Yesterday morning I saw a blog JZ posted about giving up hunting DVDs. 3 Reasons I Gave Up Hunting DVDs | Bowhunting.com Blog In it he mentions I've been wondering for a long time, when will this bubble pop. I mean, it has to, right? In the last 4 years I honestly haven't watched more than one hour of hunting shows on tv. 95% of them are garbage. The Pursuit Channel is 100% garbage with 50% of the programming paid advertisements. The other 50% looks like it was filmed with a toddler's Playskool video camera. How does this channel even survive? So, will it pop and when?
I honestly don't know how they have survived this long. I don't know nor have I ever known a single person that watches any hunting shows on a regular basis. I would be very interested to know how many viewers these shows have.
I would never buy a dvd. I have the shows on for background noise every once in awhile. Really not even sure what channels they are. I watched a guys wife shoot a turkey 3 times with a bow before killing it and then someone had a coyote come to the turkey decoys and the guide would not let him shoot it the other night. I really could care less with sites like this and youtube. I would never go out of my way to watch a show on tv.
There's a select few shows that I watch. I have these shows on the DVR so I don't watch the other stuff very often. 1. Nock On TV 2. Midwest Whitetail w/ Bill Winke 3. Heartland Bowhunter 4. Easton Bowhunting.
I'm with you, Dan. The large majority of the shows have the same theme. Some "good ole boy", usually sporting a goatee, talks about going to XYZ ranch, "hunts hard" and shoots a management buck on the last day of his hunt. It's always on the last day of the hunt. Some shows sprinkle in a pretty female sidekick, a youth hunt here or there, or if they are really hurting for footage, some b roll of them planting a food plot. Rinse, lather, repeat, its the same thing over and over and over. How long until the bubble bursts is anyones guess, but I'd venture within the next few years, we will see far fewer shows making it to TV.
I quit watching them and hunting/fishing shows when the whole episode became a commercial. I get the whole sponsorship thing , but damn. Its turned into the winner's circle at a NASCAR race. Don't even need to mention the ads......I mean magazines.
I met Dan at the Novi Expo Center in Michigan years ago. I still have a framed autographed picture of him hanging in my home office. :p Those were the days.
You would think it would've bursted already. Never have been a fan of the typical hunting shows. Seeing someone shoot a deer ,then it switch to another guy shooting a deer, then another, just doesnt do it for me. If anything, I do enjoy watching the whole process and the little things that happen during the hunt. There are some that know how to put together a hunt and film it, but most are just trying to "booyah" their way to the top.
The relatively "good" quasi-advertisement shows (Hank Parker 3-D) have been usurped by not-so-good, full-advertisement shows (The Crush). Of course, many many of our fellow hunters would readily pick Tiffany Lakowski or Nicole Reeves over the Parker boys, which is why we're in this pickle. Face it, more people gravitate to the "boo-yah" and super-macho type of hunter with a hot lady on his side. You know, like Kandi Kisky.
Well there is a reason why Pursuit Channel is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to outdoor networks. That said, I do agree with your statements about programming. I work at an outdoor network and this has been a huge concern for years.
I personally would take any rifle hunting shows off the air. I know it sounds crazy but I honestly get no enjoyment out of someone sitting over a field with a rifle and shooting 200 yards at a deer. I know shooting that far takes some skill and I am a full 100% supporter of guns and gun rights. I love guns, but rifle hunting just doesn't do it for me like bowhunting, neither hunting or watching on TV. I also think that hunting personalities have tried to saturate their show and end up hunting all over the country/world when I would much prefer they stick to one animal or general animal. Like Whitetail Freaks for example, the Kisky family sticks to whitetails, and THAT's what I love to see, the passion for a specific animal. When you have the big name dudes hunting turkey, bear, deer, elk, moose, impala, gemsbuck, it's just too much. That's why I am working with friends to build my Nine Acre Archery Webisodes. Something that engages the typical hunter. It's just going to be a few Webisodes hunting whitetail deer on a small property using QDM tactics. I'm not trying to compete with anyone as it's mainly just for fun, but I want to produce something with quality that people actually want to see. EDIT: Well all that and I didn't even answer the question. I think the bubble will pop when the revenue for the hunting industry level off and people stop overpaying for products. Once that happens the advertising will go down to due to budget cuts, which in turn will take away some of the saturation on TV.
I hope it does and soon. I recently broke down and got the Sports Pass with Verizon Fios. I figured it's only $10 a month and there are a bunch of shows so I can probably find a few to watch to get me pumped for the season. Every show from the horrible ones to the decent ones are so smothered in commercials and product pimping it is nauseating. I watch a show for 30 minutes and it is literally 13 minutes of show and 17 minutes of commercials and product plugs. So much worse than I imagined. Needless to say I will be cancelling this suck fest at the end of the month. I have found that the most interesting part of any show or DVD is the actual footage of the animal and their body language, pretty much all of it but most importantly just moments prior to the shot. That and the actual shot the hunter ultimately takes and how he/she may have had to respond or adjust to the animals actions. Showing how and why they pick a spot is cool I guess but a little overrated in my opinion.
I'm pretty happy with Uncharted, so far. It is one of maybe three shows that I record. The bottom has to fall out eventually...
The only two hunting shows I watch are online, Bowhunt or Die and Growing Deer Tv. Both are excellent shows. I've only ever bought one DVD and it was recently. The Rivers Divide was extremely well made and didn't have one mention of a brand name. The shows I've seen on tv while at the in-laws are garbage and the magazines are even worse.
The only shows I watch are Midwest Whitetail and Heartland Bowhunter. I watch MWW more for the educational aspect than the entertainment. HB just gets me in the mood to hunt. It's different from all the other shows for some reason.
The only shows I watch all the time are BHD and Heartland Bowhunter but I will DVR a bunch and watch on a per episode basis. If they do the stereo-typical garbage or rifle hunt it gets stopped and deleted right off the bat. I also browse YouTube constantly for new bowhunting uploads.
