If you want to give us a feedback, please do it here in our official feedback form:
http://www.opendiscgolf.com/2015/07/21/give-us-your-feedback/
We surpassed our media reach goals. There were 259,000 live TV-audience which is app. 100 times more than regular DG stream audience. Most of those 259,000 people are not Disc Golfers giving us a huge opportunity to introduce this great sport to them. YLE was extremely happy with our TV ratings. Also, our commercial partners were happy. After the event, we have already got interesting proposals for our upcoming events.
Here´s our media report:
http://www.opendiscgolf.com/2015/07/24/eo2015-makes-waves-in-media/
While is understandable that hard-core DGers would like to see 4-hour long streams from every day, that is not our strategy. Our strategy is to create high quality content with a sustainable model. We decided not to spend 30k to make a 5-day quality stream for small audience (hard-core), since that model is not sustainable. In real life (in broadcasting business) there is no way to make sustainable live stream from Disc Golf at the moment. PPV model is not possible. There are 10 people here who would say "I would pay for that". We need commercial partners outside from the sport to be able to make quality content. And that case, we need to make our production with their interests in our mind. That means shorter live broadcasts and wider exposure. All credit to DGP, Smashboxx and Lgcm8 but that material is not going to sell at YLE or ESPN headquarters. European Open production was made together with the best sports production company in Finland (Mediatec). We used their $5million equipment including 3200 fps antelope cameras. Here´s a sneak peek whats coming:
https://youtu.be/RkPwHUVInes
(in my personal opinion, Disc Golf has never looked this good)
SpinTV goal is to make Disc Golf productions at highest level and commercial friendly. I´m ready to make that with a cost of loosing some hard-core DGers. There is bigger catch to take. I have a vision and strategy that needs to be executed. I also want to point out that we are currently making broadcasts from 2-3 events annually. That leaves 2000+ PDGA events to enjoy with other methods. Youtubers are important and vital part of the sport. With their hard work, many of us are able to watch disc golf. Thank you for all of you.
But, lets face it: We have whined all our 40-year-history that we should already be in the mainstream or why ESPN is not covering us and so on. Well, because
we are not able to make attractive product to the mainstream.. Shaky 4-hour-long live stream with breaking connection will never take us into the mainstream. I have chosen a different route. This route is full of danger and possible losses. We also complain that our top pros should be earning six figures. Well, without larger media exposure it will not happen. This is a really simple formula and people should understand it.
I started this great sport in 1994. Since then, I have dreamed to be a professional Disc Golfer. I was not able to do it for myself (lack of skill, money and time). But the desire in side me was too big. In 2009 I decided to make this sport as professional as possible and offer a possibility to others to be professional Disc Golfers. I quit my well-running advertising agency. After that I have been all-in Disc Golf. 6 years later, Disc Golf is a live TV-sport in Finland. Our national broadcaster´s big boss called me on Tuesday and wanted to thank me for the event and the broadcast. He wants to develop the product and have more live Disc Golf in their national network. This is a dream coming true on personal level.
We keep on pushing. Next stop is the USDGC where Spin18 is taking care of the media exposure. I will not speculate here what is going to happen there and we are still under negotiations. I have hired my good friend Jamie Thomas full-time for SpinTV starting on August 1st. He is a talent that I wanted to have on my team. We have also agreed that we are not going to comment on this forum anymore. I apologize for us reacting critique aggressively over the European Open week. That week pushed ourself to the limit. We understand that there are haters and people who does not like what we do. To me, its a sign that we are moving forward. Thank you to all people here pushing us forward. I promise to keep going forward and one day…
Over and out,
Jussi Meresmaa