Any TV coverage offerings ever or for the future?

[TDDB]

Just because I am nosey; this is either for Robots live, Robots Extreme Wars or Robo-Challenge;
Have any of you ever been offered TV coverage for the future or in the past? For a documentary or a full show? I know about Gadget show & Epic Win (does that count?), if it was turned down, why and from who? And obviously; If you have been offered a deal for the future; who?

[robotwars]

Re: Any TV coverage offerings ever or for the future?

We've got alsorts of stuff going on at the moment, but I can't release what.

2013 is going to be a good busy year for us though !!

John
Www.RoamingRobots.co.uk

[TDDB]

Re: Any TV coverage offerings ever or for the future?

Ever rejected any though?

[robotwars]

Re: Any TV coverage offerings ever or for the future?

There's been a couple of occasions where I've been asked to do something which I didn't consider to be beneficial to me so I've turned it down.

John

[teamstorm]

Re: Any TV coverage offerings ever or for the future?

Lots of requests for TV shows, we did Gadget Show a few years ago (long before RoboChallenge were working with them) from RoboGames in San Francisco and had a great time out there with the team - still get requests today, but rarely do any of them fall in line with my work schedule so get turned down.

And John is right, 2013 should be a very interesting year - for all sorts of reasons

[TDDB]

Re: Any TV coverage offerings ever or for the future?

Sounds exiting. Will the sport ever reach the popularity it had around Robot Wars series 5? Is it possible now?

[teamstorm]

Re: Any TV coverage offerings ever or for the future?

The reality is that it is unlikely to ever get back to that, you need to think about what made it the success that it was then :

• - Financial boom, lavish high-budget TV shows could be made in abundance (£250,000 per ep for RW!)
  - Financial boom also meant hundreds of teams willing to have a go at taking part
  - Gradual build up year on year to a 'peak'
  - Supporting programmes such as Technogames fuelling interest at the grass roots schools level
  - Growing hype leading to magazine publications such as 'Real Robots' driving interest.

What you had was a real cycle of hype driving things.... which leads me to an IT way of looking at this :

I would suggest looking at a concept like the Gartner Hype Cycle - this is usually used for modelling technology adoption within Enterprise IT organisations, however it seems rather fitting here.

• - The 'Technology Trigger' was the start of Robot Wars on TV which resulted in a rapid adoption due to prime-time billing on TV.
  - The 'Peak of Inflated Expectations' came around Series 5/6 when it was uncertain if the hype around Robot Wars would continue to be sustained - clearly it wasn't and all came crashing down at the end of Series 7
  - The 'Trough of Disillusionment' were then those dark days of the community working out what to do, the formation of the FRA leading into the 'Slope of Enlightenment', Roaming Robots and others filling the void.
  - We're now at the 'Plateau of Productivity' - in a stable state, with no factors externally influencing us in either direction.

Perhaps a slight over-simplification, but you get the idea !

It is very unlikely that we will ever get back to that peak - things rarely do. What we should be hoping and aiming for is to maintain where we are, improve what we do but most importantly ENJOY what we do.

I still think 2013 will hold some surprises along the way though

[psychostorm]

Re: Any TV coverage offerings ever or for the future?

Sorry to follow on from your excellent post with my terrible thoughts,Ed.

Robot Wars may well be a brand that comes back and peaks for a bit and then troughs & then plateaus. I don't think it will ever again reach it's 4/5 peak

That is, if it ever gets back on TV at all. Never mind the money, the commissioning briefs never call for anything like Robot Wars. Of the two, Techno Games has better revival chances due to a higher participation rate.