Getting their Vootage in the door
If there is a part of the Internet that one can considered an untapped market, it's "televising" sports.
Take ESPN.com's 360 site, where video streaming live games that aren't available on traditional TV has sort of set the bar for what could be something that makes almost every sporting contest accessable to those who chose to watch.
Now pushing that concept to another level -- and to a techo-savvy demographic that is sure to embrace it -- high school football should get its first Internet viability test now that new website Vootage.com has finally got up and running , including covering four games tonight (Friday) and four Saturday.
Jeff Proctor, a long-time live TV game sports producer, is president of a company called ProAngle, with business partner Steve Rangel. Together, they've started doing Lakers and Dodgers games for KCAL Channel 9, as well as produce things such as Raiders exhibition games, pool tournaments and a Special Olympics show.
With a four-camera set-up doing high-school games, they've created an Internet experiment that they'll call a work in progress, one that Proctor and Rangel continue to learn about as they go along. Most games this first year will be from the CIF Southern Section, but they just signed a deal to carry all the games from the new Herbstreit Challenge in Ohio that puts the top teams from that state against others from around the country.
Proctor reviewed the status of the site and how it'll work in a quick Q-and-A:
Q: How soon before the games on the site become live?
A: That will be answered better when we get funded, and we aren't yet, so we're trying to keep the costs down as much as possible. Once we've got it up and can gauge the interest, we'll be getting advertising generated and it'll be an easier proposition. Untlimately, everything is driven by costs. The games cost a few thousand dollars to produce and until we can pay, we can't make it up with volume.
Q: Is there a working business plan for this that someone else has been using to help you launch?
A: We've got a few different ideas on how to run this, but we do have a plan on paper and expect it to work, but so much is unknown right now. It's like a chicken-and-egg thing: We need the viewers to attract advertising, and we need advertising to be able to have something for the viewers.
Q: What makes these games look different from TV telecasts?
A: Graphics, for one. They aren't included on the screen, but are off to the side. The screen doesn't need to be covered with graphics. The play-by-play goes over untouched video. Our four cameras are the same that Fox Sports Net would use for a high-school game: two cameras at each 35 yard line, one in the end zone and one handheld on the field.
Q: With all your background on live TV broadcasting, what inspired taking it to the Internet?
A: There were a couple of moments last year when, doing a game, I felt TV was going to change and I wanted to be part of it. One of the biggest revelations was watching Texas play Texas Tech on ESPN360 last year. My wife is from Texas and the game wasn't on anywhere, so she sat in front of the computer for hours watching this ABC coverage that was available on the service. It occured to me, why aren't we doing that more? For someone like me who plays fantasy baseball while having a computer out while watching TV so I have the stats, why not marry the two? It's not earth-shattering stuff, but it's interesting to be on this end of it now.
Q: Why high school football versus any other sport that's available to broadcast?
A: I think it's the best thing available. We started talking to John Costello, the marking director at the CIF Southern Section, and this was something they've been trying to get into, so it made sense to start with them. There are hardly any high school football games on the Internet, and when we go live, it'll be pretty cool. My expectations are that'll happen within a month, but I'm trying not to be overzealous. It might not happen until mid-October. Ultimately, alot of what drives this is the sponsorship we think we can get. We think there's an appetite for it and it should make sense to the sponsors interested in this age group that we are programming to.
The other thing we're going to try to do is live by a philosophy of giving back to the schools. If the students at the school we're doing the broadcast for are interested in helping with the broadcast through their media department, to me, that's making it even more fun. It's a grandious plan that's not realized yet, but we want to do it that way and make the kids aware of the jobs involved in televising sports. A TV career is one that not many are exposed to and this could help. And these kids are really what they call the "digital natives;" the rest of us are "digital immigrants."
Here's the tentative schedule of games that Vootage.com plans to cover (with actual dates of the games in parentheses):
Moorpark at Canyon (Thursday, Aug. 31)
St. Bonvaventure at Hart (Friday, Sept. 1)
St. Paul at St. Bonaventure (Thursday, Sept. 7)
Oaks Christian at Muir (Friday, Sept. 8)
St. Bonaventure at Canyon (Friday, Sept. 15)
Long Beach Poly vs. Pittsburg (Friday, Sept. 15)
Two games from the Kirk Herbstreit Ohio vs. USA Classic (Friday Sept. 15)
Four games from the Kirk Herbstreit Ohio vs. USA Classic (Saturday, Sept. 16)
Orange Lutheran at Valencia (Thursday, Sept. 21)
Vista at Mission Viejo (Friday, Sept. 22)
TBD (Thursday, Sept. 28)
Mater Dei at Edison (Friday, Sept. 29)
Santa Monica at Los Alamitos (Thursday, Oct. 5)
Hart at Loyola (Friday, Oct. 6)
Servite at Orange Lutheran (Thursday, Oct. 12)
Canyon at Hart (Friday, Oct. 13)