Categories
Motorsport

Channel 7’s telecast of the 2010 Bathurst 1000

Along with many other V8 Supercar fans, I was furious & livid (furiously livid?) with Channel 7 for delaying the telecast of the 2010 Bathurst 1000 by up to 37 mins. I, too joined the multitude of people on Twitter to express my anger and disgust at the situation and how it played out. However, here are some of my thoughts and links to other responses on what I think could have been done better on the day. 2 things I’d like to bring your attention to before I start:

So here’s my list of things that Channel 7 could do better next time:

  1. Tell us (the viewers) what you’re doing: The underlying message (which transpired on the Monday after the race) was that of NMAT: Never Miss A Thing. This is something a number of people picked up on, but had to deduce ourselves. There’s nothing wrong with a desire to ensure viewers “…not miss a moment of action“, but tell us that. Chances are, we’d understand your decision points and ‘live with it’, as opposed to becoming more vitriolic and angry at the lack of information being shared. One of the interesting aspects to this is whether it was advertised as a ‘live’ race or not? Everyone with even a modicum of interest in the Bathurst 1000 knows this to be the pinnacle of Australian Motorsport. Some would argue with the accolades it’s received in the past (including 6 logies since 2000), and the number of cameras/locations they have them (168 in total, embedded in the track, spoiler, mirror, inside the cockpit, under race cars, etc) tells the world “we’re serious about this race more so than any other race on the planet”.Your message got lost somewhere that you had our best interests at heart (NMAT).
    You defended yourself the following day (see ‘Horse: has bolted’) by saying “it was never said the race would be live”, but to even say that knowing how prestigious the event it in the eyes of the consumer is a show of utter contempt for the many race fans around the country who could not make it to the race. Are we second-class citizens? Why did residents of South Korea (as an example) get to view the race live? (“I’ve got friends in South Korea that watched the race live, but anyone living in the country where the race is an icon was not afforded the same luxury.”Mic Cullen)
  2. Don’t point the finger at your business ‘partner’: One of your team blamed V8 Supercars, who in turn said “the decision to time-shift the live telecast was not in its control and the blame lay with the network“. Ouch. You need to respect your business partners and accept responsibility when you can. Both parties.
  3. Social Media is here to stay – don’t ignore it, embrace it: Now we’ve got it, there’s no way it will ever disappear from our lives. No matter which tool (Twitter, chat rooms, Facebook chat, etc) is being used to have the conversation, the conversationsare taking place. You cannot ignore it – race fans (along with NRL fans, AFL fans, soccer fans, and fans of almost any other sport) are using these tools to have a conversation with friends and observers. Twitter is like hanging with ‘mates’ at a virtual pub, you have a yarn, throw around your opinions/ideas and chat about what’s happening in the world. Twitter conversations allow this to be on-topic through the use of hashtags (view the spike in #Bathurst tweets on the 10th October as an example).V8 Supercars fans use Twitter.

    Please do not expect your broadcast(s) to be viewed independently any more. At other race meetings, some fans resort to switching off social networking sites when viewing a broadcast (to not spoil the results for themselves). However, when I asked a few of them (through twitter), almost all mentioned that they did not expect time-shifting to occur during the Bathurst telecast. Watching the racing now without twitter is like leaving the pub/dinner party to go home and complete your tax return – Twitter adds a lot of perspective, humour and opinions to the broadcast (you often pick up small details you don’t get from the commentators). The future of any broadcast media consumption (notably television in this instance) will undoubtedly include social media as mentioned by Adam Turner ..people tend to blend television and social media into one activity, watching the television with a notebook or tablet..

    Channel 7, you need to find a way to integrate Social Media more into your TV broadcasts. It’s a complementary (not replacement) technology. Break away from your traditional media tag and become a revolutionary. It doesn’t take much! If you need help with this, please let me know, as a fan of both V8Supercars and social networking I’d love to be involved to making things better!

Here are some other thoughts:

  • You had 168 cameras, but we hardly saw more than a few seconds of  some of them – I do not recall seeing the wing-mirror cam on Mark Winterbottom’s car except in the top 10 shootout. We saw a few seconds of footage from the rear wheel camera on Rick Kelly’s car. My tip: we need more Picture-in-Picture (PIP) footage. Showing a lap of Mt Panorama with no commentary: PIP the footwell camera footage with the external view + include an under-car camera as well. AND do more of it!
  • PIP your ads – I’d be happy for you to do a PIP of an ad with audio whilst being able to see the the race continue in the main screen. If something major happens in the race, immediately switch to it (like Channel 10 used to do). I believe this could have worked well in 2010 as some of the race without safety cars was mundane. We see more racing AND you get to show ads.
  • Release a DVD set of the entire race alongside the ‘packaged and polished’ highlights DVD. Do it. There’s a market out there.
  • Broadcast it in HD. Please don’t use the “Delhi Commonwealth Games” excuse for not having HD cameras in 2011. As mentioned earlier, this is the pinnacle of Motorsport in Australia. Treat it as such. If you can’t, tell us.
  • Talk to us. Don’t leave the conversation to be too one-sided. Mark Beretta is one of the beacons of greatness in your organisation, but he needs help and support from above.
The tweet that sums up my post
The tweet that sums up my post

Oh and to the advertisers:

  • KFC, I will NEVER leave my house to buy your products during a race broadcast! If you offered zinger burgers by home delivery (in under 2 mins) it may be a different story 🙂
  • Armor All: no-one’s likely to polish their car during the race. Reminding us 27 times won’t change us.
  • Super Cheap Auto: your stuff will still be there on Monday 🙂

What’re your thoughts on the 2010 Bathurst TV coverage?

Other Links:

Categories
Betterment Learning

Get More Done

Image from www.vision-practice.com
Get More Done

If you are wondering how you can get more done (this could be seen as doing something better than you are currently), here’s a fabulous, succinct response to a question posed to David Allen (the fellow behind the Getting Things Done (GTD) movement).

Q: What’s the one thing that we do that gets in the way of us being productive?

A: It’s not one thing, but five, all wrapped together:

  1. People keep stuff in their head.
  2. They don’t decide what they need to do about stuff they know they need to do something about.
  3. They don’t organize action reminders and support materials in functional categories.
  4. They don’t maintain and review a complete and objective inventory of their commitments.
  5. Then they waste energy and burn out, allowing their busy-ness to be driven by what’s latest and loudest, hoping it’s the right thing to do but never feeling the relief that it is.

You may or may not agree with the concept of GTD, but in David’s answer above, I am sure you can identify one (or more) in yourself that you can work to improve on! For me, the 1st is the one that affects me the most, and as of mid-October, is something I’ve been proactively working on through the use of better application of technology. I’ll share more with you soon!

Give yourself 1 min to think through the list above – identify one thing you could do now to improve & leave your response in the comments below!

Categories
Children

Pocket Money for Kids

In 2010 we implemented a pocket money system for our boys (now 5 & 8). Once we decided that we will provide pocket money to the boys, we discussed whether or not to make it earning-based or simply as a treat/reward. There are 2 main schools of thought on this:

  1. Pocket money for no reason
  2. Pocket Money for completing certain {household} tasks

Pocket Money for no reason: We decided against this one fairly early on as it does not mirror the reality in everyday life. No-one gives you money ‘for no reason’ in our society. One of the goals of parenting is to raise functioning members of society, and to us, one way to help with this is to try and mirror the real life ’employment’ model to help them understand how money works. In other words: you have to perform something in order to receive payment.

For this reason we opted for model 2: They would receive payment for completing certain household duties every week. Some duties are mandatory to receiving their pocket money, however there are other tasks available to allow them to earn a little more if they wish to! However, there are sites/articles explaining that this could be fraught with danger (such as this raisingchildren.net.au article). However, to try and prepare our children to contribute to society/understand how the world works, we decided to push on with this model, and for our family, it works.

What they need to do – The Basics & the Extras

The Basics: Here’s the standard list of duties:

  • Making their bed
  • Putting their clothes away,
  • Keeping their room tidy (relatively speaking)
  • Packing away toys (especially in the lounge as we don’t have a large place so no rumpus room for our boys to spread their stuff)
  • Unloading the dishwasher
  • They also have a rotating roster for setting/clearing the table at dinner time, putting the rubbish out and watering the plants

The Extras: Here are the tasks that can earn them extra (note most of these are performed in conjunction with one of us):

  • Hang washing on the line
  • Take washing off the line
  • Handwash dishes, plastic containers, lunchboxes, etc
  • Wash the car
  • Rake the leaves/help with the gardening

Distribution

The boys each have 4 moneyboxes (combination of jars + moneyboxes) that relate to the following categories. There are rules around what they can spend their money on, and in essence they do not need to spend money on Clothes or food or any other necessities:

  1. Long-term saving (20%)
  2. Mid-term saving (40%)
  3. Spending (30%)
  4. Charity (10%)

Long-term saving: This is for once-a-year purchases, such as Christmas presents and a birthday present for their brother.

Mid-term saving: Similar to long-term, this can only be accessed every 3 months and can be used to supplement Spending, should the need arise. The goal of this is to use it to save money for something for themselves. So far it’s been used to buy toys and a video game.

Spending: This is their money to do what they like with. If they wish to go to the corner-shop and buy lollies and ice cream – they’re welcome to! If they want to buy bread to feed to the local birds – they’re welcome to! We will offer suggestions on what may have longer-term value (a lolly is gone quickly, a toy car or pack of cards will last longer).

Charity: This money is used for donations to any worthy cause. Quite often during the year, the school will require a gold-coin donation to participate in mufti-days or special activities. We also encourage the boys to regularly donate some of their money to charities.

Why we’ve chosen this & Our hopes

  • We’re doing this to teach our boys the value of money (we believe it’s best to learn it in the home and learn it early!)
  • It’s also important to teach them how to handle money
  • We wanted to balance the concept of spending (immediate gratification) and saving (delayed gratification[1]). Another way to look at it is to determine what is worth buying now vs. worth saving for.
  • It’s hoped our boys will eventually become better members of society; through understanding the link between work and reward, as well as being able to manage money and not fall into the trap of excess consumption.

I would love to hear from other parents out there (either for or against pocket money for kids) – leave a comment!

Resources & Further Reading:

  1. For more information on delayed gratification, I recommend Don’t! The secret of self control by Jonah Lehrer
  2. A similar article to the above was posted by Matthew Hall on Neerav Bhatt’s blog.
  3. Teaching kids about money
  4. Pocket money and kids