We Know Drama
Dan Liebman’s post today on Bravo brings up (and over looks) some interesting points. He correctly points out that ESPN “decides for us what is sport and what is not, and what we will be able to watch”, although admittedly this is a construct of media in general.
He puts the icing on the cake by saying:
Apparently, it is more important to find out who is the world’s strongest man than who is the world’s best Thoroughbred.
However, the real missed opportunity in this discussion is main stream marketing or lack of it.
Lower interest in racing can be attributed to several things, among them more choices today for viewers and the fact many core fans are watching on HRTV or TVG, or at a simulcast or off-track betting facility. While HRTV and TVG serve racing’s core, they do little to help cultivate new racing fans. It’s doubtful other, smaller cable networks will either.
I don’t think it matters what channel racing is on as long as it’s marketed, after all, people can’t get interested in what they don’t know about. Look at the success of Jockeys on Animal Planet of all places. Remember how concerned we were with their crazy breakdown-a-palooza promotion? It didn’t matter, the show was success… and it couldn’t have been a success if they had just hoped people would find it. Sound like a familiar approach?
In regards to Bravo, Patrick at Handride argues that positioning racing as cultural phenomenon will be racing’s undoing as far as growth goes. An interesting comment thread ensues that explores the oft debated sport vs. gambling angle. Additionally, the tweet-o-sphere disagreed with him on the cultural phenomenon part. I don’t think it matters one way or another with no mainstream marketing.
Prior to Liebman’s post today, Jason Moran pointed out the World Wide Sports angle here at GbG over the weekend. He makes some great points and in fact he has shared other interesting thoughts about sports coverage here at GbG in the past. The Wide World of Sports idea is particularly interesting because, as several commenters at Bloodhorse point out, racing telecasts that go on for hours are pretty boring. The other side of that coin is what Moran has pointed out before, that NBC knew how to tell stories and fill the seemingly long space between races with interesting, well told stories.
I’m no sports maven, in fact I can emphatically say that I don’t give a shit about sports, but look at the NBA & TNT. Is TNT a sports channel? No, it’s the home of Drama. That’s actually a pretty brilliant hook for any kind of sport or game if you ask me. And guess what, they market it!
I think the bottom line is that, regardless of whether it’s locally or nationally, if we’re really concerned about growth then racing ought to start marketing itself to more than the existing fan base.
Posted by dana on Mar 17 2009
Filed Under: Becoming a Fan, Industry, 2009, Jockeys TV Show, Twitter, Kentucky Oaks, Internet, Marketing, TV, Dan Liebman, Mainstream Media, Racing
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Off topic, but I had to post. Gotta love those synthetics:
Jibboom’s racing days are over
By Brad Free
ARCADIA, Calif. - Jibboom injured a suspensory winning the Grade 2 Buena Vista Handicap on the main track Feb. 16, and has been retired from racing, trainer Bobby Frankel said. Although the injury is not always career-ending, it requires a lengthy recovery period.
“She’s a 5-year-old, and it would take eight or nine months,” Frankel said.
Owner-breeder Juddmonte Farms plans to breed her this spring to Empire Maker. Jibboom won 5 of 11, including graded stakes on three surfaces - the off-turf Buena Vista on Pro-Ride, Grade 3 Monrovia Handicap on Santa Anita’s turf, and Grade 2 Raven Run on Polytrack at Keeneland. Jibboom finished second to Ventura in the Santa Monica.
Frankel’s winter stable has been hit with several suspensory injuries.
“Jibboom was my fifth,” Frankel said.
Degree of Power, a promising Storm Cat maiden, and Trimaran, a turf allowance runner, also are out with suspensory injuries.
Dana…all good points and questions you raise. I blogged about this last week and many blogs have now followed. I am afraid this debate will continue with no agreed consensus.
As far as Liebman’s article I respect his viewpoint but his article was filled with many factual errors including minor ones (NBC broadcast the Super Bowl and not Fox) and one major one-ESPN has long ago matured from a network that showed “world strongest man programming” to major sports-they actually broadcast a ton of major high rated sports that their viewers like and more importantly their advertiser want to reach in the 18-49 age demographic.
ESPN shows tons of College Basketball, International Soccer, MLB Baseball, Monday Night NFL and other NFL shows-all very high rated. They are currently showing the World Baseball Classic and the average ratings are very high (4 times higher than the ESPN Breeders Cup ratings).
Also now one ever seems to bring up that Horse Racing is not a league and not a Franchise sport, unlike the MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA. The Tracks are not Franchise operators and hence no uniform agreements, no union contracts, no agreed broadcasting agreements to be put in place by the Franchise commissioner.
Of course none of this made it into Liebman’s article.
“argues that positioning racing as cultural phenomenon will be racing’s undoing as far as growth goes”
I hope i didn’t argue that point. I argue that the fact that we are now on Bravo means that we are more palatable to people as a cultural phenomenon than a sport and that is a sign that things are not getting better.
Seems to me that becoming a ‘cultural phenomenon’ is the slippery slope to nostalgia, which of course is a process whereby you post a pre-obituary postumously by mail. Right now we have a lot of drama, but most of it is the wrong variety. I really think that gate is gone and putting it on a milk carton won’t help. That’s what started the Racino-Edsel model in the first place. Racing is pretty slow as a television production, though ABC did do a good job of filling the gaps. Right now we’re watching the banks repossess the dirt and surviving that ‘cultural phenomenon’ is paramount to what the industry can do with what might be left.
AJuell
ESPN can go to hell. They have turned mainstream sports into a circus. The sporting world is overpopulated with egomaniacs and ESPN has a lot to do with that. ESPN has done nothing for racing and its probably just as well. I think racing should find its niche on a cable network like TNT or Vs where it will be given the time and attention it deserves.
Nature Boy - I saw that, what a shame.
Robert - thanks and agreed about doubtful consensus. Also a good point re: not being a franchise sport. Is golf a franchise sport?
Patrick - regardless of whatever it is you’re arguing, the the tweet you used to promote your post was “Racing on Bravo means we’re not a sport but a cultural phenomenon, no chance of growth there”
Ajuell - I’m not sure I follow you
Kevin - I agree, let’s find somewhere else… I think one of the arguments for ESPN is that provide a lot of in network advertising to racing (which or may not be true, I have no idea) but if ratings are so hideous over there it hardly seems like a reason to stick around.
The unfortunate reality is that mainstream America couldn’t care less about horse racing. It hurts to say/hear it but it’s a reality we must acknowledge and use as fuel to enact change before the sport wanes even further in popularity. It has to be thrust in front of their tv watching faces - as economically as possible.
Our sport needs a media commissioner whose full time job is to actively pursue avenues in the world of cable television to get our sport in front of America.
Who pays for that? I don’t know but it might be worth passing the hat to have a dedicated individual start shopping projects because it won’t just magically happen.
We’re trying to get our movie on cable but Brad and I don’t have the manpower or the time to get it done properly. It’s a shame because we feel like our film is an excellent tool to recruit new fans.
Keep fighting the good fight everyone but accept the fact that until we crack the pop culture barrier, our fan base will not expand. How could it? We’ve become invisible.
John Hennegan
Dana;
Not sure myself — wasn’t up to my fifth cup of coffee and that ‘cultural phenomenon’ statement sent me slightly sideways. How do you market racing? The Animal Planet series (which I have not seen) struck me as “God, here we go again…Mickey Rooney tossing a race cause his sister or dog has been kidnapped by crooked mortgage bankers.” Then I regrouped and rewound the tape a bit. I went back to the mid seventies when OTB was first being established. At that time industry analysts (actually hired guns of sorts) basically said racing had outrun its fan base. Big contraction in order. They also said you better get the check from the OTB guys, because it wasn’t coming in the front door. The culture then was a bunch of rich people drinking mint juleps in funny hats.
As the seventies progressed, technology changed everything. By today, racing is a rather slow, fairly dull state of affairs to anyone, well, younger than I am. The punters, who support the show are off in cyberspace. These folks were always the primary $$ support of racing, though nobody was really noticing that — except ADW types. What I’ve seen over a few decades is that racing itself — the show, seems to require some maturity. People come into the sport much later than other venues. However, the gambling part is much younger. I tend to think in this madcap twitter happy world of ours the gambling arm is going to need to pick up a greater part of the check because it is damn difficult to sell the show right now.
But bigger still in the pressing needs department is an end to the wars between the states. Contraction is one thing, but waging attrition is quite another.
There — now we’re both still confused.
A. Juell
I don’t profess on knowing how to save the game, but you hit the nail on the head when you said you have to tell a story.
Why is Jockeys a hit? It tells a story and laces the suspense of racing around it. It attracst the casual fan who might become a hard core fan eventually, you have to start with an interesting story.
Many have poo poo’d the KY Oaks on Bravo but I am betting they frame the race in a storyline and try to capture the viewers attention that way. Five hours commentary does not work for everybody, I would think even ESPN would know that.
Mark my words, on Bravo there will be a storyline for the Oaks.
Thumbs up for Bravo from me. Having racing on a sports network has been a failure. Trying something new would not hurt.
Fantastic comment by JBH.
Great post.
JBH - I hope you guys can get TFSIM on the idiot box, as I’ve said to you before, and will say till I’m blue in the face, TFSIM should be the Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer of the Derby. I also thought that micro moment of shows using racings as a storyline was good sign, even though the story line was always about cheating and shadyness.
Ajuell - right on! I think… :)
John - I agree, while I’m a little afraid the coverage will err on the side of “women are only interested in hats and fashion”, I’m really hoping that they kick ass at telling the story of the Oaks.
PTP - agreed.
E - thx!
No one reads more than 2 sentences on posts, it doesn’t matter, whatever, people show up w/ what they think they’ll read and it’s end of story, so i doubt anyone has gotten this far….
I never said anyone was positioning the KO as cultural phenomenon and therefore your quote of me is still incorrect. The fact that we’ve been positioned as a cultural phenomenon means that we are far more easily digested as that over being a sport, and that is an issue.
ESPN covers sports
Bravo covers culture
If you want to grow a sport which channel should you be on?
I didn’t quote you, I linked to you.