CueSport TV - The Blog

Over the last few months I have been mentioning the Four-nations Blackball event that we are going to put on in Bournemouth, Dorset.

The only problem is that at the moment we only have three nations confirmed, Wales, France and Scotland.

If you are a) English and b) think you can play Blackball at the highest level then please contact me on enquiries@cuesport.tv for further information on this great event.

The dates of the event are 8th-9th May 2010 in Bournemouth Dorset.

English/UK Pool blackball, cuesport tv, four-nations

So we have it marked down, 8th-9th May, the first ever Four-nations Blackball Cup featuring teams from England, Scotland, Wales and France.

I have been talking about it for a while and have now confirmed all teams except for England (come on boys!)

The event is due to take place in Bournemouth, Dorset over the said weekend and it will become quite historic in its make-up. Not only will it be the first time the tournament has been held but the broadcast itself will also be a first for Cuesport TV and possibly even the world.

Originally every match was going to be shown back-to-back on one table, but due to the extra team this means we have to use two tables. But do not fear we have a plan!

Part of the reason for moving the event to Bournemouth is the fact that this is the first town in the UK to receive 100meg fibre optic broadband. What we plan to do will be amazing:

• Viewers will be able to choose a match from the two tables
• Each table will have two seperate live streams
• A viewer will be able to choose between SD & HD versions dependant on their own broadband speed

Not only that but I can also release the format that is going to be used below is an example:

• Wales (A) v France (A) - Best of 17 frame singles
• Wales (B) v France (B) - Best of 17 frame singles

If both teams win one of the singles matches then we go to a decider:

• Team Wales v Team France - Best of 9, alternate shot doubles

So that is the match format but the teams will also be playing a double eliminator across the weekend until the champion is crowned on the Sunday. Do not forget, this is a Blackball rules event.

Any thoughts and comments are appreciated.

English/UK Pool blackball, cuesport tv, four-nations, tournament

After months of me talking about it on this blog, Facebook and Twitter, In the Frame, our magazine show, finally launched with the pilot episode today.

This first episode features Ben Davies and Mel Harley and was filmed at Snook’s in Weymouth last month.

The 2nd year Media degree students at Weymouth College were reposnsible for the filming, directing and editing and have done quite a nice job.

The only thing that lets it down is my good self in the presenters role!

We need two presenters for this show in future preferably one male and one female quite young and interested in either sport as a whole or with a specific interest in pool and snooker. If you are interested in this then drop us an email to intheframe@cuesport.tv

You can watch the first 18 minute trial episode by following this link:

Cuesport TV Launch In The Frame - You can still enter the on screen competition!

General cuesport tv, in the frame, magazine show, pool, snooker

Back last year we trialled some HD streaming using our platform and the results were very nice. The response to the videos was also excellent. It always was the plan to complete full length matches in high definition.

Due to the nature of the web and the fact that people are generally watching on a smaller screen to their TV we have opted to rollout out the full length videos in 720p high definition.

The data rates of streaming a HD video mean a download speed of around 4meg is required to watch the videos without buffering.

The first of these full length matches is now available and is the first round match (Chris Melling v James Kay) at the GB9 British Grand Prix Pro Cup event last year. Please do tell us if we are wrong but we also think that this is a web first. Cuesport TV has become the first streaming channel to provide a full length 9-ball pool match in high definition.

The rest of this tournamnt, a further four matches, will also be HD encoded.

For those viewers that struggle to watch the HD versions due to low bandwidth then a standard version is also available for viewing.

Please let us know your thoughts on the videos and if you experience any problems. The best way to find out if you can view them without buffering is to run a speedtest.

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Back in late December I set the challenge of trying to get 1000 fans to the Cuesport TV Facebook Fanpage by January 31st.

I can announce that even with another 4-odd hours remaining we have passed the target.

What this means is, that as promised, we will make a £100 donation to the Paul Hunter Foundation. In addition we will be awarding a £50 voucher to one fan to be used at Billiards Boutique.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that supported the challenge and have either discovered or continued enjoying Cuesport TV. I now have to think up another challenge and fundraiser to push us over the 2000 fan target and beyond.

Later this year (probably March) we will have an exclusive Guinness Record attempt that will be shown live online throughout the duration. For this we will be asking for donations from our viewers and fans to raise some good cash for an excellent cause.

So once again, Big Thanks!

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Along with many of you out there I am sure, I will be watching the Mosconi Cup which starts in about 6 minutes at time of typing. Each year I try to provide live updates and posts on the blog but I am going more interactive this year and am going to do live updates via my Twitter account.

@cuesporttv (Twitter link) I will be using the hash tag #mosconicup make sure you use it as well and see if we can get a bit of a buzz going online.

I want to hear from all of you either on this blog or via the Twitter account.

Oh and go Europe!

Great to see Darren Appleton get the spot he fully deserves for Team Europe plus USA have two exciting rookies in Dennis Hatch and Oscar Dominguez as well

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Rather than regurgitate something that is already written you can see the full press release here: 8-Ball Pool Super Tour Live. We are pleased to be involved in this tour as it means we can provide high quality pool for our viewers including numerous World 8-Ball Champions like Phil Harrison.

On the press release page there is a poll asking who will win this event, it is a tough question as one of the attractive things about this series is that anyone on their day could win. So far from three tournaments we have had three different winners and it is likely we will see a fourth winner this weekend as well.

Throughout the weekend we will be making score updates and results available not on the blog this time but over at our good friends Cue Club International, here you can get involved in live discussion and also make a few more predictions about the event.

The live coverage is available to paid subscribers only from 4pm on Saturday 21st November, the action (that starts at 12pm) will be free until that time, so feel free to dip in and have a look.

I am predicting Simon Ward to win this one, if he plays!

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It has been a while coming but I thought I would post some early news about a brand new show that Cuesport TV are producing called ‘In the Frame’.

The show will have a magazine feel with fresh, young presenters, initially the show will be live for 30 minutes once per month with the possibility of extending this to 1 hour twice monthly based on the results of the trial period.

Each show will feature two guests, interviews, ‘Rackrunner Challenge’, news, events calendar and competitions. A date and guests for the first show are not yet confirmed but it is likely that snooker professional Ricky Walden and Managing Director of Global Snooker, Neil Tomkins will take part.

The live show (and video-on-demand) will be completely free and there is the possibility of website owners taking an embedded version of the show to place on their own websites.

Each month will take a different feel with guests from the world of pool and american pool lined up for future editions. It is not only about the playing side of the game however as cuemakers, manufacturers, coaching and media pundits are also lined up for 2009/10 onwards.

When the date is confirmed I will post again but please look out for this one it will be a celebration of cue sports every month!

I forgot to mention that it is being produced in conjunction with Weymouth College Media Dept. Students on the degree course will be given the opportunity to take part in all aspects of the production as part of the work experience element required on the course.

More information later.

General cuesport tv, in the frame, pool, ricky walden, snooker, weymouth college

I have just sent out a number of tweets via @cuesporttv mentioning the fact that we seem to have had a number of video files go walkabout!

I must thank Jon Shapland for letting me know in detail what the issue was otherwise we may never have found them. It seems when we moved content from Cuesport TV across to 8-Ball Pool TV some of the files decided to find a new life in the etherworld. Good luck to them!

Thanks to file-cloning we have managed to track down files with a similar gene pool and are slowly integrating them back into the system.

If you find any videos or other media on any of our channels that come up with ‘Media Off Line’ then please let us know, no need to call the authorities we don’t want to be shutdown for video file neglect.

Thanks for your help.

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This last couple of weeks I have spent a lot of time adding brand new video content to Cuesport TV. Never has there been so much video added in such a short space of time. It is my belief that this is what will drive the channel forward in terms of revenues and viewers, which incidentally go hand-in-hand.

Anyone trying to make revenue from video online with either a subscription or advertising model firstly needs viewers. Without people accessing the channel (or channels in our case) then there is never a chance of revenue being made. This is a very simple thing to write, but in essense is not overly easy to achieve without the right kind of optimisation or funding.

It is something that we have always wanted to develop, and it would be interesting to know how many people are actually searching for pool and snooker related video. What would also be interesting would be to know where they are searching. My estimate would be that most of these searches are carried out on video sharing sites like YouTube. If that is the case it calls into question the business model. The only other way to drive high levels of traffic is to have relevant content and then to pay for it.

We have peaked at around 42,000 viewers in a calendar month and on average viewers are watching for around 26 minutes. The new platform has made it easier for a viewer to find content yet we don’t seem to find people sharing it, I would love to know why.

Have we reached our peak in terms of viewers? What can be done to generate more interest for what we do? Is there really not a massive market for what we offer?

I think I will develop this in a future blog post, if you have any thoughts, good or bad please let me know.

General cuesport tv, internet, online video, optimisation, traffic, video revenue