New Rumor

[Smashoar 0]

Yea, they have been airing poker off and on since 1993. And their production value is great. Espn has extended its coverage all the way to 2010. With plans of having a PPV final table at the 2007 World Series. Now why on Earth would they ever try and help out thier competitors?

[DoinSublime 0]

I see you Daniel.

[MrSmith 0]

It's got to start off somewhere. If poker continue to grow, one day there will be multiple channels devoted purely for poker just like in the UK.

The Poker Channel, ( which briefly changed to AllInSport) ceased broadcasting as of midnight last night.As has been mentioned, content is the problem. No WSOP, WPT or EPT, and endless re-runs of minor made for tv touneys probably contributed to its downfall. It did seem woefully underfunded from the start (it looked like it was run by someone with a passion for the game rather than business project)The only way this will work if people know they can switch on and see new programming on a daily basis.

[Startled 0]

It really can't happen, as has been posted. Of course, that doesn't mean it won't. (oops, there goes another rubber tree plant...).In favour: A fanbase, with money. Advertisers LOVE money. Quite a lot of content, and a lot of pretty good characters. You don't have to just show tournaments, past and present. Low cost, high value programming can be produced. Tutorials, interviews, even "news". We could probably get Daniel to do a Reality show, and we KNOW we could get Phil H. to do one. "On the tournament trail"? Of course, there's a variety of existing movie, TV drama and documentary content as well. Against: Everything. Access to broadcast rights is a big problem. Big players own the content, and may not like to farm it out. Access to broadcast space is a big problem, and the speciality channels have had trouble finding viewers. Access to advertisers is a big problem. They may love money, but there's little evidence they love US. Most of the advertising I see on existing poker broadcasts is poker-related (party, stars, etc.) Until Ford, GM, General Mills and others start buying, the margins will be tight. Content is a problem. There's a lot of content, but not enough for a full schedule (even if you could get the rights).It really can't happen, at least not in a traditional way. Maybe as a "web channel"? Maybe as a "poker day" fixed on a marginal network's schedule?

[psujohn 0]

Anyone a regular watcher of the reality TV network? I thought not. And reality TV has (had) a far larger fan base than poker.If online poker were completely legalized in the US and online sites could advertise a poker network would stand a chance. They'd have the advertising dollars to produce quality original shows. But also keep in mind that a lot of companies are reluctant to associate themselves with "gambling". You'd need Budweiser and Ford advertising to make it feasible. Still original poker programming could be pretty cheap to produce - what would it cost to produce a show like Live at the Bike. Even poker round table discussion shows would be quite cheap to produce. I think there's a ton of shows they could do that would be of interest to me and the rest of the poker nuts out there. But I don't know that that's a big enough audience to make the network fly.