Come Back Greenlight

[Max Power]

you mean the load of guff Neil Duncanson was talking, of course...

 

As apart from the crap Greenlight said..... " We should get it because we're a Manx Company and ...... errrrr..... it's jobs for the boys.....eeerrrr" and not " We lost out becuase we're not competitive and took it for granted we would get it as we're a Manx company " ?

 

I think you'll find that Greenlight were more than competitive, much like some of the other former partners dumped for the sake of change and ego, and have extensive motorsport knowledge and experience spanning many years prior to setting up the company. They have been very good for the TT and took the coverage to a new level when they took over.

 

I really wonder who or what is gaining here, perhaps a few cv's may be being given a bit of a shine?

 

North One have a hard act to follow!

 

Like everything, all good things come to an end I suppose. I just hope that the baby hasn't been thrown out with the bathwater!

[Celt]

and who exactly in Greenlight said that? Or did you just make it up on the spur of the moment?

 

Listening, at the time they lost it, to the representitve from Greenlight talking on MR about the loss could only bleat on roughly about what i posted. He could come up with nothing constructive as to explain why they should have kept it and it came across as sour grapes.

 

the present economic climate, exporting jobs is nothing short of insanity.

 

The deal was done some time ago so i'd hardly call it present.

 

I think you'll find that Greenlight were more than competitive, much like some of the other former partners dumped for the sake of change and ego, and have extensive motorsport knowledge and experience spanning many years prior to setting up the company.

 

If these companies were the competitive, how come they lost out ? Surley the company that won the contract has the same, if not more experience?

 

They have been very good for the TT and took the coverage to a new level when they took over.

 

I totally agree with you but my point is that Greenlight and other companies seem to have lost out on contracts becuase they seem to have rested on their past record and not shown any investment or expansion ideas and therefore left the gate open for other companies to compete against them, and win.

[pongo]

My experience of Greenlight was that they were a bit odd to deal with. Fine until they did not get what they wanted. Then rather rude. I ended up feeling annoyed that I had taken the time bothering to respond to them initially. I ended up with the impression that they maybe had a slightly off-hand company culture. Can't be sure.

[SamHandwich]

I think you'll find that Greenlight were more than competitive, much like some of the other former partners dumped for the sake of change and ego, and have extensive motorsport knowledge and experience spanning many years prior to setting up the company. They have been very good for the TT and took the coverage to a new level when they took over.

 

 

I really wonder who or what is gaining here, perhaps a few cv's may be being given a bit of a shine?

 

North One have a hard act to follow!

 

Like everything, all good things come to an end I suppose. I just hope that the baby hasn't been thrown out with the bathwater!

 

I don't agree with this. Greenlight's coverage was low budget and generally pretty poor. Anyone watching their coverage who didn't know the TT course would think there was only about 4 corners! I fully agree with th Government's decision that it's time to give another company a chance.

[jonnyrotten]

I don't agree with this. Greenlight's coverage was low budget and generally pretty poor. Anyone watching their coverage who didn't know the TT course would think there was only about 4 corners! I fully agree with th Government's decision that it's time to give another company a chance.

 

I think you'll find that Greenlight's most recent coverage was conducted with its budgetary hands tied behind its back by a Government department whose sole mantra was "show me the money". Then when they decided it WAS time for a change, they gave the opportunity (and doubtless the ideas) to an off-island company.

 

If you listened to Tynwald and read the papers more carefully than some of the posters on here you'll know that Greenlight covered the TT at its own expense, guaranteed the Government a maximum level of cost and a minimum income, and did its best work within those parameters.

 

North One, on the other hand, has set a level of cost (which it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out must be greater than a local company just on the basis of travel and accommodation, never mind the 50 per cent extra cameras they have promised) and they WILL get paid by DTL, even if the income from TV is nil. This means losing the BBC IS a significant factor even without the loss of prestige of what is still a broadcaster with worldwide respect, even without being on terrestrial TV in a country which (despite our claims to be road racing capital etc) IS the heartland of all real road racing, even without turning away the only TV broadcaster in the world which has supported the TT without a break for the last 20 years. But as we know, that's our Government's idea of partnership.

 

Anyone who sees a similarity between this and giving the financial and marketing management of the TT to an off-Island company which has to recoup its own £70,000-pa fee plus its 25% per cent commision BEFORE it makes any kind of return - well you might be on to something! Basically the price of everything from T-shirts to burgers had to go up 25 per cent just to maintain the status quo.

 

Likewise the TV. Whatever income North One derives, 25 per cent will be taken by the agency that appointed them...

 

So here's the situation. You the taxpayer are now paying for television coverage of the TT by an off-island company. Any income it makes will be reduced by the sponsorship agency fee and the offset against the cost of filming. If there's a surplus it neeeds to be at least as much as Greenlight was delivering in order for nothing to have changed, financially.

 

Oh and PS - anyone who lives and works in a jurisdiction that's totally dependent on the finance industry and didn't notice a world financial crisis brewing (the price of oil doubled in a week last December, was almost $150 a barrel in January, etc, etc) must have had their head in a barrel. Any POLITICIAN operating in such a jurisdiction and who didn't realise what was coming down the pipe when by March/April every financial commentator in the world was predicting massive world wide recession - well what was he or she doing or thinking exactly? The decision to export the TT TV money to London was made in the late summer when everyone knew what was going on.

[Sebrof]

I don't agree with this. Greenlight's coverage was low budget and generally pretty poor. Anyone watching their coverage who didn't know the TT course would think there was only about 4 corners! I fully agree with th Government's decision that it's time to give another company a chance.

 

I think you'll find that Greenlight's most recent coverage was conducted with its budgetary hands tied behind its back by a Government department whose sole mantra was "show me the money". Then when they decided it WAS time for a change, they gave the opportunity (and doubtless the ideas) to an off-island company.

etc.........................

 

Quite so.

 

Another stitch up.

 

S

[pongo]

Greenlight covered the TT at its own expense, guaranteed the Government a maximum level of cost and a minimum income, and did its best work within those parameters.

 

You the taxpayer are now paying for television coverage of the TT by an off-island company.

 

No way should tax payers be paying to put the TT on TV.

 

If the TT is worth putting on TV (which means it can command a viable audience) then the production companies and ultimately the broadcasters should bid for the rights and pay for the coverage 100%. Otherwise it might as well be on some obscure open access channel or the internet. [and THB I reckon that the local video clubs could probably put the whole thing on for free via the internet and it would have just as many viewers ].

 

I bet more people watched Coast and the Top Gear episodes which have been filmed here and which also get repeated and re broadcast internationally. These episodes have been great adverts for the IOM.

[Lee54]

Its reported on an other forum that Honda BSB have paid off a lot of staff and made major cutbacks, will one of the cutbacks be the TT ?

[Albert Tatlock]

Hardly rocket science, but this year is going to be a very tough year for the TT re: money available, number of visitors etc. Losing any publicity/channels is going to make it only tougher too.

 

If the people responsible don't get it in their heads now and understand just how bad next year is going to be, and get out there heavily marketing like never before, then they'll realise it all too late. People involved sat in cushy jobs that they're unlikely to lose, need to get their heads around the gravity and impact of this financial crisis and where things are heading and will be by June 2009.

 

But as usual: no sense of urgency, heads up ar**s, no sense of a financial crisis, and 'business as usual'.

[pongo]

Hardly rocket science etc

 

The thing should stand or fall on it's own merits. It should not need bucket loads of intervention. Either it is popular - in which case fans will visit and broadcasters will fight to have it on their schedule. Or else it is not.

[Albert Tatlock]

Hardly rocket science etc

 

The thing should stand or fall on it's own merits. It should not need bucket loads of intervention. Either it is popular - in which case fans will visit and broadcasters will fight to have it on their schedule. Or else it is not.

No marketer would say that about any product - and the TT is a product, as well as being part of manx culture. Sponsors too give it their backing because it is a product, and not out the kindness of their hearts in most cases.

 

Unique TT marketing opportunities have already opened, and are continuing to open not least because of the current demise of the £ v nearly everything.

 

Thinking-hats on chaps, and time to sign up for some crash concentrated foreign language courses at the college in January!

[thebees]

Marketing marketing marketing, did I ever tell you how pissed off I was that my daughter was being taught marketing at school - how stupid are people that they need to have things sold to them? I know what I like and I go and look for it, if any of the bands that I love started with tacky marketing shit I would mail them and tell them to sort their heads out. There was a Smiths song concerned with it, 'Extra track and a tacky badge' - it is horribly sad that this is what the clowns in the tourist office are trying to do with the TT.

 

Marketing is dead, long live people with minds able to chose what they like to do! Oh I see there might be a problem there......the world is full of educated fuckwits.

[Pat Ayres]

The question is roughly this: the TT is a money spinner. Who should be making money out of it, a locsal company or one from across?

Someone will make money, the government will always win. No outlay and collect tax from whomever makes the programme.

Why whinge about it? As long as the cash cow that is the TT is milked to it's ultimate extent then everything is ok. Since that banjoleli playing actor (racist film) first acted it out there has been a small fortune waiting to be made out of the inconvenience of the TT. Some locals cottoned on and bought burger vans or got tenancies of pubs and coined it. It doesn't matter who is running things, we, the public, will be put out and expected to enjoy two weeks of stupidity followed with 50 weeks of preparation for the 'festival of motor sport' we are led to believe in from the cradle.

May it last forever, Viva TT.

[Albert Tatlock]

Marketing marketing marketing, did I ever tell you how pissed off I was that my daughter was being taught marketing at school - how stupid are people that they need to have things sold to them? I know what I like and I go and look for it, if any of the bands that I love started with tacky marketing shit I would mail them and tell them to sort their heads out. There was a Smiths song concerned with it, 'Extra track and a tacky badge' - it is horribly sad that this is what the clowns in the tourist office are trying to do with the TT.

 

Marketing is dead, long live people with minds able to chose what they like to do! Oh I see there might be a problem there......the world is full of educated fuckwits.

Hmmm I too am an epicurean and agree a lot with what you say, however, that ain't the way the rest of the world thinks. Fact is the world is full of stupid people, and marketing, advertising and sales seem to work on them. For example, it keeps every TV and Radio station going apart from the BBC (and even they are now doing it abroad) - and without them you would never have got to hear many of your favourite bands in the first place, Smiffs included.

 

In this case the marketing would be about the Isle of Man and the TT - and most people, even many in the UK will often point to the Isle of Wight if you ask them where on the map the Isle of Man is, never mind a couple of petrol head Koreans or Japs. Without marketing, IOM PLC would still be digging spuds and pickling herring for long winters.

 

It's never been cheaper to get johnny foreigner here with the £ down to sod all. But if you don't tell em about it, they won't have a choice to make.

 

 

 

.

[jehovah]

I had communication with my first wife over the holiday period, after 27 yrs!! Basically asking where her bar of chocolate was. Anyway, she didn't know where the IOM was,, she only lives in Leicester!!!!!!!!!!!! We really need to do something about our profile chaps.