[Mr Nug]

I definitely agree that keeping it free would attract new people to the sport, but how about offering an HD alternative to people who are willing to pay for it?

 

[- seb]

I definitely agree that keeping it free would attract new people to the sport, but how about offering an HD alternative to people who are willing to pay for it?

Fantastic idea, if they had the tech to back it up. They struggle enough with an SD stream, let alone an HD one. Would be perfect though, basic economics. Flog the fancy version to those happy to pay, and give the cheaper (but basically the same) version to those who don't.

 

[Pslide]

I definitely agree that keeping it free would attract new people to the sport, but how about offering an HD alternative to people who are willing to pay for it?

Given the option of free SD or pay HD, I imagine most fans would still just watch the SD.

Now if they created a Freecaster members club, perhaps with a one time membership fee, which included access to HD, year end DVD, additional features like the live timing applet, online chat, course walk videos, etc. and stripped some of those features from the free version, that might be a better incentive for me to pay.

 

[William42]

Given the option of free SD or pay HD, I imagine most fans would still just watch the SD.

Now if they created a Freecaster members club, perhaps with a one time membership fee, which included access to HD, year end DVD, additional features like the live timing applet, online chat, etc. and stripped some of those features from the free version, that might be a better incentive for me to pay.

boosh. I'd pay 50-70 bucks for that.

Not directly related to FC, but the other thing I've wondered about is viewing numbers. If the most viewers are in Yurp, it makes sense to have most of the races there, but if there are more americans watching then yurps, seems to me like the UCI needs to do a better job bringing the races to america and making them viewable at reasonable timezones for america. I feel like the 4-5am thing hampers alot of viewers.

 

[Mr Nug]

Given the option of free SD or pay HD, I imagine most fans would still just watch the SD.

True, but historically my feed hasn't been the best (London Bband so not sure why), dropping out ocassionally and losing video but maintaining the sound etc. I'd happy pay more for a smooth HD stream.

Now if they created a Freecaster members club, perhaps with a one time membership fee, which included access to HD, year end DVD, additional features like the live timing applet, online chat, course walk videos, etc. and stripped some of those features from the free version, that might be a better incentive for me to pay.

Definitely. Not sure about the dvd though. I imagine that is a real headache to produce and distribute and not everyone will want it