Re: 2007 USPC
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Disappointingly, ESPN will not be filming the event this year. Perhaps the Taj is trying to work out a different tv deal before posting the schedule, because I agree it's strange that dates have not been released with the tournament just a couple months away.
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Shane,
I was told the same thing by Andrew Feldman who works for ESPN when I was in LV for the WSOP,but sadly he did not have a reason why !
~stephen
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I anticipated ESPN's decision to drop the USPC with 2 years left in the rights fee agreement (which was done in 2004).
Why?
ESPN has already paid for enough poker, 32 hours each year from Harrah's/WSOP.
There is really no room for ESPN to fit the USPC without having the USPC being buried as counterprogramming on ESPN2.
Besides, ESPN can always sell time to the likes of FullTiltPoker.net so that "time buy" made-for-TV poker, such as the Pro-Am Equalizer, can air on ESPN.
The only thing that is worth a rights fee these days in the eyes of a big network such as ESPN is the WSOP.
Remember that ESPN was interested in the WPT and PPT at one time. The business has changed dramatically in the past 12 months. WPT had to go to GSN in order to get a rights fee after Travel Channel dropped it due to high rights fee and relatively low ratings compared to the past.
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NBC Heads-Up, the #1 TV poker show in the US in terms of average viewers, is safe for another year. I will be pitching to the NBC Heads-Up executive producer the 2007 World Champion in Jerry Yang, the 1st German to past $1 million in career tournament earnings who did the "JAAAAAAA, JAAAAAAAAA, YESSSSSSS" celebration on ESPN in Andreas Krause, and the only Russian with $2 million in career tournament earnings in Alexander Kravchenko.
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