Would this not be a tax write off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84BDsop Posted June 28, 2008 Share Posted June 28, 2008 Thank you for this info. If I have read this right DCI Fianls still can be seen on ESPN this year if $250,000 or more is raised. If this is right, does anyone know if, Aerobed Festival Disney ( Does Disney ESPN?) Pearl Stanbury Dynasty Yamaha Indianaoplis King FJM Remo Zildjian Sticktape.com Guardtape.com The Cook Group And of course there are others have been asked to donate money or time to make sure Finals are seen on ESPN this year, the last year of DCI's contract? Would this not be a tax write off? I would guess that those sponsors have been approached for help with putting on the actual championships....the broadcast is a seperate issue and they may be tapped out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntheMood Posted June 28, 2008 Share Posted June 28, 2008 I would guess that those sponsors have been approached for help with putting on the actual championships....the broadcast is a seperate issue and they may be tapped out. Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted June 28, 2008 Share Posted June 28, 2008 DCI did not lose the contract with ESPN, they simply decided to end it (DCI). The cost is very high, I believe in the 250K neighborhood. Way I read it was: Cost of ESPN telecast > what good DCI got out of it So DCI made a good business decision by not spending the $$$ in 2008. On related note: Anyone know when DCI quit providing a live PBS feed and started the two hour canned bit? Want to see if my local PBS stopped the live show before or after this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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