Can TV Fishing events really compete?

[cassidyta]

http://www.sdfish.com/news/freshwate...l-bass-fishing

This is an interesting article that asks what is missing from professional bass fishing.
While I will watch fishing on tv, I will honestly flip away from it for regular season baseball game.

[CamG]

Plain and simple - live, on the water coverage. IMO, until they can someway ride along with every angler, and stream the live footage in high quality, bass tournament fishing television will never have a big audience. I am probably in the minority, but if bass fishing (tournament or not) is on television, I watch.

[MallenManson]

I don't think Bass Fishing will ever compete. It's a niche audience.

I never played baseball beyond Little League...never played hockey (other than some beer fueled roller hockey in a parking lot), only played 2 years of High School Football, and never played basketball. Yet I watch these sports as much as I possibly can.

If I didn't fish, and take it seriously, I'd never watch Bassmaster events.

[G-Man]

I am a "Newbe" and have been a sponge to watch as much TV shows on Bass Fishing as I can.
I have DVR'd
In-Fisherman
Brauers Bass Battles
Strike King Classics
Lake Regions Fishing
Fishing 411
Fishing with Joe Bucher
Fishing PAA TV
One more cast with Shaw Grigsby
Fishing with Roland Martin
Honest these shows tend to be more info-mercials or shows showing guys fishing rather than showing tips and techniques.
Now that they have the Bass master classic is on TV they have been good to watch...and I do pick up tips,and enjoy them.
I watch them cause I want to learn.....so I agree with MallenManson its a niche
On the other hand I have been doing Fantasy Fishing and it gets me more involved in whose who and I am eager to see the daily results of Tournaments.(Even watch weigh ins on the internet)
For me Id love to see Bass fishing compete on TV with other sports but I feel the general public in not going to watch anglers they do not know.
Perhaps if Bryan Gumble did a segment on his HBO Cable show about Pro Angles it would bring more attention to the sport. Or if a Pro Angler came out like Charlie Sheean and said they were living with a Porn star and a model the media would pay more attention to the BIG BASS ANGLERS.

[cassidyta]

I wanted to wait a day to play devil's advocate to my own question.

I fully understand the Point that Cam made. But what about golf? They have a good following and do not live stream every golfer. They have cameras near by and can replay most shots, but they only realy follow the top guys. I think they are a niche audience, but I'll be darned if they don't have sunday afternoon coverage almost every week.

[CamG]

Originally Posted by cassidyta

I wanted to wait a day to play devil's advocate to my own question.

I fully understand the Point that Cam made. But what about golf? They have a good following and do not live stream every golfer. They have cameras near by and can replay most shots, but they only realy follow the top guys. I think they are a niche audience, but I'll be darned if they don't have sunday afternoon coverage almost every week.

Yes, but like you said, they do have live coverage. Or, at the very least, if something does happen they have it on video and it can be replayed very shortly after it happens. They are also only dealing with 18 "spots" on a golf course where everyone must play, so cameras are set.

The other thing about golf is that there are TON more people who play golf, than bass fish. Something like 60-70 million people play golf worldwide.

[nofearengineer]

I'm with Mallen on this one.

Due to the nature of pro bass fishing, where everyone goes off on their own (with the exception of Martens sticking to KVD...couldn't resist ), you end up with needing quality cameras for 50-60 locations. The Super Bowl only used 54 HD cameras this year.

Plus, on a boat, you really can't do live HD because it takes cables to transmit all that data. Wireless just won't cut it.

Additionally, the Super Bowl lasts 4 hours. Bass tournaments, including the weigh-ins, last 9-10 hours.

You'd need 10 times the Super Bowl production budget, and only have 1/100 of the Super Bowl audience.

You'll just have to live with what you're getting.

[cassidyta]

Guys,

I am not disagreeing one bit. I don't think that we will ever see be a prime time event. I think that the interest is not big enough for someone to put in the type of investment needed to make it a prime time item.

[walkeraviator]

Not to mention the fact that some sponsor could pny up the money, and then get a snooze-fest like teh Classic at Pittsburgh... nobody wants to watch a bunch of guys finesse fishing for 8 hours.

[bamabassman]

i to think it is a niche sport. like golf. but also i think it owuld be hard to telavise. how many times are oyu going to see a fella bring in a big time catch? not likely. but i haven't watched a "live" fishing show in years. so what do i know.

[Jrob78]

Fishing is very unpredictable, very long and very spread out over a large area. I think it would be really hard to offer any kind of live programming.

I also think people who don't fish have the misconception that fishing is about the most boring thing a person could do. They immediately get the mental image of rednecks sitting in lawn chairs, drinking beer with white and red bobbers floating 3 feet from shore.

I also watch all the fishing tournaments I can, I would love to see more, better coverage of events. I'm ok with waiting a week for a better product with specific details about what's happening. The Classic was filled with fluff but some of the other tournament programming seems to show more fishing.

[jasonfish320]

I believe there are a lot of hurdles to compete with other sports..1)The demographics...who watches fishing=middle aged men..mostly. 2)A tournament is long..usually 8 hours. 3) It's not a physical competition or a team competition...

With that said, the classic is not nearly as fun to watch as the Black Fin series...I think the Black Fin shark tournament is a blast to watch!