Dear Flotrack haters

My problem is with an event that had been advertised publicly as free (as in flotrack knew we knew) and then snatching it up moments before and asking us to pay for it.

That comes down to a bonehead decision to make themselves look bad. Flotrack is what it is, but in this instance it's not hard to understand the backlash. In my opinion they brought it upon themselves to have the angry internet nebbers pick them apart.

You are a college coach. Obviously you will be eager to see much of the content Flotrack has to offer. As a casual fan of the sport, I don't care about 99% of the content Flotrack has to offer. (As a graduate student I also don't have tons of money to be throwing around either.) The 1% I do care about is what was advertised as being free/free in past years until Flotrack came in and took it away - if anything just to spite people. "You don't want to join Flotrack? Fine, I'll take away what you want to see. And I'll make the quality worse than when it was free!" I highly doubt they got very many new customers joining Flotrack because of XC Nats or Dubai. (Well in the case of XC Nats they probably did by suckering people in with a "free" trial that people ended up having to pay for anyways.)

I agree with the comments others have made about colleges streaming their own events. My undergrad did this, and I don't think it cost them very much either.

Address this one... wrote:

My problem is with an event that had been advertised publicly as free (as in flotrack knew we knew) and then snatching it up moments before and asking us to pay for it.

That comes down to a bonehead decision to make themselves look bad. Flotrack is what it is, but in this instance it's not hard to understand the backlash. In my opinion they brought it upon themselves to have the angry internet nebbers pick them apart.

This. I'd pay even more if they picked up the rights to more events you CAN'T easily get here (minor IAAF Champs - Juniors, World Cross - international marathons, etc), but to take what had been free (NCAA XC, Dubai) and put it behind a paywall without adding any value, just seems like crass opportunism.

Bring Back the 880 wrote:

0/10

Anyone who would begin a thread's subject line with "Dear" is not one of us.

The last thing most people who read these boards would want to be is one of you.....

I would be a flotrack member right now if they offered a consistent feed with quality announcing. I've watched feeds multiple times now with friends that wouldn't stop freezing throughout and it was quite infuriating. On top of that the commentating is horrible.

Bottom line is.. Hire professional announcers and put more money into the technology the are using and I'll sign up. Until then.. They are a pathetic company solely surviving due to a lack of competition.

joho wrote:

What decent college or school doesn't have a fairly large video/design department that couldn't stream their own meets in a half professional manner.

The Big Ten schools at times do basketball games that are later shown on the Big Ten Network. I'm sure they could stick a Gimbal on a gator and stream a xc meet.

Another idea is them actually having competition, like any news or sports channels/websites, ex. Fox News & CNN or ESPN and Fox Sports.

It could help make prices drop some, their quality improve, or make them do event by event charges if someone else is doing those things.

simple logic wrote:

joho wrote:

What decent college or school doesn't have a fairly large video/design department that couldn't stream their own meets in a half professional manner. Use the injured or alumni runners to help plan and commentate but let the school stream. Sounds like it would be good experience for students wanting to go into that line of business.

This is actually an outstanding idea. What you are demonstrating is that the market is in dire need of new players. This will put large pressure on FloTrack and keep them honest. Seriously.

My two cents.

I'd be surprised if any new players come into this market.

First, we don't know the length of flotrack's contracts, or rights of first refusal, renewal.

If they could just get the streams to work...be clear, steady, etc. I'd be fine with them...with zero commentary.

It is really sad that Flotrack is allowed such a monopoly on all things related to running in America and the programming is painful to listen to or watch. For the past three years, I have become a fan of European Athletics and especially Polish competition. I don't speak the language but at least I can watch races online and stay current on the upcoming juniors in the middle-distance races.

240 dollars a year so you can see hours upon hours of AAU footage. Sign me up!

Bruce Tharp wrote:

It is really sad that Flotrack is allowed such a monopoly on all things related to running in America and the programming is painful to listen to or watch.

What do you mean Flotrack is "allowed" such a monopoly? There is nothing preventing a competitor from entering the market with a better and cheaper product.

Without Flotrack our ability to have knowledgeable conversations about the sport would be so much less than it is today. They are the reason why we get to enjoy coverage of things we never once thought were possible. At the same time, this is a capitalistic society. There's demand and they can supply. I don't know why it's such a shock that they profit off of it.

On the other, I would agree that sooner or later one of these other sites (LetsRun, Citius, USATF.TV, TSR, DyeState, RunnerSpace, etc.) will realize that people are sick of one company having a monopoly on the streaming of meets and maybe do something about it.

I blame the schools. As Rojo said, it's not like it was in 2008, when Flotrack was actually bringing some technical expertise to the table. These days, anyone can stream a meet. I think the premium meets like Mt. Sac (and certainly the NCAAs) should self-produce and sell access on a pay-per-view model. I'd pay $5 to watch SAC or $10 to watch NCAAs. But I'm not going to spend $240/year to watch maybe 6 meets. And it's not that I can't afford it. At some point, a price becomes offensive enough that people are disinclined to pay it simply on principle. (Besides, I'd definitely lose the moral high ground with my wife the next time I tell her that something is a waste of money.)

I agree with what you're saying. I would point out though that you are a competitor of flotrack. I think your model makes a lot more sense though, both for your business and for the sport.

I also wonder why colleges don't stream meets. It might be difficult in cross country but track is a nice controlled environment that it should be easy to set up a camera in the announcers booth with an injured athlete or friend or etc to point it in the right direction as the events go on.

In Michigan we have fought off Flotrack/Milesplit for our Indoor State Meet. We have a group that works with the meet who provides a high quality free stream. Milesplit came and took crappy videos last year and tried to charge for a lower quality version of the same thing that was available for free.

onlyguywithabrain wrote:

You guys should really re-think your position on flotrack.

No.

Not sure why people think Flo has a monopoly? Just look at RunnerSpaces list of meets they do streaming for. 300+ events for the last few years. Are you just talking about high school and college meets?

http://livewebcasts.runnerspace.com/gprofile.php?do=events&mgroup_id=37762

Either you buy it or you don't. Stop complaining. They do not owe you a free product.

I'd be a subscriber of Flotrack if they actually hired good announcers and had a quality/consistent video feed. I paid for it in 2015 and was so disgruntled that I stopped it for 2016. Since then I've watched at other peoples houses that have it and still have no regrets. They need ditch their current announcers and invest in professionals that aren't reliving Alex and Ryan from the beginning days. Also double their investment in live feed technology so it doesn't freeze constantly and go down.