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Some Criticism and Suggestions for the Channel and Formats
Hi,
Firstly, it is nice to have a channel dedicated to Poker that shows tournaments as they go by, not the moans:
a) The 'new' structure - I don't think it works. Reasoning behind this statement is I think one of the most popular appeals of Sky Poker over others is being able to watch a tournament from start to finish on TV, now we never see the end. Yes there is the 'Winners Journey' show later on in the week BUT its not always easy to remember to watch or find in amongst the FAR too many repeats there are going on at the moment. Instead of increasing the blinds to 10 or 12 minutes from 7 minutes maybe just go for 9 minutes, then there may be half a chance of seeing the end of a tournament. Or let the TV program run until the end, its not like its encroaching on another live TV program.
b) How about when someone requests one of their hands to be shown, and asks the presenter if they played it right, how about the presenters only see the requesters cards. This will give a realistic view of whether the presenter would have played it the right way. Yes table behaviour is missing but at least it will be partly impartial. Then the player could see how they could improve etc from the presenters real world unbiased advice.
c) What has happened to all the live tournaments... only ever see Primo and the Thursday Bounty Hunters now, surely they could do one each night, even if it maybe a slightly cheaper and faster paced tournaments, we never hear advice on how to play a scary etc.
d) And how about concentrating on ONE tournament a show, it can get all a bit confusing flipping between say a Primo and a Velocity.
I still love playing here and hope to continue. I also hope those in power see this as constructive criticism.
Thanks
Marc
p.s. Another thing to add, it would have been great to see the TKO on TV tonight, could have had TK and Orford sat either side of the studio with the computers, and a couple of the other presenters playing referee in the middle watching the table action from the whole tournament and winding and having some banter with TK and Orford.
Comments
Sorry goonas, never saw this, & I apologise that I or nobody else from Sky Poker replied. I'll work through it bit by bit if I may.
Bear with me.....
a) The 'new' structure - I don't think it works. Reasoning behind this statement is I think one of the most popular appeals of Sky Poker over others is being able to watch a tournament from start to finish on TV, now we never see the end. Yes there is the 'Winners Journey' show later on in the week BUT its not always easy to remember to watch or find in amongst the FAR too many repeats there are going on at the moment. Instead of increasing the blinds to 10 or 12 minutes from 7 minutes maybe just go for 9 minutes, then there may be half a chance of seeing the end of a tournament. Or let the TV program run until the end, its not like its encroaching on another live TV program.
We must remember that Sky Poker is a CardRoom, which uses the TV Channel to help promote the Room - not a TV Channel to which the Room is subservient. The tail must never wag the dog, so it's about the Players, not the viewers, in the main. There was huge backing for improving the Tourney Structures, & this has been reflected in much bigger fields. The TV Channnel has to deal with that, it cannot dictate to the Room for the sake of a TV Show.
When we go off air before the Tourney ends, players who are really interested can still watch the Tables via the Poker Site.
Let the TV Programme run until the end? I agree, it would be nice, & the Presenters & Analysts would love nothing more, it's no problem for us. But there are two issues.....
1) Technical Staff. Call-Time is 4pm, & by Midnight, it's becoming a long shift for some of the Technical Crew, & it also costs a lot of money to run much past midnight.
2) For technical reasons, the Show has to - MUST - run in incremental time periods. It cannot run for, say, 1 hour & 18 minutes - it has to be precise time periods.
Really, we all feel disappointed that we can't always show the climax, but it is what it is - I hope the TV Show NEVER wags the cardroom's tail. Remember, the Cardroom pays for the TV Channel, not the other way round.
b) How about when someone requests one of their hands to be shown, and asks the presenter if they played it right, how about the presenters only see the requesters cards. This will give a realistic view of whether the presenter would have played it the right way. Yes table behaviour is missing but at least it will be partly impartial. Then the player could see how they could improve etc from the presenters real world unbiased advice.
I'm afraid that, technically, we just don't have the ability (software) to do that.
I agree it would be nice, but we can't do it I'm afraid.
They do it sometimes on LNP & other Shows, but they are not really doing it - the Commentstors & Analyst see ALL the Hole Cards, it's only the Viewers that are kept in the dark.
c) What has happened to all the live tournaments... only ever see Primo and the Thursday Bounty Hunters now, surely they could do one each night, even if it maybe a slightly cheaper and faster paced tournaments, we never hear advice on how to play a scary etc.
We cover the "Main Event", as that's where the big fields are. It'd be nice to cover other stuff, but when we try & hop around mid-Show, people complain at that, too.
We can't please all of the viewers all of the time, in essence. So we go with the majority.
Running a 24/7 TV Channel is mind-blowingly expensive, sadly. Which is why almost no other Room does it.
We make 6 Shows per week - we will increase to 7 in less than a fortnight - but I don't see it ever becoming more.
I happened to turn on 865 the other day & they had the Vegas Documentary on - you seen that? It cost a BOMB, sending a crew out there, but we got over 60 Interviews, all exclusive, with the great & good of poker. Nobody realises how much that stuff costs, though.
d) And how about concentrating on ONE tournament a show, it can get all a bit confusing flipping between say a Primo and a Velocity.
Well in the previous Question, you wanted to see other Tourneys.......
To be less flippant, personally, yes, I happen to agree with you there. But that's one for the Producers to answer, I'm afraid I cannot.
p.s. Another thing to add, it would have been great to see the TKO on TV tonight, could have had TK and Orford sat either side of the studio with the computers, and a couple of the other presenters playing referee in the middle watching the table action from the whole tournament and winding and having some banter with TK and Orford.
Yes, it would be great, but it's money again,......
TKO is essentially a Community-Building Freeroll, it generates not a penny of direct income.
As an aside, the TV Channel - & I'm hypothesising here - could run 7 nights a week if the Cardroom did not spend an arm & a leg on Freerolls, & other Promos. Or, viewed another way, it could spend a lot more on Promos & stuff if it did not have to pay for the TV Channel - it all comes out of the same pocket.
Getting my drift, there?......
Taken in exactly that spirit Marc, they were good questions, thank you. And apologies it never got replied to earlier. We've been a bit busy on TKO & stuff. Also, replying to forum Posts is not what any of us are paid to do - it's just something over & above what we are here for. But it should have been replied to earlier, & I apologise for that. I almost never get into this Board, tbh.
Thanks goonas.
Sadly, only you & I seem interested in the subject matter! To be fair, this Board is not visited that often, & it's not exactly easy to hop from Board to Board on this Forum.
We will just have to talk amongst ourselves.
We take for granted the TV side of Sky poker and its good to hear a little more about what goes on to make up shows.
I have always wondered why there are no or not many adverts which is every channels bread and butter.
I promised a while back I'd write a Blog or two about how the Show is made, & I really must.
Did you know that about 20 individuals are required for every Show Sky Poker make? So have a think about what that must cost......then there's the Studio & kit to pay for - our Studio is "dedicated", it cannot be used for anything else, so it has to be paid for 24/7.
Adverts? I'm not sure that Adverts are permitted under the Terms of our Licence, which is immensely complex. When we simulcast on Sky Sports, the Sky Sports version has ads, but our version - the 865 version - does not. Same Show, same time, but with different stuff shown in the Breaks.
Happy to try & answer any further qustions.
firstly to goonas, you raised many excellent points in your original post, and this is a thread that certainly merited more attention from the community.
I think many of us hold similar views to you, and Tikay has kindly answered them in turn.
Ultimately, the key expression is the tail wagging the dog. I really enjoy the sky poker channel, and I think many people appreciate it in its own right. But it is there to serve the poker site, and we forget that, and expect it to do someting else that it cannot do. But given how much we like it in the first place, it cant be doing too much wrong.
Finaly, goonas, i notice you have only posted 3 times on the site. Based on your considered efforts in this thread, I would suggest you look over some of the other threads in the community as your contribution would be a valuable addition in my opinion.
Ray
The numbers are hypothetical, but you've seen the "noise" made about lack of TV Coverage, & the same noise saying "we DESERVE more Freerolls & Tourney Guarantees". Hard to please everyone there, but it ALL comes out of the same Budget. Whatever way they slice that cake, someone's gonna be unhappy. The TV Channel has been wonderful for & to me, I've loved every minute of it (been here over 3 years now!), but I'm forever mindful of where it sits in the grand scheme of things. Hence when I am on the Show, I'm a bit heavy with the "GO TO SKY POKER NOW, THERE IS A TOURNEY STARTING IN X MINUTES". Because I want the "model" to work. And if it does not work? You know the answer to that.....
At PNL, the entire Technical Crew numbered 3. Well cheap. But look what happened over there.....*
* As an aside, one day the PNL suits told us "in future, we want you to wear make-up, you are too shiny". (Make-up is, so they say, a must on TV to hide "shine", though I doubt that bothers Wayne Rooney). So - & there were about 12 or 14 of us at PNL front-of-camera, they gave us a powder-puff. Just the one. To share between 14 of us. Kara must have been thrilled about that......
This has become a nice Thread, such a shame it's in a "backwater" of the Forum.
Yes - PNL = "Poker Night Live".
It was a Live TV Show which was a sort of low-tech version of Sky Poker, with a wholly different business model.
It closed down/went busto in the Spring of 2007.
Amongst others, the Presenters there (all front-of-camera were deemed "Presenters") included Kara, Michelle, Matt, Dr Tom, Nick W, James B, & myself.
It had a Forum too - "PokerZone" which, funnily enough, led to it's demise. Buit that's another story.
was a great channel considering i presume a very small budget....
Sorry I never did it before, but it'd been a bit hectic, the preparations for Total Player have been very time-consuming. And that's not the end of exciting new things happening here. Watch this space. Not for long, either......
There is no excuse for being an Orforder, either. What WERE you thinking?
Is the JCB3B still the bizz?
The subject of repeating old (classic?!) editions of the Open (instead of the frequent repeats of the current live shows) was also raised in this thread. When this was previously raised, Des, I think that you said that you would look into it.
Is there any possibility of this happening?
Any edition where Kara reads out an e-mail from me will be fine. ;-)