Wrestling and the advancement of the internet

[A Screen Up]

With the number of people who watch TV shows, movies and sports events via the internet ever increasing, I wonder how long it will be before, if ever, an upcoming wrestling promotion takes full advantage of this and becomes a major organisation. With Apple's first contribution to the Smart TV world being around the corner, there's little reason to think that they won't once again revolution yet another industry, as they did so with their efforts in music, phones and tablets.

 

Every wrestling company who aims to gain a reputation beyond their local market needs some sort of media platform to showcase their product, introduce new fans, develop characters and storylines, and create some sort of episodic flow to keep fans returning. Traditionally, this has been television (WWE, WCW, TNA). Other times it has been via DVD sales as with companies such as ROH or PWG, and quite often it's simply a website, Facebook account and YouTube channel used by smaller independent groups.

 

History has shown us in recent years that it can be difficult to expect people to tune into a regular wrestling programme over the internet, as watching on a small screen is not ideal. However, with the advancement of the internet and, as I have already mentioned, Smart TVs looking set to take over from standard televisions over the course of the next few years, then it would be perfectly plausible for a wrestling company to produce a weekly 'iShow', for instance, which could be viewed on large Mac and PC screens, and obviously via Smart TVs.

 

No longer would a smaller organisation have to search for the holy grail - a television contract. If they aired a weekly one hour iShow, for instance, which was available to watch for the duration of the week as opposed to a set time slot and maybe a repeat a couple of evening's later.

 

I'm wondering what those of you on here post think could (or more specifically, will) happen over the course of the next few years if 'iMedia' begins to take over, or at least catch up to, traditional television.

 

Remember that it would be a lot easier and cheaper to produce a show using internet as the final broadcasting medium, and perhaps creating a promotion whose sole output was through the internet (utilising Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google etc for maximum effect). You'd then have other revenue streams such as advertising spaces on your shows and websites, and the possibility of offering iPPV's.

 

Could this be a boost for the wrestling industry, or will the small-time and often unprofessional outfits trying to make a name for themselves clog this particular medium up, and all we will get will simply be the internet awash with the next WWE-wannabees, the same way as there were thousands of backyard 'feds' using Freeweb sites when that first came out?

 

Hopefully this thread will create a fair bit of discussion, as I think that over the next few years the advancement of the internet (and the technology we use to access it) will play a huge part in the future of how wrestling is viewed. Also, I don't want this to simply be talk about wrestling companies producing 'iShows' and suchlike, but also how wrestling companies could fully take advantage of the ever evolving internet in the near-future.

[Your Fight Site]

I think you pretty much covered what will happen in your post. The only thing that struck me was the notion of a 'weekly' show, when the Internet is an immediately available medium and not subject to a schedule like a TV channel is.

 

I see Internet TV being more like a library rather than a broadcast medium. So with wrestling, it could be episodic and you can just watch the episodes on demand, rather than catching a show one week, waiting a week for the next show, and losing interest if you happened to miss a week or a couple of weeks' worth of shows.

 

The Internet allows you to consume content at your own pace, rather than a broadcaster's pace, where you need additional gadgets like video recorders or DVD recorders or digital TV boxes like TiVo to record content. And even then, you may not get around to watching content you've recorded.

 

I think advertising will be an interested area though. If you're distributing your content through a provider like Apple and an "iTV" service or whatever, I can imagine they'll be wanting control of advertising on content much like they do with iOS apps. So it's going to depend on a) the uptake Apple's offering has, and b) their guidelines.

[Dirty Eddie]

I don't really think that it will make things much easier for smaller/upstart promotions to get their shows watched.

 

The reason is that I don't agree with the statement that "it would be a lot easier and cheaper to produce a show using internet as the final broadcasting medium".

 

As things stand now a small wrestling company can make their content available to anyone (youtube etc...) online or even pay to get shown on a small cable TV station, but the problem is that the shows often look like amateurish shit. This won't change with a move over to iTV or smart-TVs or whatever. If you can't produce a show that looks good enough now for regular TV, why will that be any different with some type of online file-sharing deal?

 

Obviously broadcast TV has standards that you (in theory) have to meet to get broadcast, but that's not out of spite towards poor promoters, it's because people won't watch stuff that looks like shit. So technically you could make a show on the cheap and stick it online, but very few will watch. The same would be true in future.

 

Smart TVs are going to be displaying all the HD stuff people expect these days, so for any wrestling show to keep up, they would also have to film in high quality with good production values. I don't really see how or why that would change?

 

It will obviously change things hugely for the likes of WWE and TNA but for the smaller upstarts, it will still be as hard as ever to A) get noticed and B) produce a product that looks good enough to compete (even a bit) with the big dogs.

[Sphinx]

I'm not bothered about internet TV. I guess it's tapping into people increasingly buying box sets and that set times are outdated. But then you have programmes with hash tags in the corner. The idea is if you're watching Britain's Got Talent, you can write 'omg pure crease at old man #goldenoldie'. When you're not watching shows at the same time as the rest of the public, that's all out of whack. I'm just not convinced by it. I know a lot of people who watch TV with a laptop in their lap at the same time. On paper, it might seem a good idea to amalgamate the two, but having a Twitter feed come up as you're watching TV sounds shit to me. Unless I've got the concept wrong. I don't think it'll take off. I hear smart TVs outsell 3DTVs, but I think 3DTVs came so soon after Blu Rays.

 

It's not worth jumping on until it's well and truly proven it's the successor to TV as we know it.

[A Screen Up]

Smart TVs are going to be displaying all the HD stuff people expect these days, so for any wrestling show to keep up, they would also have to film in high quality with good production values. I don't really see how or why that would change?

 

The thing is, even gadgets such as HD video cameras are coming down massively in price. Perhaps the likes of your small-time groups in the local village halls won't see too much of a difference or be able to benefit greatly, but let's use ROH as an example of the size I'm looking at here.

 

Without taking into account what you may think of their actual in-ring product, if they'd had the option of creating a weekly or monthly iShow in their early days as opposed to the slow, costly and inconvenient DVD-only distribution market that they used then they could have grown and expanded much more swiftly and more effectively than they did.

 

Graphics production is yet another aspect that is forever coming down in price, and though you're never going to be on par with WWE's or TNA's levels of production budgets, companies such as ROH and PWG certainly have respectable enough production values. Even going back further, I'm sure that promotions like FWA could have benefited greatly.

 

When Ring of Honor was on fire throughout 2005 and 2006, I'd have loved to have followed the group much more closely (as too did a lot more fans) but it was just too costly and inconvenient to order their DVDs on a regular basis (not to mention that iShows would be much more up-to-date). If they'd have put out a free show every week or so and then had an iPPV for

[Sphinx]

HD camcorders are coming down in price, but are you talking handy cams and flip cams? You need a decent lighting rig, decent venue, decent audio and a dozen other things to not look small time. Not to mention skilled directors and camera men.

[A Screen Up]

HD camcorders are coming down in price, but are you talking handy cams and flip cams? You need a decent lighting rig, decent venue, decent audio and a dozen other things to not look small time. Not to mention skilled directors and camera men.

 

Sorry if I've not explained it too well, but I'm trying to say that it's the serious promotions who have the budgets to produce a respectable on-screen product (ROH, PWG, FWA etc), but can't afford or who are unable to secure a television time-slot who are the ones who would benefit the most. It's well documented that television deals are like trying to get hold of rocking horse shit for the vast majority of wrestling promotions, Ring of Honor struggled with theirs, ECW before that...

 

If Ring of Honor, for instance, announced that they were going to produce an internet show each week that you could watch at any time from the comfort of your Smart TV, then it would be an instant boost for them. In theory, they could have a potentially greater audience than a respectable television channel could offer them in America.

 

I'm not trying to say that the advancement of technology is going to be a divine miracle that's going to wipe out all that is bad in wrestling and make it piss easy for anybody with a ring and a roster of wrestlers to instantly gain recognition - I just believe that it could genuinely be a new medium for a number of groups to take advantage of instead of soley relying on YouTube videos or DVD sales to get their name out and create an extra income.

 

Of course, you will still need a lot of the factors that go into creating a television show, it could just be achieved for a lower cost and with much more convenience.

[Vamp]

Surely half the point of being on TV is that it puts your product out there to a wider audience? I-PPV makes that a lot harder. People aren't flicking through the channels and stumbling onto you, you're having to go out there, grab people by the bollocks and also demand that they pay for you. And wrestling promoters who aren't trying to use social media to buggery are fucking morons anyway.

[Your Fight Site]

HD camcorders are coming down in price, but are you talking handy cams and flip cams? You need a decent lighting rig, decent venue, decent audio and a dozen other things to not look small time. Not to mention skilled directors and camera men.

Indeed. A HD camcorder doesn't make you a skilled TV producer. Just like a 20 megapixel SLR camera doesn't make you a top-flight photographer. Even if you run your images through an Instagram filter.

[A Screen Up]

Surely half the point of being on TV is that it puts your product out there to a wider audience? I-PPV makes that a lot harder. People aren't flicking through the channels and stumbling onto you, you're having to go out there, grab people by the bollocks and also demand that they pay for you. And wrestling promoters who aren't trying to use social media to buggery are fucking morons anyway.

 

I think that's a narrow-minded way of looking at it. Obviously, getting your promotion onto a solid TV channel at a nice time-slot is superb - you instantly have the potential to be seen by millions of people channel surfing or looking for something different. However, as I've already mentioned, this theory is that it could benefit the middle-tier groups, the ones who don't have an endless budget to get themselves a credible TV slot.

 

Your point regarding the iPPV's - unless you've misread most of what I've mentioned about that, you'll see that the idea I had was that the internet is an ever increasing medium where you can appeal to more and more people and it's getting forever simpler and cheaper to do so, and so you could offer a free iShow to gain fans, and build towards a show that they would be willing to pay for (via an iPPV). I would never expect Johnny Nextdoor to fork out for an iPPV from a group he's never heard of.

 

As I previously mentioned, Smart TVs and such won't be a miracle platform. But they really could be of benefit to a lot of promotions out there who could look at using it as opposed to a prime-time TV show.

[Sphinx]

If every man and their dog can get on internet TV, it's going to be harder to distinguish who is worth your time.

[Vamp]

Surely half the point of being on TV is that it puts your product out there to a wider audience? I-PPV makes that a lot harder. People aren't flicking through the channels and stumbling onto you, you're having to go out there, grab people by the bollocks and also demand that they pay for you. And wrestling promoters who aren't trying to use social media to buggery are fucking morons anyway.

 

I think that's a narrow-minded way of looking at it. Obviously, getting your promotion onto a solid TV channel at a nice time-slot is superb - you instantly have the potential to be seen by millions of people channel surfing or looking for something different. However, as I've already mentioned, this theory is that it could benefit the middle-tier groups, the ones who don't have an endless budget to get themselves a credible TV slot.

 

Your point regarding the iPPV's - unless you've misread most of what I've mentioned about that, you'll see that the idea I had was that the internet is an ever increasing medium where you can appeal to more and more people and it's getting forever simpler and cheaper to do so, and so you could offer a free iShow to gain fans, and build towards a show that they would be willing to pay for (via an iPPV). I would never expect Johnny Nextdoor to fork out for an iPPV from a group he's never heard of.

 

As I previously mentioned, Smart TVs and such won't be a miracle platform. But they really could be of benefit to a lot of promotions out there who could look at using it as opposed to a prime-time TV show.

 

You think I'm being narrow-minded? The internet's a great tool if you can use it right but it doesn't work miracles. Do you know how hard it is to make your video stand out on YouTube? If everyone and their monkey's aunty is doing it it makes it all the harder. The internet is a great opportunity but it won't make much difference for most groups. I think it's even harder to attract people to an i-TV show. Not eaiser. The fact that there's more people out there is great, but that doesn't take into consideration that along with that increase there's more choice, and there'd be more choice both wrestling or otherwise.

[A Screen Up]

If every man and their dog can get on internet TV, it's going to be harder to distinguish who is worth your time.

 

That theory is more than likely going to be the case.

 

Again, it will be down to the right promotions to get their name out and above the substandard groups, just as it is now with YouTube etc.

 

Personally, I think that it's perfectly reasonable to believe that if a group got their strategy and marketing right, they could do well by offering a weekly online show that could be viewed in high definition either on a large monitor, on a Smart TV. If there was a hot independent company out there at the minute who I could follow weekly on a TV screen, even it was simply streaming it through the internet, then I'd be a lot more likely to watch it than if I had to watch bits and pieces of it on YouTube or order DVDs that come weeks and weeks after the event took place.

 

If Johnny Promoter films a few of his shows and sticks them on the internet, he isn't going to instantly have a massive audience streaming his shows, but if a respectable group did it properly then, as I've mentioned a few times, it could be the next-best thing to a TV slot.

[A Screen Up]

You think I'm being narrow-minded? The internet's a great tool if you can use it right but it doesn't work miracles. Do you know how hard it is to make your video stand out on YouTube? If everyone and their monkey's aunty is doing it it makes it all the harder. The internet is a great opportunity but it won't make much difference for most groups. I think it's even harder to attract people to an i-TV show. Not eaiser. The fact that there's more people out there is great, but that doesn't take into consideration that along with that increase there's more choice, and there'd be more choice both wrestling or otherwise.

 

I'm the last fan in the world who thinks that 'more groups out there - the better', and so that's certainly not the sole advantage I think Smart TVs and the like could offer.

 

It's inevitable that, yes more groups would be uploading shows, but then there's always been thousands of companies out there who try their hardest to get our attention to no avail - it'll be only slightly different even when more and more people are watching TV shows (not just wrestling) via the internet.

 

Of course it's nigh-on impossible to make your video stand out on YouTube with no other form of advertising, word-of-mouth or whatever other type of marketing you might be using. But, imagine that your group has a fairly healthy budget (nothing in the millions) and you've built a fairly solid fan base but there's no way that you can get your show onto TV. Less and less people are ordering DVDs, and nobody likes following your show on a small, ten-minute YouTube video. What happens when people begin talking on forums and word gets out that your product is shit hot, yet there's no other way you can broadcast your shows to increase your audience? This is precisely when you could take full advantage of being able to put out a show each week that would be extremely easy for fans to access, and stream on their Macs or Smart TVs.

[Dirty Eddie]

If Johnny Promoter films a few of his shows and sticks them on the internet, he isn't going to instantly have a massive audience streaming his shows, but if a respectable group did it properly then, as I've mentioned a few times, it could be the next-best thing to a TV slot.

 

It's an issue of brand-awareness.

 

There are probably a bunch of half decent wrestling shows on free internet viewing sites already - the problem is I have never heard about it from anywhere reliable.

 

The key would be in partnering up with established brands or TV shows (that already have name value and/or and audience) and getting the name out there.

 

If suddenly everyone had a Smart TV, it would be the same as if everyone suddenly had HD Youtube on their tellys - technically they would be able to watch a certain free wrestling show, but without actual advertising, they'd never even know about it.

 

Could certain companies benefit from it - sure thing. But there will be so many others that try (and fail) that there will still be a bunch of awful wrestling trying it's best to pretend it's good, and polluting the waters for any decent shows out there.

 

The most likely option for actual profit would be something like an Apple-run Wrestling Channel Online, that would work like Netflix. You'd pay your