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There are two distinctly different segments of TV poker audiences:

1. The "casual" viewers who are driven by BIG EVENTS, such as the WSOP on ESPN and NBC Heads-Up.

2. The die-hard poker players, many of whom want to watch niche and micro-niche shows such as High Stakes Poker on a digital channel such as GSN. The die-hard audience also consume the "time buys" such as FullTiltPoker.net Aussie Millions on FSN.

There is room for both types of shows in the marketplace.

The "middle" market, which the likes of WPT occupied in the past 2 years, was squeezed by the change in the marketplace.
WPT ended up having to go to GSN for a 40% cut in rights fee because WPT wouldn't have gotten a rights fee from FSN, ESPN, or The Travel Channel.