These guys are a piece of work. Let's put together some suggestions before they go bankrupt.
These guys are a piece of work. Let's put together some suggestions before they go bankrupt.
secondtry wrote:
These guys are a piece of work. Let's put together some suggestions before they go bankrupt.
1. Get higher quality stabilizing cameras so that the videos aren't so jerky.
2. Change your revenue model to pay per event.
My suggestion is simple - Just don't piss me off.
There are two concrete suggestions that go with that.
1) Continue to be a streaming site for parents of HS and college athletes. It's way cheaper for mom and dad to pay to watch the stream of some po-dunk meet than it is to get in a car and go watch it. I'm sure there is money that can be made in that.
You'd have to pay me to watch the Yale Track Classic, Carnegie Mellon Invitational, 2017 New Mexico Collegiate, etc. Make your money off of that.
There's no need to piss the fans off and little money to be made with the pro events. The sport isn't that popular. Make your money on the parents.
Universal Sports already showed there isn't money to be made in streaming the pro events. Paying Dubai for the rights and getting 50 people to sign up isn't wildly profitable (well I guess it might be if they forget to cancel and you get them on the hook for $200 each).
2) If you are going to force people to pay, at least let them know how much it's going to cost and let pay for a one off event. Don't make them sign up for a membership first before finding out the price and then make that membership automatically recurring.
Hire some Boomer and Gen X ers. The Millennial banter gets old after awhile especially when they talk about predictions and forecasting races. It is a step up from MileSplit meaningless click bait lists. There's plenty of old/experienced coaches and athletes to draw from that's for certain.
Extraordinarily stupid business practices by FloTrack...great way to alienate potential customers also!
get a tripod for interviews
Serious question: Why doesn't Flotrack stream all events for free, but just fill them with advertisements? I wouldn't mind if they played an ad after every track event, and that seems like a better business plan then having a subscription system. We as fans would be happy with free content, and Flotrack would still make money off every single event.
Curious who will be calling this race and if they will be able to pronounce half the top athletes?
My single biggest complaint is the cost. Their screwing themselves, and all the fans with their pricing model. If they think users are going to pay 2X what it costs for Netflix/Hulu/Prime and provide shaky grainy content, they are insane. Drop it to either:
1. A low cost monthly subscription that reflects the real value. Maybe $5 per month.
or
2. A pay per event system. $1-$2 depending on the event.
They are generating some serious hatred for themselves among fans of the sport.
Maybe they are going for the "any publicity is good publicity" thing.
secondtry wrote:
These guys are a piece of work. Let's put together some suggestions before they go bankrupt.
I don't know their financial statements. And I assume the broadcast rights for the dubai marathon probably aren't too extravagant - money-wise that is.
That beind said, they can't be doing too badly if they can even purchase the rights for any marathon.
I agree, they should have an option to just buy a single event. Even $5 for something like Dubai is more then reasonable IMO. Lots of people would buy it...
Flotrack didn't cover the Houston Marathon this weekend which is probably 2 hours from their headquarters in Austin. They either don't have tons of cash to spare or don't care about events they don't broadcast.
They've got tons of college events I don't care about.
Good thing is most pro events are on TV.
OTCSucks wrote:
Serious question: Why doesn't Flotrack stream all events for free, but just fill them with advertisements? I wouldn't mind if they played an ad after every track event, and that seems like a better business plan then having a subscription system. We as fans would be happy with free content, and Flotrack would still make money off every single event.
Cause ads barely pay.
This is a gross oversimplification but it could be said that every page on the Internet is worth half a penny in ad revenue. So to get $20, you either have to get 4,000 people to read an article or get one person to pay $20. So if Centro's mom and dad both pay to listen to his interview ($40), then they are making more money than if it was on their for free ( now way does the average video interview get anywhere close to 8,000 views).
Now video ads pay more but you catch my drift.
coverme wrote:
Flotrack didn't cover the Houston Marathon this weekend which is probably 2 hours from their headquarters in Austin. They either don't have tons of cash to spare or don't care about events they don't broadcast. .
Correct, which proves my point that they don't need the big events.
Just do the po-dunk HS and college meets. But that's not sexy. It's sexier to act like you are a journalist and perhaps more importantly it's sexier pitch to VCs the line "We are the ESPN of Olympic sports" than to say "We are a HS and college streaming service of niche sports that only mom and dad pay to watch but there are a lot of mom and dad's out there."
I have no problem with FloTrack covering events that aren't being covered and charging for that service. That is a noble business and they should of course demand appropriate compensation for that.
But buying the U.S. rights to the Dubai Marathon, which up until this week was to be freely distributed to U.S. viewers, is just ridiculous. They've added ZERO value to the coverage and have mostly just pissed a bunch of people off.
I understand that they're running a business, but it doesn't seem like FloTrack has a sense of their place in the industry or what their prospective audience and customers want. As a result, their business model is going to flounder until they hopefully adjust their strategy or fold out of business.
Onceafastcat wrote:
Hire some Boomer and Gen X ers. The Millennial banter gets old after awhile especially when they talk about predictions and forecasting races. It is a step up from MileSplit meaningless click bait lists. There's plenty of old/experienced coaches and athletes to draw from that's for certain.
My goodness, PLEASE get announcers that don't say the same phrases over and over and over again, know what they're talking about, and don't come off as complete fools. I hate having to mute the video everytime, but it's the only way that it's tolerable.
Agree wrote:
secondtry wrote:These guys are a piece of work. Let's put together some suggestions before they go bankrupt.
1. Get higher quality stabilizing cameras so that the videos aren't so jerky.
2. Change your revenue model to pay per event.
The first point above is something that can make or break them. Their footage is often so shaky as to be unwatchable without getting a headache/eyeache. I don't understand how professionals aren't using a gimbal nearly 100% of the time. They aren't even that expensive.
OTCSucks wrote:
Serious question: Why doesn't Flotrack stream all events for free, but just fill them with advertisements? I wouldn't mind if they played an ad after every track event, and that seems like a better business plan then having a subscription system. We as fans would be happy with free content, and Flotrack would still make money off every single event.
Most likely because ads like that make almost no money
Thinkaboutit wrote:
I have no problem with FloTrack covering events that aren't being covered and charging for that service. That is a noble business and they should of course demand appropriate compensation for that.
But buying the U.S. rights to the Dubai Marathon, which up until this week was to be freely distributed to U.S. viewers, is just ridiculous. They've added ZERO value to the coverage and have mostly just pissed a bunch of people off.
I understand that they're running a business, but it doesn't seem like FloTrack has a sense of their place in the industry or what their prospective audience and customers want. As a result, their business model is going to flounder until they hopefully adjust their strategy or fold out of business.
Great post. I actually copied it and sent it to Ryan Fenton.
they still have an "F" on BBB
Pretty sure (they think) that means Fantastic.