Brother Bean (Bane = McBane = Sept of Clan McBean);
It's harder to argue with Nielsen ratings than with burrs in my saddle. Numbers don't lie, and not just my own numbers. I've been privvy to others ratings info, and it confirms my own.
Last year Marshal and I tried a different tack...both of us thought that the logical "home" for the shooting sports was the Internet, so why not create a place for the sports there, then use that base to push the broadcast product.
The biggest push including putting together a "match in a box" concept for DRTV, where we would do extensive match coverage, a la ESPN Sports Center, packaged with increased print coverage via Jim Shepherd's Wires (our plan included funding and creating a new "Competition Wire" to expand coverage). The base idea was that DRTV would become the central clearing house, so to speak, for shooting sports coverage; the sanctioning bodies would chip in to help defray the cost (not humongous, but significant); we'd keep running tallies of top shooters in various sports; we'd set up an easy system for clubs to report their scores; we created an outline of how clubs could cover their own matches (especially Areas and regional-size matches) to the point of purchasing loaner video cams to send out with detailed instructions and what we would need so we could have much more video coverage; we'd develop "sports columnists" for lack of a better word, to post regularly on each of the sports, e.g. short interviews with specific athletes, sports specific new products, with the idea that columnists could also add an audio podcast on his or her sport; we would cover the most important competitions in each sport, starting with the various Nationals and, ideally, expanding to regional coverage; as we progressed, we'd add video sport-specific training from the top shooters in the sport, so we could use the site to drive increased participation. We would use DRTV's sports coverage to "drive" SG broadcast, dedicating at least 1 SG episode a season to the match DRTV had chosen, so we'd get a broadcast push for the shooting sports site. Finally, further down the line, we'd create and host a multi-discipline invitational match, which would be filmed for SG and DRTV.
Me, Marshal and Paul Erhardt from USPSA spent a lot of time bulletproofing the "match in a box." Every single point had been beta-tested in the Real World and was found to work. We lined up and made the initial overtures to potential lists of companies and organizations to provide the seed money, etc.
When we finally presented the idea, everybody — EVERY FREAKIN' BODY — hated it. I have never been so completely and so totally shot down not just by my bosses, but by the organizations, who didn't want the extra work, logistics, and certainly not a fee, by the shooters I floated the idea past, who didn't understand how such a concept would benefit them, hell, as far as I know Alf the Wonder Beagle didn't like the idea either. Obviously, we were laboring under some major misconceptions!
After the conference calls were all over, Marshal and I just took the whole proposal and threw it away.
I have routinely covered competition and will continue to do so in 2012. We will be doing a full-court-press at the MGM Ironman and a new elite military competition. In general, I have several criteria for considering a match for coverage:
1) I'd prefer exclusivity, but that's not necessarily a deal-breaker.
2) The match has to be important in the overall context of driving the shooting sports.
3) I MUST have the 100% cooperation of the Match Director and the match staff, including the range/safety officers on the line.
4) I will NOT have my crew yelled at, pushed, insulted, or the like (and yes, all of those things have happened); we are the most experienced and most professional crew in the field and we will be treated professionally or we will leave.
5) If I shoot, I pay an entry fee like anyone else; I do not accept prizes or a trip to the prize table.
6) We are unique in that we ask no money from the match organizers; we are there as journalists and we pay our own way.
As far as USPSA goes, I consider Executive Director Dave Thomas and Marketing Manager Paul Erhardt among my closest friends. We talk on a regular basis...in fact, we did a women of the shooting sports episode of SG at their request...it'll run later this season. I am always open to suggestions. But regardless of how much of an asshole it makes me, I will NOT try and ram television coverage down anyone's throat...as I have explained many times, think of me as a vampire...unless you ask me in, I'm not going to step over the threshold!
Michael B
MBTV
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