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TV show thread
do we get a forum thread back, now the golf cross-selling has finished?
Comments
It does seem likely that there will be fewer insightful poker questions sent into the show now. At least not so many from experienced players. Why do I care? I only sent in questions I already knew the answers to.
It's as though somebody has come along and broken my favourite toy. lol
Maybe they'll return to using the forum, maybe they won't. I'm sure we've all got other things we can be doing in the meantime.
I've said my bit on the sports betting shows. I'm not a fan but it seems they're here to stay too.
Hi Guys,
I'll try & address some of these points as best as I'm able.
I was asked the question yesterday - I think it was on the Team Sky Poker Thread, & I said.....
"....I'm happy to discuss, or try & explain, why the Show, & Show Thread, has taken a slightly different route of late, but I don't have time now as I'm prepping for tonight's Show, especially the 1 hour Golf Preview this evening.
We still welcome contributions & questions, & there may still be prizes, but we needed to change a few things. I'll try & explain why when I am next on the Community, tomorrow or Thursday. Don't suppose it will please everyone, but you know how it is......"
More to follow.....
More to follow.....
It is really quite hard to express some of these things in writing, with the constant danger that it will be taken out of context, & some hard facts have to be stated, not in any way intended to offend or hurt, but I'll be as direct as I can, to help get to the crux of things more quickly.
I think we ought to start with a hard fact - not intended to upset the applecart, but Channel 861 does not exist purely for the existing Client base. It is beyond imagination that it ever did, or could. It does not.
There is a good reason why other sites do not have a TV Channel - they are horrendously expensive to run, & the cost comes directly out of the Margin generated. Sky Poker is a relatively small room compared to The Big Boys, & THEY don't have a TV Channel. There is a reason for that. Cost.
Channel 861, if it existed ONLY to serve our existing - & very important - Community - would close tomorrow. A Channel simply cannot be monetised from the existing Community alone.
It addresses several Target audiences, one of them is the Community, another, just as important, is potential new Clients. Sign-Ups, Acquisition. To continue to grow, the Business MUST seek new Clients all the time.
The balance had got a bit skewed, with more Community emphasis at the expense of less New Client emphasis. That has now been addressed.
We know not all the existing Community enjoys the "Sports Previews", but the whole idea of them is to try to encourage a new, wider, audience, particularly those who do not currently either use Sky Poker, or even play Poker. They are key. To the best of my knowledge, these Sports Previews will continue, as they are performing their intended role. Over a 12 month span, I would expect, roughly, 8 or 10 of them, for the very biggest Sporting Events. Does not seem too onerous to me, 10 or 15 hours per annum.
Cross-sell (to other parts of SB&G) is ALSO very important, they address that too.
The future of Ch 861 remains, as far as I know, secure - but it HAS to give more emphasis than previously to a wider audience.
Show Threads, Questions, Community Prizes.
The Presenters have been asked to give more emphasis towards helping Promote Sky Poker to a new & wider audience. By definition, none of them are Community Members.
So that is why they are not now generating Show Threads inviting questions & comments. They now invest that time in working up their Promotiuon ideas.
If you have a question for the Show, fine, start a thread, send an e-Mail, or Tweet, ask the question, and it MAY get answered. It has never been the case that every question is answered, no Show does that, ever, anywhere, but there seems to be a perception that we must.
The Budget for Free Prizes etc has NOT been amended, reduced, diluted. Presenters & Analysts, under the guidance of the Producer, can still give away as many Prizes as they always have. But not doing it robotically, "every Show must have £x worth of Prizes", we want to spend that money wiser, & wider.
So there is NOT a block on questions for the Community, but we are just trying to get a better balance of how the cost is spent, & the benefit it accrues.
It really is appreciated that the Community cares about the Show, & the Community will always remain one of the target audiences.
I hope that helps to answer some of your questions, & I'm happy to field further questions if need be.
I do happen to think that we, as a Business, may have communicated this better before it was implemented, but at least it has been done now, openly & honestly.
I mean how times can you watch AAvQQ !
Make it intresting....get Channing on more....
Appeal to a wider audience..drag them in Tikay.....drag them in....
Sky Poker Cash Game
Probably best to mention that whilst discussing the Channel, too.
Some liked it, some not so much, but that was quite specifically designed with a very sharp focus on a wider & new audience which we achieved through it being aired on Sky Sports every week. In that respect, & what it achieved, it was a major success.
The Community - or some of them - enjoyed it too, to a lesser or greater degree, which was pleasing, as we hoped that would be the case.
The next one is in the advanced stages of planning, & is likely to be recorded within the next three weeks. The Studio is booked, ditto the Crew etc. It will be along the same lines as the previous series, but with, for the most part, different players.
We were frequently asked "why does it not include regular Community Members"? Yes, we'd like it to, & yes, it is possible, it might. But......it is aimed at a wider audience on Sky Sports. A regular Community Member here, on the site every night, does not, by definition, necessarily make good or watchable TV for a Sky Sports audience.
We used to have a lot of Guests in from the Community, we respect them, & their loyalty to the Business. But many of them "froze" in front of the TV Cameras. That does not serve either party very well, & would not tick many boxes over at Sky Sports.
On which note, you may well ask how I have got away with it for so long. I'll have to swerve that one, & just keep bluffing. I'll get called eventually.
Re-arrange these words.
Plot the lost has fella the old.
The channel is a great plus that adds to the whole 'package' Sky offer. It's what drew me in, and is definitely a large contributing factor for why I'm still playing here years later.
I'm not a big sports betting man... well that's a slight understatement, I've probably placed about 2 bets in my entire life time and that's only been on the Grand National because I lived next door to it. So naturally, I'm not enthrawled by some of the segments, but it doesn't really bother me. If it helps fund the channel so it continues running forever then that's great, if it encourages more people to take up the game of poker on Sky (which I'm sure it will) then that's even better.
I definitely agree with the prizes thing too, sometimes it was like they'd announced they were giving 4 mini seats away, so they HAD to give them to someone regardless of the amount/quality of input.
I don't think I need to talk again about the whole sports betting show issue.
To address the forum thread change: I'm not sure of the logic behind it. Surely people are more encouraged to get involved for the first time if they see and hear lots of other people getting involved. Reducing the volume of viewer comments by removing the forum would seem to discourage, not encourage, interaction from new viewers. There can't be much debate that the volume of viewer comment has reduced in the last week as a result of this. Twitter and e-mail comments weren't ignored in the past anyway.
It has to be said that I don't use or really understand Twitter, so there may be many things I'm not aware of about it.
So I'm not sure this is a change that will boost contributions to the show from new players. I know it's unlikely that I will be getting involved much in future, which is a shame for me. I'm sure everyone else will be happy to see the back of my show comments.
There is also the matter of the apparently disappearing Poker School, Ask the Expert and Analyse My Play shows. These seem to be gone from the schedule, which is disappointing to those of us who enjoyed the more focused attention these brought on viewer interaction. By this I mean that I am disappointed. Many have complained since the show format was changed last year, so maybe I'm in the minority in thinking that these shows were the best of the week.
That makes no sense really.
As far as I am concerned, the Analysts & Presenters have the right to give as many or as few as they see fit, constrained not by the requirement that four prizes MUST be given, but giving where & when it feels & seems correct.
It all comes from the same budget, too, so if less prizes are awarded on the Show, then more money is available for day to day Prizes on the Community. I spend more time on the Community than the other 861 crew, & so I'll certainly be ensuring that the Community gets plenty of prizes. To be fair, it always has, & I don't think anyone could reasonably argue otherwise.
I'll be looking forward to the next one anyway.
The Show still gets just as many e-Mails - we now push the e-addy HARD.
Twitter? Well you say you don't understand it, which is fair enough. I think the Business does understand the very important role that Social-Media, in particular Twitter, now plays in ALL businesses. We must not ignore it, we must address it.
"Ask the Expert" & "Analyse Me Play" have NOT disappeared, but they are being moved to different nights, & freshened up.
"Poker School" is under review right now, & I'm not sure if it will return, when, or in what form.
It is disappears, then that will leave a free slot for something else.....
861 will never stand still, it will always change things around, & try to be better. It is working so far, as audience ratings have improved dramatically of late. Higher ratings achieve nothing but the massaging of egos though, as those higher audiences have to be turned into new players. That's the key.
We needed to convey to those who perceived poker as all serious, long faces, shades & hoodies that poker is intended to be fun, & bring a smile to the face. Poker, generally, really does need a PR makeover you know, it does not enjoy the best of reputations outside our insular world.
One of the Guests (& some graphics) was from Oddschecker.
The other Guest was from SportingLife.com. That is also part of (as in, owned by) Sky Betting & Gaming.
The Betting Markets on the Graphics were provided by Sky Bet.
I don'y really know upon what basis the Mastercash hands were selected last night, but maybe the absence due to holiday of the regular chap - a really smashing lad, by the way, & Dan's # 1 Assistant - was the cause.
What you would not know is that there were serious technical challenges last night, which we overcome with some ad-libbing, & Rich Orford was not at all well.
The Show will only suffer if it fails to do the job is it designed to do.
Messages are an accessory to that, an ingredient which goes into the overall mix.
We hope viewers will continue to send in e-Mails, Tweets, or ask questions via the Community.
I understand why the Poker School might be shelved. After the first few months of the show, it was apparent that new topics were a bit thin on the ground and it also must be pretty difficult to find hands that are both interesting and display the ideas being discussed. I'm glad the other shows mentioned aren't being dropped, though.
The Cash Game was very good. I didn't agree with many of the criticisms at all. There was one I did agree with, though, and would hope could be avoided somehow in future. I don't hold Norman Whiteside's time at Man Utd against him and without wishing to disrespect him, he and some of the other sports stars were clearly out of their depth. It seems incongruous with the image that the show was trying to project to have this sporting "hero" knocked around by the pro "sharks". It made for pretty uncomfortable viewing to be honest. I really don't wish to disparage Mr Whiteside or the show but it might be better to... well... make sure the sports people have more of an idea of what they're doing. I'm not suggesting you should get rid of them and make the table full of pros but some of the players seemed to be almost total beginners.
Again, that may have been just my take on it and perhaps is not shared by the majority.
At any rate, I've been meaning to take a little forum holiday for a while. I enjoy posting here but it does take up alot of my time. Since the show thread was the thing that brought me to the forum, I'll allow this to prompt me to take that break. With the time it frees up I'm sure I can find something else to do... like teach myself a few new languages.
Unless they charge for Twitter in the future, or there is some massive issue with adverts/personal information, Twitter will become a part of pretty much everyone's life within a couple of decades at the most IMO. Supporting evidence, everyone from Questiontime to guests on SoccerAm are being promoted with a hashtag.
Completely vital, completely correct. I've probably missed the following and it's been going on for a while but I hope the other branches of Sky B&G and SkySports are cross selling Sky Poker to their customers as well. A few Tweets can go a long way, SSNews tweeting Charlotte Jackson's appearances, SkyBet tweeting about the golf show etc, all help to get more members on the poker tables.