LOTO races HORRIFIC tv coverage
 

Absolutely pitiful tv coverage this weekend. We all tried to get the coverage or live streaming but nobody could get it. Took buds boat to Redheads today & even their "coverage" was awful. Truly sad this day & age how this all played out.

Agreed.

It was the “Look I have a Xinsurance Helicopter” show with terrible coverage of the race. If they were smart they would hire the pioneer of offshore videos…Legend Jeff Giradi

I tried watching the video from Victory Plus, however between the delays and lack of real competition in some of those races made for a long, long day. watching boats run in classes by themselves in boats that are 20 years old, or barely able to achieve 60mph on flat water is not entertaining. Add the endless drivel of the announcing due to lack of action is mind numbing.

LOL, sounds about as exciting as 95% of the shoot out.

but with the shootout you know what to expect!

If yours was horrific, it was better than mine! Amazing how much money is on the water and they cannot get it together. The real cost of ****ty coverage is that any potential sponsors see boat racing as a joke with no chance of any ROI. It surprises me that Monster has become such a big sponsor.

If it wasn't for Matt's daily breakdowns from the races. I would have 0 clue on what actually happened. Gave up even trying to live stream last year. Waste of time.

Seems to me, those that are bashing what is going on, cant see the business opportunity associated on putting on a "top tier" coverage show?

Lets face it, boat racing has what a .005% following in the sports world? So any sponsors etc would be likely from or through the race teams themselves. Then through in the constant changing of sanctioning bodies (or to put it more direct, in fighting...) I can see why getting "real Coverage" would be difficult.

But like I said, certainly leaves an opportunity for the right person or group to put their monies in as an investment....

Let me know how it works out?

Let’s recap, Did you watch the broadcast? If you did I guess you approved with the remaining 8 of us say it was poor. I hope Xinsurance folks are reading this. It’s called Quality Assurance and a way to IMPROVE! This isn’t Rocket science and the sport back in the days of the OPT and even with SBI was done at a level which makes this production look amateurish. Constant camera shots from the helicopter that were blocked due to cameraman error. Constant camera shot of the pilots thighs, WTF! If they want to show leg give me a hot hooters girl in the copilots seat. First time ever for me I turned the channel.

due to the infighting Monster pulled their sponsorship from this event, as was explained to me.

I was hoping to watch.
Even afterwards, couldn't really fwd through.
:(
Sad news about Monster.
Hope for improvement!!

Didn't watch at all, I live at LOTO so....

Lets RECAP.... Obviously coverage isnt a money maker for the promoters so they go with what is available.

I'm wondering how many would be willing to have a "pay per view" type of event? How much would you be willing to pay and how many would actually pay to see if it is viable economically? It comes down to cost vs return?

I agree completely that coverage would be nice, quality coverage would be even better, but it costs money....

Bottom line: Would you be willing to pay, and if so, how much? Then lets talk what you would like/expect and go from there.....

You're touching on a great point. Does the sport have enough viewer appeal—hence advertising appeal—to sustain coverage beyond livestream, which to be kind struggled this time around, I don't have answer.

What I have heard, mostly from optimists, are things like, "Hell, if people will watch drone racing they will watch offshore racing."

But that statement and others like it are built on two fundamentally flawed assumptions:

1. People watch shows like drone racing the professional corn hole tour (yeah, it's a thing, brilliantly sponsored by Johnsonville (the encased meat giant that definitely knows its core audience) out of desperation—as if there's nothing else to watch. Incorrect by a lot. Which leads me to the second flawed assumption.

2. Streaming services such as Netflix and its supporters haven't done their market research. Even more incorrect. Netflix isn't thriving because it makes poor programming decisions.

Pay-per-view is another tricky animal, I am told, but one I know nothing about. Nothing to offer.

Motorcycle racing went through all this in the past, I’m sure other motorsports as well. MotoAmerica did a great job with it and seem successful, but it was also a rough start and took a few years to get there.

Offshore boat racing is hard to follow in person and difficult/expensive to film from what I’ve seen. They also capture almost zero spectator money compared to other sports.

Scrapyard media’s Super Cat series should have been continued & expanded, it was great film making and storytelling.

We went to the race Saturday in person and the viewing in person was pretty bad tbh to me. I actually was watching the live stream from my phone in my boat, but it wasn’t great either. But I also don’t have the answer. We actually only stayed about 1.5 hours before we had enough and left on Saturday and didn’t return Sunday.

First off the RWO announcer sucks terribly. He is the worst of all the boat racing entities. Second they need to quit with the multiple heats. They don’t have a boat count to have seven or eight races most people that don’t follow the sport like we do, don’t know who’s who they just wanna see boat race you are not going to gain interest by having two or three boats out there at a time running around the circle. back when there was only three races in Key West and unlimited was the last everybody lost interest because all the unlimited boats would break and there was no competition if they want people to pay money and have sponsors they need to have multiple classes out there at once because the general public that is anchoring out to watch has no idea what boat is and what class they just think it’s a bunch of boats racing!the last time I raced was 2007. 127 boats in ke and 14 in p4 alone. All done in 3 races. That’s a better show than this dragging it out all dst imo. Also it’s a dead flat no wake zone. It’s not like watching cocoa beach or KW. Etc. I appreciate what everyone does and love the sport but i don’t think this format is it.

Nothing to do with the race course with this comment, but I can tell you that getting to the race was certainly not a no wake. It was extremely rough LOL. I talked to some guys at PBC and they called it unboatable. Idk who else on here made the trek, but typically I’d avoid those kind of waters.

Pay Per View? Really? LOL The answer is looking back to what attracted fans in the past. It all starts with the video capture. I can deal with dopey announcers as long as the video gives me the action. For Xinsurance, as I mentioned earlier, recruit an icon of offshore video Jeff Gerardi Freezeframe video as a consultant, if he still is alive and able. His videos to date, bar none, were indeed the best. Yea, at times his commentators were not the best, but he knew how to capture and get THE shot! Imagine this, Jeff pioneered on board cameras a decade before GoPros were around. He would hardwire rig the cameras painstakingly to our boat and de rig when we were finished. Only caveat was if we crashed we had to pay $600 for the setup.

Get the video capture under control then concentrate on the commentators. Back in the day, one, if not the best commentators, was Rich Luhrs. Besides being comfortable in front of the camera, he knew race boats, engines, equipment, history, development. In short he knew the sport. Often in the chopper he would include another expert who either was a racer, engine builder or race boat rigger which added more expert information to the viewers. Stan Lane and Jim Hendricks for Superboat International, although goofballs at times, were not experts but could hold their own and keep the flow of the race story interesting. Recently, Bob Teague commentates on shootouts. I look forward to hearing Bobs opinion on each run as a trusted and proven expert.

Being an ole fart who has been involved in this sport from the mid 1970s, Its great seeing relatively new sponsorships get into OUR sport and I wish them the very best. I hope they heed recommendations because the garbage I saw this weekend is hurting OUR sport.

I certainly wouldn't argue with you. :) In my highly biased opinion, it was the best series to come out of offshore racing to date. But as the co-producer, I can tell you it cost more than $100,000 to produce. Not bad for four 30-minute episodes, but still significant based on where the sport is now.

Now, imagine Netflix or some other streaming service with a production company comes in and produces a series. How much do you think that will cost? Is there enough legitimate viewership to attract the kind of big-dollar investment needed? It's a tall order, for sure.

Hopefully Freezeframe Jeff heals quick after his spill at the races this weekend. We love good pictures, but they’re not worth getting hurt over.

If the sport does not have enough viewer appeal then the sport will always be limited to those with deep pockets that can fund thier own racing. Real sponsors (not your own business or family money) will require some kind of return, and that return comes from as many people seeing the boat/boat races as possible. In order for that to happen, it seems like great streaming would be a good start. Couple that with real races that are interesting to watch and sponsors may support the sport to a better degree. On Sunday, I believe there was one class 6, one class 5, and one class 4 boat "racing" together. Livestream will not matter with a poor product. I say all of this hoping that the sport gets its chit together, but that is pretty unlikely.

as a sport thats lost our way i think we should look at cleetus mcfarland and his freedom factory hes fun to watch and has a huge following

Great advise, but after ALL that writing, it still comes down to : How do you pay for it? And from what I am reading between the lines is, its someone else's issue to pay for "our sport" and then expect the tab to be picked up, so you can have everything you want? THAT right there is the problem. I am not calling you out, just pointing out, EVERYONE needs to participate in some form financially, or there will never be a way to grow and sustain what is a never ending uphill battle.

How do we get everyone to help pay so we can get all upgrades? Lets start there.

Sport is dead, has been dead for the last 5 years. Now they think fishing boats are offshore boats. It will NEVER comeback.

Let’s Recap Again.
1. This posting was referring to terrible coverage of an event.
2. We have a sponsor who has invested in the sport
3. The coverage was subpar
4. I made recommendations for improvement, one phase at a time (video quality then commentator vetting)

Since Xinsurance is vested in some fashion on the financial end, improving their coverage could drawn in more sponsors and viewership, Right? The sport is not dead. It has been going up and down as far back as I can remember.

Matts Scrapyard skits are definitely helping to keep things alive

You called, Im out….

My view is this "sport of racing" will really never be more than club level when comparing to other sports. There is no money to be made, it's really just people that have the ability wanting to race.

It's a show that is hard to sell to the masses for money, because of the reasons posted.

What made racing so good in the past was innovation and effort could get you to the top of the podium. Now, it's money that gets you there.

This is also from an advanced level tech of the sport.

Create classes and limitations that promote innovation and race in interesting water. I wouldn't want to watch an offshore boat drive around in a puddle.

Agree somewhat…..but from a sponsorship level it is a cheap way to advertise compared to other motor sports, if the coverage is decent. Never any money in it worth a hoot but air time on the tube/web is worth clicks/dollars.

I put it on the background in the garage and forgot about it. Was highly disappointed

TV coverage
 

I'm at the New Orleans race today. Great racing and action. Wish more boats were here. But the live feed was awsome! Great job being done! They had a big screen tv set up for watching also. I watched from shore plus my wife had it on her phone. You guys that are following Xinsurance are following the wrong person. He has an agenda and is using the boat racers. And he can't even get a good production with his fancy helicopter! Such an ego maniac idiot! Learn from the past people! Get along and race together.

New Orleans coverage was pretty good yesterday!!! Hope for the same today.

I don't know the specifics, but "cheap" is not what companies desire. It is a return on the investment, whatever the investment level may be. I would almost bet that if a company sponsored a race boat for $50,000 vs spending $50,000 on a social media campaign focused on the targeted customer, the social media campaign would win about any day. That said, sponsoring a boat is definitely can definitely be more "sexy". Horrible coverage, at some point, will even take the "sexy" away.

some riff happend and that was the reason for the low boat numbers. not sure what it was but always seems to be something in the world of boat racing..........

the riff was created by x insurance. He's going to ruin the sport with his crap. He's dividing the racers. I hope people wake up and unite to get the boat numbers up in all races.

Same thing has been happening for 30+ years.

unfortunately, that is a true statement. But I really felt things were going in a good direction with P1 and APBA. Then this guy shows up, with his helecopter and videos all the boats racing around with his name on the side and now wants a new organization instead of APBA. Which has been around forever. It's pretty obvious to me that he's into it for himself. Not the racers. He wants to save money by having less safety personnel. I really hope this can be worked out. For the good of the racers and the sport as a whole.

You are strongly misinformed. WPRA is not a Xinsurance only org by any means. It is made up of boat builders, boat racers, promoters, marketers, etc. Xinsurance has been helping racers out for years. Sponsoring many bracket class teams, Pro Class -1 teams etc. They have also provided race teams with awesome coverage for absolutely free! Also have helped out Jeff from freeze frame and a whole host of other people. This new org started as a result of an agreed upon arrangement between APBA and the Pro Class-1 owners group falling through so the team owners got together and started WPRA to do there own thing not under APBA sanctioning. Just like OPA, lake of the ozarks, Michigan city, Chicago, Clear Water, Key west race sites. Obviously the race teams have decided to race with WPRA as well as P-1/APBA. It’s confusing and frustrating and wish this never happened. But trashing a man that has helped out many race teams and people and not asked for a dollar is not right.

I think there are some small, reasonable things that can be done to dramatically improve the camera coverage at least. I would like to see the organization take a page out the the King of Hammers book, and give racers the opportunity to mount their own cameras and broadcast box, so that the production booth can use those feeds. This is very popular in the off-road scene, its quite affordable, and lets the producers dial in to almost every truck on the course.

Second, we need more aerial/drone footage. This whole bit of having the xinsurance helicopter chasing the entire race, but having no live footage from it is bull****. If they are not willing to share footage for the broadcast, then we need a couple drones in the air at the corners chasing boats, and the xinsurance heli can ****off and fly around the drone zones.

Third, a good recap video put up on YouTube highlighting all the good racing and close calls and cool moments. The week after the race. We need short format, action packed videos. Or at the very least, a condensed broadcast that features only the racing and not the hours of waiting in between.

I know that we race fans can always use more footage especially live on the course. Hoping that we get to see more of that.