No surprise: PPT season 2 DELAYED

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Earl Burton of PokerNews.com first reported this:

http://pokernews.com/news/2006/8/ppt...on-delayed.htm

This is not really much of a surprise.

WPTE CEO Steve Lipscomb responded to a question from Think Equity Partners (San Francisco, CA) equity analyst Tracy Mangini during a conference call on August 2 that WPTE will NOT go forward with PPT Season 2 until WPTE is able to secure a U.S. TV rights fee contract.

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I personally do NOT expect WPTE to EVER get a U.S. TV rights fee contract for PPT Season 2, given how the U.S. TV poker business has evolved: "all time buys, all the time".

Not even Harrah's can get a penny of positive cash flow directly from ESPN for the WSOP Main Event anymore. The advertising dollars Harrah's has to pay ESPN on behalf of PartyGaming and Miller Brewing should more than offset the "rights fee" ESPN has agreed to pay Harrah's for the video rights to the WSOP.

Unfortunately for WPTE, some of the big online poker schools don't particularly want to spend big on title or presenting sponsorships to WPTE events, now that WPTE 1) operates WPTOnline.com outside the US in direct competition against the big online poker businesses, and 2) WPTE does NOT allow any online poker business other than WPTOnline.com to advertise during WPT broadcasts outside the U.S.