Disaster WPT! Could Monday be the End of the World Poker Tour??

[olivert]

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I'm in HK for the semester, we could really use poker out here. As of now, there is no hold'em in Macau, but this culture is so centered around gamboling that I don't see how it couldn't flourish out here.

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Yes, but the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) holds ALL the aces when it comes to getting No Limit Texas Hold'em competitions exposed on TV in Hong Kong.

No TV outfit, broadcast or pay cable/broadband, in Hong Kong can legally broadcast No Limit Texas Hold'em competitions unless that competition were licensed by the HKJC.

The HKJC has already been contacted by PartyGaming.

WPTE can't be far behind in contacting the HKJC given that WPTE has an urgent reason to do so. WPTE will need Hong Kong high rollers to participate in the inaugural WPT event in Macau, if and when it happens, in order for the event to be successful.

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As for the U.S. poker TV market, WPTE can always barter or buy its own TV time in Season 6 even if The Travel Channel were to walk away. FullTiltPoker.NET, UltimateBet.NET, and UPC Cash Poker all buy their own TV time.

[rafiki]

doesn't play on that station in Canada, so I'm sure it's not that important.

[nicepair111]

Isnt FSN always trying to come up with a hit poker show? They should be all over this.

[JCool]

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...(And I still maintain this view even though I no longer have a Chinese-speaking client as of Friday March 30.)...

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SAY WHAAAA?

JJ Liu fired you?

SAY IT AIN'T SO

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STUNNING!!!!!

Now I'm interested in details.

But perhaps it's worth a seperate thread instead of a topic-hijack here (as happened in the JJ Liu thread when Oliver and others made a lot of it about anything BUT JJ Liu).

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Are you kidding? I'd much rather have this hijack instead of the boring Olvert/China hijack we are on the cusp of.

[DeuceKicker]

I don't get the disaster. Is it a disaster for the world if WPT doesnt air in '08, or a disaster for WPT? If the WPT goes away, who knows, maybe someone will start a new show with a sensible final table format.

[MicroBob]

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Isnt FSN always trying to come up with a hit poker show? They should be all over this.

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no. they are not trying to come up with a hit poker-show.

As Oliver mentioned, they are merely pimping themselves out.
FT or UB or whoever wants to air a poker-show, FSN will agree to put it on if you pay them enough.

FSN will be 'all over this' IF and only IF the WPT is willing to pay the price-tag.


Oliver can correct me where I am in error but here is my understanding:

WPT originally could have been on ESPN. But they wanted their own EXCLUSIVE night. They wanted "Wednesday Night is POKER NIGHT" instead of letting ESPN air it on whatever days and time-slots they pleased.

So the WPT would either need to adjust this position somewhat. Or FSN would have to agree to air it consistently at the same date and time which would cost significantly more money and probably isn't 100% possible because there's always some FSN affiliate somewhere that has something local to air I believe.
So I think it could only be MOSTLY on at such-and-such time/day for MOST of the country if they went with FSN.


Personally, I think WPT was a little nutty to turn down ESPN just to have their own night on a much smaller channel.
ESPN tends to air that stuff over and over again on their multiple channels (ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN-Classic).
Whereas the Travel Channel only shows it on Wednesday nights and then on Saturday re-runs.

I think they would have gotten significantly more exposure on ESPN.

This wasn't quite as easy to see in 2003 when all this stuff was starting up and we were still pre-Moneymaker.
But even then I would have said, "Who cares about having the same night every week? Travel-Channel is way <<<<< than ESPN."

you just don't turn down ESPN for a smaller channel imo.
ESPN is on practically non-stop for many American males and in many bars/restaurants.
Travel Channel....not so much.

[wisehandpoker]

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Isnt FSN always trying to come up with a hit poker show? They should be all over this.

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no. they are not trying to come up with a hit poker-show.

As Oliver mentioned, they are merely pimping themselves out.
FT or UB or whoever wants to air a poker-show, FSN will agree to put it on if you pay them enough.

FSN will be 'all over this' IF and only IF the WPT is willing to pay the price-tag.


Oliver can correct me where I am in error but here is my understanding:

WPT originally could have been on ESPN. But they wanted their own EXCLUSIVE night. They wanted "Wednesday Night is POKER NIGHT" instead of letting ESPN air it on whatever days and time-slots they pleased.

So the WPT would either need to adjust this position somewhat. Or FSN would have to agree to air it consistently at the same date and time which would cost significantly more money and probably isn't 100% possible because there's always some FSN affiliate somewhere that has something local to air I believe.
So I think it could only be MOSTLY on at such-and-such time/day for MOST of the country if they went with FSN.


Personally, I think WPT was a little nutty to turn down ESPN just to have their own night on a much smaller channel.
ESPN tends to air that stuff over and over again on their multiple channels (ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN-Classic).
Whereas the Travel Channel only shows it on Wednesday nights and then on Saturday re-runs.

I think they would have gotten significantly more exposure on ESPN.

This wasn't quite as easy to see in 2003 when all this stuff was starting up and we were still pre-Moneymaker.
But even then I would have said, "Who cares about having the same night every week? Travel-Channel is way <<<<< than ESPN."

you just don't turn down ESPN for a smaller channel imo.
ESPN is on practically non-stop for many American males and in many bars/restaurants.
Travel Channel....not so much.

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There's a lot to be said for the anticipation of knowing when a show will air. I know I for one started counting down to wednesday night in the WPT's first season, and I think knowing the time and place to be was a part of that.

To say WPT should have gone with ESPN requires a lot of hindsight. The show could easily have gotten lost with log rolling or what have you at 2:30 in the morning. It almost certainly wouldn't have been the immediate smash it was without the Travel Channel's stable time slot.

[woodguy]

I'm sure that although the line of suitors for the WPT won't be long, it will probably be 3 or longer.

Regards,
Woodguy

[olivert]

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There's a lot to be said for the anticipation of knowing when a show will air. I know I for one started counting down to wednesday night in the WPT's first season, and I think knowing the time and place to be was a part of that.

To say WPT should have gone with ESPN requires a lot of hindsight. The show could easily have gotten lost with log rolling or what have you at 2:30 in the morning. It almost certainly wouldn't have been the immediate smash it was without the Travel Channel's stable time slot.

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I couldn't agree more with what Gary has said.

The best thing that WPT did in 2002 was to accept the offer from The Travel Channel, which was only in about 70 million U.S. TV households at the time, to be on The Travel Channel on Wednesday nights.

The symbiotic relationship between WPT and The Travel Channel allowed both to grow dramatically.

2+2 participants/readers already know about WPT's growth in participation over the years.

The Travel Channel grew its distribution to 82 million households by 2005 and 87 million households by the end of 2006. (In comparison, ESPN is in about 90 million households.)

The one key misstep, in my opinion, was the legal tangling between WPTE and Travel Channel over the first season of the PPT.

In any case, the TV poker business in the U.S. changed dramatically in late 2005/early 2006, with barter and time-buy being the business models of choice instead of multi-million dollar rights fees, as online poker "schools", including PartyPoker.NET, MansionPoker.NET, UltimateBet.NET, and FullTiltPoker.NET started paying top dollar for (off-peak in most cases) TV time.

The time buys affected everyone else in the business, including Harrah's WSOP, which did a new deal with ESPN in 2006 (running through 2010) specifically excluding the WSOP Circuit, the TOC, and subsequent spinoffs (WSOP Europe, WSOP Asia, etc.)

The WSOP Circuit is no longer televised (though pay subscription video webcasts are coming soon), while the TOC is now in indefinite hiatus.

Party and Mansion are now gone from the U.S., but UB and Full Tilt are still around.

[sightless]

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...(And I still maintain this view even though I no longer have a Chinese-speaking client as of Friday March 30.)...

[/ QUOTE ]

SAY WHAAAA?

JJ Liu fired you?

SAY IT AIN'T SO

[/ QUOTE ]
hahahahahaha