Drum Corps International places ESPN2 airing of World Championships on hiatus
(dci.org)
Friday, November 16, 2007 - 1:32 PM
Drum Corps International (DCI) today announced it will suspend the national television broadcast of its World Championship event on ESPN2, effective with the 2008 season. The DCI World Championship program has aired on the ESPN2 cable sports network for the past three years and was viewed by an audience of more than one million annually.“This was a very difficult business decision, but one that was necessary in light of the sizable economic challenges facing DCI and its member corps,” said Dan Acheson, Executive Director and CEO of Drum Corps International. “Both DCI and ESPN anticipated continuing the program for 2008, but as operating expenses continue to rise for the corps, we are forced to look at the core activities and needs of our organization. After exhausting every other option, we have decided that it is in the best interests of the member corps to reallocate the tremendous resources dedicated to the television program to sustain other initiatives that will ultimately improve our collective prospects.”
The organization hopes to resume a national television broadcast in the future.
Acheson continued, “Although the broadcast is a very significant component in our ability to share our performances with the world, our non-profit organization simply can’t cover the expense of producing and airing the program, even with the very generous support of a substantial number of advertisers and corporate partners. We’ve been quite pleased with the viewership of this world-class event and are grateful to the number of sponsors who have helped us offset a portion of the production and airtime costs. In the end, we simply must make a responsible business decision on behalf of the corps.”
Prior to its three years on ESPN2, Drum Corps International World Championship broadcasts ran for more than 25 years on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).
“We know our fans will be disappointed with this announcement and are likely to feel as badly as we do,” Acheson continued. “We also anticipate that some fans will want to know if we can shift back to PBS in light of this decision, but that is not possible at this time. We hope that our loyal fans will continue to support Drum Corps International and its corps by attending and enjoying our live events, and by taking advantage of our audio and video productions, our cinema events and our ever expanding Web-based media.”
[...] be told, it doesn’t look like it will matter in a few years, as DCI is in such a decline they won’t even televise the world championships this year. They’ll still produce and charge $40 for the DVD of said event tho (I [...]
Pingback: The Blue Site » DCI News: Cadets Bested by 4 Corps in San Antonio? — 7/20/2008 @ 1:00 am
you screwed up when you switched to espn2 in the first place number one you probably lost alot of veiwers that dont get espn and two no one told us about the switch i never saw it till last year but i am very very angry you have stoped the broadcast i feel this is tring to force people to buy stuff from you when they may or may not have the money
you are tapeing it anyway to sell on dvd you could broadcast on pbs you have sponsors
you are setting yourself up for more problems cause you dont know how many fans you get from people acidently flipping across the channels that had never heard of dci
you guys beat all i have ever seen
sorry about the all lower case but i am too irritated to worry about my typing
margaret — 8/5/2008 @ 12:52 am
I believe this is a ploy to force people to buy the DVD. How much more can it cost to get this ready for air with sponsorship than to tape the podcast and dvd for sale. People will still buy the DVD because it is so edited for air play you have to buy if you want to see the whole show. I believe you are cutting off your nose to spite your face. You don’t know how many fans you get from people just flipping across channels that had never heard of DCI. This event has been broadcast for most of my lifetime. People look forward to this event all year. When you moved to ESPN2 in the first place that was a mistake. I had been looking for it on PBS the first two years it had moved. You are forgetting that people watch the boradcast to see if the shows are to their likeing, to see if they want to spend fourty dollars on a DVD. You may find out it actually hurts your sales. It will definately hurt your fan base, because my first time to see DCI was a taped copy of a PBS broadcast my band director brought to school and showed us. I was in love from the first veiwing. DCI has made alot of money from me and people I have turned on to drum corps since then. If there had not been a broadcast who knows how many people there are like me that have spent money with DCI that wouldn’t have other wise. I am very upset and angry at this decision and think that DCI fans should write in and tell the orginization how outraged we are. Let them know it does matter to us. The little people, not everyone has fourty dollars to buy a DVD of the shows every year and you are robbing hundereds of thousands of fans their one true pleasure that comes around once a year. In this economy when people can’t afford the extras like podcast and traveling to live events for your fans, the reason this exist in the first place, you should broadcast the event! Your fans are more loyal than most any other in the world and you would do well to remember why you are here! Or you may wind up loosing us because no matter how loyal people can be ticked off to the point of no return.
margaret — 8/5/2008 @ 1:21 am
Also write to ESPN2 and PBS tell them you are upset no one is boradcasting this event. Fans lets be let it be known we are the reason they are here and we are unhappy. Pass this on. Tell everyone! Let’s fix this.
http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/feedback.html
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?id=2826900
margaret — 8/5/2008 @ 3:15 am
well you really did it this time DCI. what a shame letting us alumni people of DCI not see the show this year unless you fork it out. The mistake you did with Muchachos in 1975 was even worse. When every corp that marched that finals all had HOLES IN THERE SHOW. SHAME ON YOU ALL and now. Well I guess your decisions are still coming up badly.
Sandy — 8/8/2008 @ 5:18 pm
I guess it makes more sense to add water features to shows and “enhanced applification” instead of working on basic fundamentals to make sure the activity has a good financial case.
Conrad — 8/9/2008 @ 3:07 pm
DUDE, the quarterfinals were not live any place less than an hour away from me and I’m so dissappointed the finals aren’t going to be aired…
KG — 8/9/2008 @ 4:08 pm
This is extremely disappointing. As a college student, I don’t have 40 dollars to drop on DCI DVDs when I have to be paying for tuition and other things. I already forked over 40 bucks to watch the webcast of the semis, and 48 bucks to see the quarterfinals at our theater. I can’t keep burning holes in my pocket for DCI. I was looking forward to the broadcast as were my parents. To not broadcast on PBS, a station proud to support things like DCI, is a complete disservice to your fans.
Allison — 8/10/2008 @ 9:05 pm
Hey you guys, I saw the last hour of the finals last year and was really looking forward to seeing ALL of it this year, then I hear that you aren’t airing it. I speak for myself and many others in saying, WHY? I think that you made a huge mistake in taking it off the air.
TJ — 8/12/2008 @ 11:54 am
The ESPN 2 broadcast sucked anyway - more like a drum corps infomercial. But I am still less inclined to spend money on a DVD if I cannot see the broadcast. It has been obvious for many many years that the DCI directors are not business people. Get some good consultants to straighten this disaster out or you will lose your alumni fan base very quickly - these are the fans with the spare change to buy DCI stuff.
Weeb — 8/14/2008 @ 1:59 pm
Yes - I believe this is a big mistake. I don’t pretend to be familiar with the economics behind the decision to move from PBS to ESPN2, but I will say that your PBS broadcast was one of the things I looked forward to each and every year. It was always shown on Thanksgiving Day, and I would always slip into another room to watch it to avoid having to watch professional football games with my family. Very fond memories…and I guess that’s all they are now because I will not pay $40 to watch it.
JNM — 8/18/2008 @ 1:19 pm
Was looking forward to showing my very young daughters the show this year to help interest them in music what a shame.
Scott K. — 8/18/2008 @ 8:22 pm