DCI needs to learn...

[cowtown]

The pumpkin championship also has the draw that the entire premise of the show is to see things destroyed...pumpkins,

People want to see stuff 'splode. If we could figure out a way of working in random staff members spontaneously combusting, I think we'd be on our way to a television deal that wouldn't cost us an arm and a leg...which are just a couple of the things that, if severed during a 280-beats-per-minute backwards company front rotation involving bass drums and trebuchets, could seriously drive viewership through the roof.

I’ve always wanted a paintball gun to call out the obvious ticks. Cleanest Uniform coming off the field would be a new caption

The OP touches on the G7 thing, part of that divide seems to be a split on we can grow the activity vs. the activity won’t grow let’s maximize revenues.

I’ve followed this thing long enough to be very skeptical about the ability to actually grow this thing, as you see, more people are interested in exploding pumpkins than drum corps. DCI still needs to market to maintain but I’m not sure throwing resource or money at a broadcast is a prudent investment

What I would go after are the internet channel markets – Hulu and such. Many internet start ups are desperate for content so they might be willing to pay for play or just play without being paid. Maybe even establish a DCI channel on Hulu or such where they show older DCI content and market the fan network or DCI in general just by having a searchable, viewable presence

[Stu]

Although in my perfect world, DCI nats would be on pbs every year, I always thought that was a better fit than ESPN2 because DCI doesn't exactly fit with the timing of normal programming with commercials and such, plus (and I'm probably the only one) I thought the presentation was a bit....melodramatic. But also with pbs, along with the lack of donations and whatnot coming through for pbs, people would probably find it easier these days to rip finals in full from the broadcast and never support dci with dvd sales in the winter months. Lose-lose?

And I guess my thoughts on that idea of art and stuff, I'd rather show someone those recent BD et al shows, which are deemed inaccessible by many in the activity than say, Rach Star. I think someone outside the activity (even someone in music outside of the activity) would probably take the activity more seriously with those denser shows than the hammy band shows people go crazy for.

Your underlying premise is what is actually in error. The vast overwhelming majority outside of our little niche of a cultist clan will never, no matter how we dress this activity up, no matter how we market this activity, no matter how haughty we become, they will never see this activity as 'serious' or 'high quality', but they will still see us as the geeky "One time, at band camp..." activity. Therefore, what we really need to do is either make light of ourselves to increase viewership (ie like the shows Big Bang Theory or Glee), or drop all of this Major League and G7 egotistical nonsense and accept that we are no more than what we really are. Moreover, I still contend that if DCI used many of it's proceeds to donate to charities the outside world sees as noble, the sponsors will materialize just as they did with the Chunkin.

Edited April 12, 2013 by Stu

[Slingerland]

Although in my perfect world, DCI nats would be on pbs every year, I always thought that was a better fit than ESPN2 because DCI doesn't exactly fit with the timing of normal programming with commercials and such,

People who have ESPN2 in their list of channels on the remote are typically men in their 40s and 50s (75% male audience). Not exactly a drum corps crowd, to begin with. NASCAR, yes. Drum corps, not so much.

Drum corps could modify their programming approach to appeal to a wider audience, but that would require most of the current programmers to be replaced by people who are from the worlds of professional entertainment rather than high school band. Unfortunately, there's no one in the DCI establishment who has that kind of credibility and know-how - what they have instead is a whole roomful of

, sure that their latest drum corps opus is a major piece of art. Edited April 12, 2013 by Slingerland

[Bruckner8]

I placed the single most important aspect of your post in bold type for ya.

Form your snark, then, am I to assume that you think that if we paid our members, we'd be more popular?

I was making a point about about stardom, and who there isn't any in DCI. Oh well.

[Bruckner8]

PBS is a better fit than ESPN2 because only a pace like PBS can promote "art for its own sake." Drum Corps has more in common with Masterpiece Theater's clientele, than First Take's clientele, even though every marching member has prolly watched First Take, and NOT watched MP, lol.

Again, when you're viewing the final product, you don't know the ages of the members. You just see precision marching and hear well-performed (and probably unrecognizable) music. It's merely "pretty good marching band," no different than any HS/College half-time show, except those are more entertaining. (to the audience you're trying to capture.)

[perc2100]

[

We may not see finals live, but right now only those in attendance do. While this may be a drawback, I believe the last time finals was broadcast live was in 1980. In 1981 we had DCI Midwest broadcast but I believe that was a week or two later and finals from Canada was not broadcast at all. Perhaps it was broadcast live after that and my recollections are wrong, but for some reason I thought I watched finals long after they took place, maybe as late as Thanksgiving.

There is one serious drawback--DCI would not generate much if any income from a PBS broadcast and while positive publicity is great, it does not pay the bills.

Last time I remember seeing DCI Finals live on PBS was 1993. It wasn't on live in my city, but I had a family member who recorded it live for me and mailed me a VHS tape. I think that was the last year it was live (the full Semifinals Top 6)

Also, as far as revenue, I agree that it's pointless for DCI to pay another broadcast company to broadcast Finals, be it live OR tape-delayed. However, DCI could make a nice bit of revenue if they offered Finals live as a PPV live stream on Fan Network. It's kinda mind-boggling that DCI hasn't capitalized on that already

Edited April 12, 2013 by perc2100

[Stu]

Form your snark, then, am I to assume that you think that if we paid our members, we'd be more popular?

Nope; reverse your assumption for a correct interpretation. My snark was that if we were more popular we would be able to actually pay our performers.

[MikeD]

Last time I remember seeing DCI Finals live on PBS was 1993. It wasn't on live in my city, but I had a family member who recorded it live for me and mailed me a VHS tape. I think that was the last year it was live (the full Semifinals Top 6)

Also, as far as revenue, I agree that it's pointless for DCI to pay another broadcast company to broadcast Finals, be it live OR tape-delayed. However, DCI could make a nice bit of revenue if they offered Finals live as a PPV live stream on Fan Network. It's kinda mind-boggling that DCI hasn't capitalized on that already

I said the same about the PPV...and others have too.

Personally, I like the mix of Movie Theater, Web and add to it PPV TV for finals. A venue for...er...everyone.

[gak27]

I said the same about the PPV...and others have too.

Personally, I like the mix of Movie Theater, Web and add to it PPV TV for finals. A venue for...er...everyone.

+1, especially if the PPV was an HD broadcast...i would probably watch Finals every year...

[Jeff Ream]

Jeff Ream introduced many of us here on DCP to the annual contest called Punkin Chunkin, which is broadcast nationally on the Discovery channel. I have actually been reading about their broadcast success and have an idea as to why they seem to secure national broadcast sponsorship while DCI was not able to do the same on ESPN2. Here is my contention:

Punkin Chumkin actually follows the lead of the PGA in that most of their corporate proceeds from their World Championships are donated to charities such as St Jude, Bless our Children, Home of the Brave, Meals on Wheels, St. Baldrick's Foundation, Autism Foundation, etc... this in turn helps them secure broadcast sponsorships from ING Direct, Discover Card, Polaris, Waste Management Inc, United Rentals, etc... which in turn gets their championships broadcast on the Discovery channel every year.

Added note: On many occasions since the G7 proposal was made public I have maintained that DCI would be wise to emulate the PGA in the way they are structured; apparently Punkin Chunkin did just that and they are on national TV while DCI is not getting any such exposure.

Stu....

just for clarification:

I didn't introduce it to DCP. In fact I never heard of it until DCP, and to date, I have never watched it.