In Response to Re: TV show thread : If they are not already Clients, then they will not, by definition, be on the Community. The Show still gets just as many e-Mails - we now push the e-addy HARD. Twitter? Well you say you don't understand it, which is fair enough. I think the Business does understand the very important role that Social-Media, in particular Twitter, now plays in ALL businesses. We must not ignore it, we must address it. "Ask the Expert" & "Analyse Me Play" have NOT disappeared, but they are being moved to different nights, & freshened up. "Poker School" is under review right now, & I'm not sure if it will return, when, or in what form. It is disappears, then that will leave a free slot for something else..... 861 will never stand still, it will always change things around, & try to be better. It is working so far, as audience ratings have improved dramatically of late. Higher ratings achieve nothing but the massaging of egos though, as those higher audiences have to be turned into new players. That's the key. Posted by Tikay10
great. new people. can we have more maxallys and fewer tommyds please?
(ps. alan, just knew you'd be ok with this line. big respect really)
I've had a SkyBet account for yonks, and a poker alias for a while but only really started playing just before Christmas. I started playing regularly because of two main factors: one - I came in after a few drinks and stumbled across the channel, and two - what I found when I got there.
It was a live show with Orford and Tikay, and I was struck by Tikay's enthusiasm. I enjoyed his mannerisms and views on hands, and that the pair of them were having a great time. Tikay plugged the forum and its poker clinic, and mentioned a DTD tournament which ran on Mondays for cheap where this great community got together and had a load of fun and banter. I loved the fact people could send their hands in and these guys would comment on their play, it seemed easy and accessible to all, and I wanted to hear my name on the show. So I got involved.
I checked out the lobbies the following day, and got back into the game I'd tried and fell out of love with 5+ years ago. I found the Poker Clinic in the forums and found confirmation of the things I'd been considering, and learnt loads more too (reading others' hand postings rather than placing my own). I came back to the channel and to my dismay it wasn't live every day!! I played some games, got involved in (some small) UKOPS events (this 'celebration of poker' that Tikay was particularly excited by), and I loved the buzz of it all. I got to learn names of regular players through watching the show, and to find these guys who are taking down tournmaments every day posting in the forums and writing diaries, I thought it was incredible (it is!).
SPT London came around, I tried many a satellite and eventually made it. I was then contacted by one of the forum teams and felt the full force of the community spirit that exists on Sky. It felt great. I attended SPT and got to see and meet all the familiar faces from the TV, and the unfamiliar faces behind the familiar aliases from the site.
I play far too much for my own good now, and I'm hooked on the show!
For me, this is the journey that Sky need to take today's non-member on. The first big barrier to all of that is that no-one appears to know the channel exists! It needs promoting in some way, whether this is through twitter or Sky Sports events I don't know, I'm no businessman. I personally found the cash game a little slow, I'd have preferred to hear more of the chat and banter, I also felt sorry for Norman Whiteside - it wasn't a normal (or easy) game to play - pre-flop raises were getting no respect (as they all just wanted to be involved and have fun, which is fine), but I imagine it achieved its objectives.
I had thought recently that the live shows had started to get a little samey with the same people sending in their hand requests, winning prizes etc and I'm not surprised to see a 'freshening up'. I now love the channel, and it doesn't need to reach out to me anymore, instead it needs to demonstrate to the target audience what is on offer, and start their journey. Promote the sign-up offer, promote the interaction, promote the community but also PROMOTE THE CHANNEL!!
I obviously also have personal fews on the current content, but I've rambled on way too long already.
My two-penneth for anything it may be worth.. I've had a SkyBet account for yonks, and a poker alias for a while but only really started playing just before Christmas. I started playing regularly because of two main factors: one - I came in after a few drinks and stumbled across the channel, and two - what I found when I got there. It was a live show with Orford and Tikay, and I was struck by Tikay's enthusiasm. I enjoyed his mannerisms and views on hands, and that the pair of them were having a great time. Tikay plugged the forum and its poker clinic, and mentioned a DTD tournament which ran on Mondays for cheap where this great community got together and had a load of fun and banter. I loved the fact people could send their hands in and these guys would comment on their play, it seemed easy and accessible to all, and I wanted to hear my name on the show. So I got involved. I checked out the lobbies the following day, and got back into the game I'd tried and fell out of love with 5+ years ago. I found the Poker Clinic in the forums and found confirmation of the things I'd been considering, and learnt loads more too (reading others' hand postings rather than placing my own). I came back to the channel and to my dismay it wasn't live every day!! I played some games, got involved in (some small) UKOPS events (this 'celebration of poker' that Tikay was particularly excited by), and I loved the buzz of it all. I got to learn names of regular players through watching the show, and to find these guys who are taking down tournmaments every day posting in the forums and writing diaries, I thought it was incredible (it is!). SPT London came around, I tried many a satellite and eventually made it. I was then contacted by one of the forum teams and felt the full force of the community spirit that exists on Sky. It felt great. I attended SPT and got to see and meet all the familiar faces from the TV, and the unfamiliar faces behind the familiar aliases from the site. I play far too much for my own good now, and I'm hooked on the show! For me, this is the journey that Sky need to take today's non-member on. The first big barrier to all of that is that no-one appears to know the channel exists! It needs promoting in some way, whether this is through twitter or Sky Sports events I don't know, I'm no businessman. I personally found the cash game a little slow, I'd have preferred to hear more of the chat and banter, I also felt sorry for Norman Whiteside - it wasn't a normal (or easy) game to play - pre-flop raises were getting no respect (as they all just wanted to be involved and have fun, which is fine), but I imagine it achieved its objectives. I had thought recently that the live shows had started to get a little samey with the same people sending in their hand requests, winning prizes etc and I'm not surprised to see a 'freshening up'. I now love the channel, and it doesn't need to reach out to me anymore, instead it needs to demonstrate to the target audience what is on offer, and start their journey. Promote the sign-up offer, promote the interaction, promote the community but also PROMOTE THE CHANNEL!! I obviously also have personal fews on the current content, but I've rambled on way too long already. Posted by bbMike
FWIW I dont think you rambled on too much. I think you told it as you found it and more likely how most people find it! The only thing I think is missing is where you say it doesn't need to reach out to you any more. I think encouraging new members is paramount to building the site but those at intermediate stages of development still need encouragement to stay with the site.
No worries Geldy, & I'll reply further to all of the questions & comments where applicable as soon as I can clear my desk a bit, I'm a bit overloaded right now.
I think you're too positive on the fate of "Twitter". Ten years ago you would have said the same thing of "Myspace", five years ago "Facebook". There'll be another Social Media site to take over from twitter too. I've never signed up to twitter, but have looked at a few peoples feeds. The amount of noise to genuine info is massive. How do people who follow large numbers of others wade through the sheer quantity of nonsense on it? Posted by FCHD
You don't wade through it,just follow Neil Channing, he retweets anything interesring on the entire Twitterverse.
Sky Poker Cash Game Probably best to mention that whilst discussing the Channel, too. Some liked it, some not so much, but that was quite specifically designed with a very sharp focus on a wider & new audience which we achieved through it being aired on Sky Sports every week. In that respect, & what it achieved, it was a major success. The Community - or some of them - enjoyed it too, to a lesser or greater degree, which was pleasing, as we hoped that would be the case. The next one is in the advanced stages of planning, & is likely to be recorded within the next three weeks. The Studio is booked, ditto the Crew etc. It will be along the same lines as the previous series, but with, for the most part, different players. We were frequently asked " why does it not include regular Community Members "? Yes, we'd like it to, & yes, it is possible, it might. But......it is aimed at a wider audience on Sky Sports. A regular Community Member here, on the site every night, does not, by definition, necessarily make good or watchable TV for a Sky Sports audience. We used to have a lot of Guests in from the Community, we respect them, & their loyalty to the Business. But many of them "froze" in front of the TV Cameras. That does not serve either party very well, & would not tick many boxes over at Sky Sports. On which note, you may well ask how I have got away with it for so long. I'll have to swerve that one, & just keep bluffing. I'll get called eventually. .........................................great to hear a new live cash game is being recorded so soon very entertaining with some great play & chit chat with good variety of players also the program where the hands were analysed i felt was great tv & entertaining i to get a pro players mind set can only be beneficial to ALL players you cant keep em all happy all of the time but you can keep some people happy some of the time Posted by Tikay10
If there is more emphasis on getting new customers, how come you dont have any kind of advertising for upcoming poker tournaments etc during the 5 min breaks? Most of the "hot seat" items have been repeated to death, surely a few infomercials of what people could be winning etc would help promote the site?
Never realised oddschecker was owned by by Sky , I use it all the time and have copied and pasted odds from it onto forum posts, but never gave the name of the site as i thought it wouldn,t go down to well on here
I suppose i can now say what a gr8 site it is with odds from everything from reality TV shows to all sports. A must see for all punters. Certanily the best odds comparison site i,ve used and i,ve used a few
I promised to re-visit the thread, & try to answer all the questions.
There is a bit of an honesty problem here - if I had not explained the reasoning, the matter would have died away quietly, but I really like to explain why the Business, or Channel, do certain things. In doing so, it often throws up more questions than answers.
In short, everything is done for a reason.
Having said all that, I may be causing myself more problems, but let me just re-iterate a few things, & how the recent changes came about.....
I have explained WHY some things were changed recently - it was a matter of getting better balance between the different target markets that Ch 861 seeks to address.
Two of the most important ones are.....
The Community, & existing player base.
Potential new players.
Each requires a different approach, & the two had got out of balance recently.
....we had a Meeting, in London, with most of the 861 "Talent", the Producers & Head of Channel, & some serious suits from Head Office.
The suits reminded us all why they invest so much money in the TV Channel, & suggested that we might need to get a better balance between the different targets. Fair enough.
Once the suits had gone, we sort of agreed between ourselves to make some changes in the short-term, to correct the imbalance.
Not necessarily permanent changes, but get things back where they should be.This might mean a temporary over-correction, won't argue with that.
So it was agreed that in the near-term, the "old-style" Show Threads would not be run, & we would concentrate more on a wider range of targets.
There is nothing to prevent anyone starting a thread during or before a Show, & the Show WILL answer them, if they have time. Obviously, no Show can guarantee or promise to repy to every question, we never did or could, & never will, not all questions are worthy of TV time, or appropriate.
Questions can also be taken via e-Mail, PM, or Twitter.
Once we have corrected things, the Show Threads, old-style, MAY return.
We must never lose sight of one thing though. No Online Poker Site can justify the cost of a 24/7 Channel on its existing player base & Community alone. It would be wrong to suggest otherwise, it is a fact.
It's just balance, & the need to constantly evolve.
The feedback is really appreciated, thank you all.
Comments
great. new people. can we have more maxallys and fewer tommyds please?
(ps. alan, just knew you'd be ok with this line. big respect really)
Anyone else get this message on twitter?
Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!
Thanks for noticing—we're going to fix it up and have things back to normal soon.
I've had a SkyBet account for yonks, and a poker alias for a while but only really started playing just before Christmas. I started playing regularly because of two main factors: one - I came in after a few drinks and stumbled across the channel, and two - what I found when I got there.
It was a live show with Orford and Tikay, and I was struck by Tikay's enthusiasm. I enjoyed his mannerisms and views on hands, and that the pair of them were having a great time. Tikay plugged the forum and its poker clinic, and mentioned a DTD tournament which ran on Mondays for cheap where this great community got together and had a load of fun and banter. I loved the fact people could send their hands in and these guys would comment on their play, it seemed easy and accessible to all, and I wanted to hear my name on the show. So I got involved.
I checked out the lobbies the following day, and got back into the game I'd tried and fell out of love with 5+ years ago. I found the Poker Clinic in the forums and found confirmation of the things I'd been considering, and learnt loads more too (reading others' hand postings rather than placing my own). I came back to the channel and to my dismay it wasn't live every day!! I played some games, got involved in (some small) UKOPS events (this 'celebration of poker' that Tikay was particularly excited by), and I loved the buzz of it all. I got to learn names of regular players through watching the show, and to find these guys who are taking down tournmaments every day posting in the forums and writing diaries, I thought it was incredible (it is!).
SPT London came around, I tried many a satellite and eventually made it. I was then contacted by one of the forum teams and felt the full force of the community spirit that exists on Sky. It felt great. I attended SPT and got to see and meet all the familiar faces from the TV, and the unfamiliar faces behind the familiar aliases from the site.
I play far too much for my own good now, and I'm hooked on the show!
For me, this is the journey that Sky need to take today's non-member on. The first big barrier to all of that is that no-one appears to know the channel exists! It needs promoting in some way, whether this is through twitter or Sky Sports events I don't know, I'm no businessman. I personally found the cash game a little slow, I'd have preferred to hear more of the chat and banter, I also felt sorry for Norman Whiteside - it wasn't a normal (or easy) game to play - pre-flop raises were getting no respect (as they all just wanted to be involved and have fun, which is fine), but I imagine it achieved its objectives.
I had thought recently that the live shows had started to get a little samey with the same people sending in their hand requests, winning prizes etc and I'm not surprised to see a 'freshening up'. I now love the channel, and it doesn't need to reach out to me anymore, instead it needs to demonstrate to the target audience what is on offer, and start their journey. Promote the sign-up offer, promote the interaction, promote the community but also PROMOTE THE CHANNEL!!
I obviously also have personal fews on the current content, but I've rambled on way too long already.
I think you told it as you found it and more likely how most people find it!
The only thing I think is missing is where you say it doesn't need to reach out to you any more. I think encouraging new members is paramount to building the site but those at intermediate stages of development still need encouragement to stay with the site.
No worries Geldy, & I'll reply further to all of the questions & comments where applicable as soon as I can clear my desk a bit, I'm a bit overloaded right now.
If there is more emphasis on getting new customers, how come you dont have any kind of advertising for upcoming poker tournaments etc during the 5 min breaks? Most of the "hot seat" items have been repeated to death, surely a few infomercials of what people could be winning etc would help promote the site?
I suppose i can now say what a gr8 site it is with odds from everything from reality TV shows to all sports. A must see for all punters. Certanily the best odds comparison site i,ve used and i,ve used a few
Morning all.
I promised to re-visit the thread, & try to answer all the questions.
There is a bit of an honesty problem here - if I had not explained the reasoning, the matter would have died away quietly, but I really like to explain why the Business, or Channel, do certain things. In doing so, it often throws up more questions than answers.
In short, everything is done for a reason.
Having said all that, I may be causing myself more problems, but let me just re-iterate a few things, & how the recent changes came about.....
I have explained WHY some things were changed recently - it was a matter of getting better balance between the different target markets that Ch 861 seeks to address.
Two of the most important ones are.....
The Community, & existing player base.
Potential new players.
Each requires a different approach, & the two had got out of balance recently.
And so......
....we had a Meeting, in London, with most of the 861 "Talent", the Producers & Head of Channel, & some serious suits from Head Office.
The suits reminded us all why they invest so much money in the TV Channel, & suggested that we might need to get a better balance between the different targets. Fair enough.
Once the suits had gone, we sort of agreed between ourselves to make some changes in the short-term, to correct the imbalance.
Not necessarily permanent changes, but get things back where they should be.This might mean a temporary over-correction, won't argue with that.
So it was agreed that in the near-term, the "old-style" Show Threads would not be run, & we would concentrate more on a wider range of targets.
There is nothing to prevent anyone starting a thread during or before a Show, & the Show WILL answer them, if they have time. Obviously, no Show can guarantee or promise to repy to every question, we never did or could, & never will, not all questions are worthy of TV time, or appropriate.
Questions can also be taken via e-Mail, PM, or Twitter.
Once we have corrected things, the Show Threads, old-style, MAY return.
We must never lose sight of one thing though. No Online Poker Site can justify the cost of a 24/7 Channel on its existing player base & Community alone. It would be wrong to suggest otherwise, it is a fact.
It's just balance, & the need to constantly evolve.
The feedback is really appreciated, thank you all.