CueSport TV - The Blog

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

A recent article on IPTV-news.com has indicated that Worldwide IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) subscriptions have risen 11% year-on-year. This equates to 26.9 million IPTV subscriptions now worldwide.

The biggest growth was in Europe where IPTV services saw a growth of around 51%.

You can read the full article here:

Worldwide IPTV Subs Reach 26.9 Million

IPTV subscriptions in my view is based around paid content so things like the BBC i-Player are not included in these figures. It is the way that TV and Internet is turning and we will continue to see growth over the coming years. In my opinion the UK is way behind in these services yet we are starting to see providers on the market.

How many of you guys have paid to subscribe to an IPTV service or web TV channel?

Do you see this as the future of TV?

General broadband, internet, iptv, iptv services, subscriptions, tv, video

In yesterdays post I mentioned the difficulty in gaining advertising in this particular economic climate, it wasn’t meant to be a moan, sorry if it was construed that way by anyone!

But in the total irony of the Internet later that same day we signed two brand new advertising clients to Cuesport TV and the sister channels.

We have agreements in place but I am going to wait until artwork is approved before releasing who the new advertisers are, I think it is only fair. Just gave us a bit of a boost at a time where we were starting to struggle to move the channels forward.

On another note from yesterday it has been confirmed that the World Ladies Masters snooker event will now be live on 12th September from 10am UK time. As we have a sponsor in place for this event it will be broadcast live for free.

General advertising, cuesport tv, internet, irony, Ladies Snooker

Not particularly related to pool or snooker but I read a number of business and marketing related books.

They interest me, especially web marketing and the new ’social media’ phenomenon.

The one I have just read is a great book by Seth Godin, I stumbled across Seth’s blog about three months ago and avidly read his daily blog posts that now come through directly to my inbox. You can find his blog here: Seth Godin.

The writing style of the book I read is very much the style of his blog but with some case studies and slightly longer sections. The book in question is Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

The idea of the Purple Cow is a simple one, get your business noticed by providing a product or service that is remarkable. In this day and age it is important to stand out from the crowd. There are a lot of practical examples in the book and it is a must read for any business owner, whether your company operates on the web or the high street and whether it is large or small.

Whilst I am on the subject, try this one as well: The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly

The next one on my list is also by Seth Godin, Tribes.

Click on the links and you can find the books directly at Amazon.

Have you read a great book recently? Please let me know, I would say it is my number one pastime outside of my work.

books books, business, internet, marketing, purple cow, seth godin, social media

Obviously being in the industry I like to keep up on the latest news from the world of snooker, so it got me thinking, what are the top 5 resources for keeping up-to-date with snooker news?

Of course there is no scientific approach to this and is based on my opinion alone but I am sure some of you will enjoy the links. You may also want to send me your own list and I can update it over time based on your own opinions.

Number 5: BBC Snooker - A very easy to read website with some great information and also video highlights (although may not be available outside the UK). My reason for only putting it at number 5 on my list is because the website only seems to cover the major events. Even more prevalent, obviously, are the BBC televised events.

Number 4: Sporting Life - the snooker pages on the Sporting Life website are comprehensive and results are updated in a timely fashion, the reason I have not rated it higher is because the site seems to be full of betting website adverts. Ok, maybe I am being a little touchy as snooker and betting do go hand in hand, but I am after the news not the odds!

Number 3: World Snooker - A good looking and functional site since the revamp and has some great news articles that are of course exclusive, would probably rank higher if they could sort out the live scoring.

Number 2: Snooker Scene Blog - It was difficult to decide between the top two (I will explain why in the next position) and although not an out-and-out news resource Dave Hendon’s Blog is one of the best snooker resources on the web that has a very good following. In the Snooker Scene veign it often does not pack any punches either!

Number 1: Global Snooker Centre - I love Dave Hendon’s blog, but, the reason I decided this was the number 1 snooker news resource on the web is because this website does not solely concentrate on professional snooker. All snooker events that they can gain information on are covered. There are a lot of things I don’t like about the site (mainly that it needs a bit of modernisation) but you cannot detract from the quality of the information they provide.

So Global Snooker Centre takes it, and I don’t think anyone would argue! However, if you feel I have missed something or would rank the sites in a different order then please let me know.

General Snooker global snooker centre, internet, resources, snooker news, snooker scene, World Snooker

All live events that we broadcast require an Internet connection to enable us to do this. In an ideal world this would be with an upload speed of at least 1 meg.

In the UK we are broadbands poorest cousin with standard upload speeds of around 450kbps in the best areas.

Picture quality of our live snooker and live pool events deteriorates considerably below this mark although we do broadcast at lower bitrates. For example this weekend in Wales we are streaming at 148kbps. It is pretty much the lowest we can really stream at and even this speed gives a poor picture quality in full screen.

We need Internet connections to be faster in the UK, especially as more and more Internet users are either watching or streaming their own video content.

The event from Belgium next week should be streamed at around 300kbps so quality of the images and sound will be far better.

General internet, pool, snooker, speed, upload