Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Tonight kicks off our season on DIRTVision.com, as we begin our coverage of the DIRTcar Nationals presented by Summit Racing Equipment. We will cover all 12 days of racing from Volusia Speedway Park, including the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions, the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Cars , UMP Modifieds, UMP Late Models, World of Outlaws Late Models and the Super DIRTcar Series Big Block Modifieds. If you are unable to make it to Florida for the biggest kick-off in dirt racing, you can catch all the coverage at www.DIRTVision.com for just $69.99 per week. For just over $10 a day, you can watch all 12 nights of racing, and the best part of all, every night is a doubleheader. Or, if you’d rather just catch a day here or there, you can purchase individual nights for $21.99. The package deal is a steal for race fans, costing less than a few days admission at the track. Head over to DIRTVision.com and get yourself registered. Coverage will begin at 7:30 each day and we’ll take you through the whole night, every night. Registration to the site is free,  and as always, live audio coverage is free as well, so get yourself signed up today. Get rid of the off-season blues and tune in for 12 nights of racing, in the comfort of your own home. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. Enjoy all the coverage of the 43^rd annual DIRTcar Nationals presented by Summit Racing Equipment!

As of 2 o'clock in the afternoon i am unable to get access to your site...is it down for maintenance or what? kind of makes me apprehensive of spending $70 if issues are already appearing before the races even start...

$22 for a single night?? $22 per night is crazy... I wont purchase the week pass since at most I will be able to view 3 nights of racing. 

Cheers!

Comparing the price of a webcast to being at the track live is a bad argumentand most of these companies will likely see a drop in revenue if they keep up with this model. The Cushion can command big prices for the Nationals because it's the premiere event in the world.

$70 for 12 nights isn't bad at all, but the $22/night a la carte is pretty brutal. 

Exactly. I'd pay the weekly rate if I could watch at least 5 of the shows but damn $22 for a single night aint gonna happen!

Cheers!

Actually its $69.99 per week. So if you want all 12 nights of action you're going to shell out $140.00

Cheers!

My fault, misread. Not nearly as bad as $22/night. Methinks they'll be forced to revisit this here shortly - can't see that a la carte price bringing in a ton of business. 

I have no dog in the fight, but IMO, there is no reason that someone sitting at home and watching on their couch (or in front of their computer) should get any pricebreak over what someone in the stands is paying.

I personally won't pay it, but I don't think it's overpriced either.  If I was thinking about attending the DirtCar Nationals, $70 is nothing as it would cost me closer to $1500 to attend the event live (airline tickets, hotels or camping, food, and race tickets).

Same goes for all other events except those in my backyard (and even those I'd save $$ by staying @ home as I wouldn't be paying concession prices for drinks and food).

Until TV starts paying sprint car sanctioning bodies and tracks to televise their races to the masses (it will never happen IMO), Pay per view is the only option (and they need to recoup their costs (cameras, production truck, operators, etc., etc., etc.).

There's absolutely a reason, and it's pretty simple - no one is going to pay face value ticket prices to watch something from home. You pay for the experience going to the live event. No one is going to pay the same amount for the experience of sitting in their own home. 

really, people pay up to and over $100 for PPV of live events every single weekend all year (pro wrestling, UFC, Boxing). 

To some people, they don't want the experience of the live event as you get more information and a better experience at home (attended a pro or college football game lately, the experience at home with HD television is BETTER than being there live).

I attend as may races as I can, but IMO, there is no reason someone sitting on their couch at home should get off cheaper than those sitting in the stands (and I don't think it will be that long (10 years maybe) before the NFL and college FB try a PPV game to see what kind of revenue they can generate).

I've never heard of a one-night PPV event going for more than $100, but also, look at the ticket prices to those events. Depending on arena size and level of event, you're probably going to have tickets that are lesser than the PPV price but any decent seat will go for more.

I agree with your second point on some things - watching at home is better on some events, but not all. 

Third, I doubt we'll see any NFL games or a high majority of NCAA games on PPV. The TV contracts are worth a ton. I doubt they could recoup the costs doing it on PPV, even if they could sell advertising directly. 

I sure hope that this expensive show does not stream like they did last year. It was real hard to watch a show last year with out a lot of breaks in the show

Yet, they continue to figure out ways to generate revenue (more Thursday night games next year).

It's about $$$ and if the NFL, NBA, WoO, NASCAR, etc., etc. can figure out a way to get more out of people, they will try it (and in the NFL's case, they always seem to succeed).

The biggest difference between the NFL, NBA, NASCAR, NHL and virtually every other sport?  They all get PAID by TV networks for their content, everyone else PAYS the TV Network to broadcast their content.

Come on Stan, you know damn well watching sprint car racing on TV doesn't REMOTELY compare to watching live!

I rarely find myself agreeing with your corporate views on everything and this is no different...I just for the life of me cant seem to understand what you are saying...do you also believe we should pay $2000 to sit on our couch and watch the super bowl because thats how much a ticket is? I mean lets get real buddy...I dont have to shell out 40 bucks every night I want to sit on my couch and watch a hockey game...$22 for a single night of racing streaming online is outrageous...

Last year it was 69.99 for the season and now they want that for one week. Not sure how good the quality will be this year but it's needs to be greatly improved from last year. The cost of other PPV's of other sporting events are higher in most cases, but the quality and number of cameras are better than what Dirtvision provided last season.

Racing is the only PPV where you have watch what the camera man is watching. There 23 other cars and action over the whole track. That's why it's not worth the same $$ as a ticket to the race.

Dirtvision is charging a premium price  for this year's races. Let's hope the quality is pemium as well!

How much do you think PPV would be for the Super Bowl if it was ONLY available online -- with no network TV and without the $4,000,000 (average) per 30 second commercial (times a bajillion commercials) to cover FOX's production costs? How much would it cost to watch a hockey game online if viewing that game was only available online? If DV had just one $4,000,000 sponsor for the whole year I think the PPV price would be substantially lower.

Phil Taylor

home-theater-systems-advice.com

I'm not sure what the point is here -if the Super Bowl was only available online then it would drastically lose value and everyone involved would suffer greatly. 

It's not a matter of those ads covering FOX's production costs, it's a matter of those ads covering FOX's money into contracts with the NFL. 

Let's look at some alternatives from these other sports:

NHL offers streaming for all out-of-market regular season games for $49.99 annually. MLB.TV offers all out-of-market regular season games for $109.99 year. You're getting access to an insane amount of content for much less than what DirtVision is offering. Now, it's not hard to see why - they're subsidized by a number of things, including but not limited to the presenting leagues themselves as well as sponsorships, not to mention the larger customer base to generate more revenue. Plus, it's going to be much easier to webcast a game from a pro sports stadium/arena than a remote dirt track.

All things considered, I think these companies are going to price themselves out of providng this service. I've got to think they're cashing in on a smaller, more die-hard portion of the market. 

I somewhat find this similar to the arguments around online piracy and have touched on it before, especially during the RacinBoys/FRC situation last summer. The idea that offering a webcast is going to cost gate money is flawed - it most situations the people weren't going to come anyways and you're only picking up revenue that otherwise would not have existed. This is why local blackouts have somewhat bothered me - I think you're punishing those who are unable to make it to the track by responding to those who can make it but would choose to rather stream content.

Kind of got sidetracked here but I don't back down from my original point - I think these companies are going to cause themselves a huge headache with their pricing structure. 

No, I'm not saying that we should pay $2000 to watch the Superbowl on TV.  What I'm saying is that these entities (NFL, NHL, MLB, etc.) are going to continue to "push the envelope" until they no longer increase revenues when they raise prices.  The NFL's deal with DirecTV is up this year.  I'd look for a DRASTIC INCREASE in cost to the end customer no matter who lands the NFL Sunday Ticket contract whether it be DirecTV, Dish or some other entity.

Odds are, even with a 25% increase in cost, they'll only lose 2-3% of their subscribers, so MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more Revenue coming in.

Do I think Dirtvision will lose some subscribers?  Yes, of course they will, but due to the increase in cost, they don't have to keep as many to maintain or increase their revenue (which IMO is what they are looking at).  As a bonus to them (and hte subscribers), there will be less demand on their stream and the quality "should" be better as there is less pressure on the bandwidth.

Will they succeed with this model??  Who knows, but odds are is that they might.

The other thing that most on this board aren't thinking of is that the PPV model is set up with the assumption that multiple viewers are viewing each purchase (just like Boxing, WWE, etc.).  So they justify their $22 per event by saying it's probably closer to $5 per viewer if the average # of people watching for each "buy" is 4.  I know there were groups of 20-25 that purchased the Knoxville Nationals last year, so they got off for $2 per person.

Thank you so much for using MLB and NHL as your examples.

They are "out of market" games.  That means they are being broadcast for FREE on TV "in market", so therefore someone sitting in PIttsburgh can watch the Penguins LIve at the arena, or stay home and watch on TV for free, but someone that's a Penn's fan that lives in CA has to PAY to watch it.   It is all REVENUE for the NHL, they already have TV doing the game and collecting a paycheck from them for doing so.  Now, they can charge customers who don't live there to watch when they aren't in that market.

That is no different than what DirtVision, THe Cushion, etc. are doing.  The BIG DIFFERENCE is that these events aren't being televised, therefore they are getting $0 except from those that subscribe.

From a business standpoint, I highly doubt Dirtvision is making $$$ outside of enough revenue to justify the costs associated with it.