We had about 3,500 (!) viewers for our live webcast of the Australian Open men’s final (thanks again to those who stayed up late to watch the match with us!). To be honest, we were a little surprised by that number considering we didn’t promote it until Saturday evening. It was waaaaaay higher than I expected.
The results beg the question — should we do this regularly? Perhaps several times a week? Several 15 – 20 minute shows per week should be doable. Please let us know in the comments!
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Hey Will, I'm from Britain so it wasn't too much of a stretch for me to get up and watch your webcast along with the match (8:30am local time). The webcast was brilliant and you should definitely make it a regular thing! By the way I was supporting Federer, not Murray lol. Anyway, keep up the good work!
Hi Will, I think you guys should do it more often. It was a great webcast. I totally agree with you about betting against Roger is dumbest thing. The GOAT is playing crazy tennis. 23 consecutive SF. Rog is endorsing Credit Suisse. I know my money is secured.
Haha thanks. +1 for the Credit Suisse reference.
Hey Richard — Glad to hear you liked it! Anything in particular you think we could do better? Several folks said we could do a better job of relaying the score — I think that's a valid criticism. That said, what I'm suggesting here would be more of a Q & A format.
Actually, heck, you guys should webcast as much as possible during slams.
Absolutely!!!
The webcast was very entertaining–I watched it after the live event because I saw the match from a sports bar and I didn't bring a laptop.
I suggest comparing the players' techniques with the greats: Borg, McEnroe, Graf, Navratilova, Connors, Evert, Nastase, etc. so we get a perspective of what has and hasn't changed.
I have wanted to see the live webcast..but I was seeing the live webcast of the game…my bandwith didn't make it…hahaha
As much as you can! It'd be wicked cool if you did one actually ON the court, and demonstrated some of the technique questions in chat, not just strategy. As long as you don't do it at 3 AM
Absolutely positive!
I logged on the day after the match, and still watched the whole thing. I was thoroughly entertained. Your insight into the matchup was fascinanting. I would definately have had you on live if i had known about it in time.
I would absolutely recommend you do it in the big Finals. Just don't overkill it for your sake.
I love tennis, although i don't know as much as i would like. But i certainly learned a lot from you guy's,
Thanks.
Paul M
Similar to Paul M, I watched your podcast after the match. It was still very interesting. Since I'm a big Fed-Fan, I was to nervous to listen to it during the match. But afterwards it was a real pleasure and I didn't miss a minute.
I think, such podcasts really make sense for big matches like grand slam semi's and finals.
I'd wish you would provide some more after-match-analyses as you did after the US Open final.
Thanks a lot!
entwender
Once a week should be more than enough.
You also have your mailbag feature to do, and then still add content to your free and premium websites as well as do whatever work you have in real life and have some free time to play tennis!
Will and Company,
first, congratulations on a very enjoyable Webcast of the Australian Open final. I have so far watched only parts of it, but I am impressed. I really enjoyed your casual format and sense of humor. A refreshing change from the overly scripted network coverage. I like the Patrick McEnroe, Brad Gilbert, Mary Carillo and Mary Jo Fernandez team; they are the best tennis commentators on TV (though they don't really have any competition).
But you guys mix informality, spontaneity, and youthful humor with competent tennis analysis. I would definitely like to see you do more such coverage. If I were a TV executive, I would take you guys prime time. Though that would probably kill it.
I will tune in to whatever you decide to broadcast. I think you were talking about a weekly call-in or tweet-in show on which you would field questions from FYB viewers.
Bob C.
Toronto
Hello FYB, I support this idea all the way!!!!! Doing this frequently, however, may discourage people from watching your live web cast. What I am trying to say is that do some live webcast only in some big major finals, or semis, for no more than 4 times/month. If you do more of it, then I think people wouldn't expect your live webcast so badly any more, and doing less is actually attracting more people…….
Hi guys! This is a viewer from Brasil. I like what you've been doing and I'm writing to let you know that from now on I'll be accompaning the grand slams with an eye at FYB's site. Just one suggestion: you should made some post-game videos as well because the analyses available at the internet are, most of them, quite poor from the technical viewpoint. Anyway, congratulations and keep up the good work (I've got to FYB from you tube).
¡Greetings from Venezuela! Sure I'll tune in to your webcasts. I didn't stay up for the game, but recorded it and watched along with your commentary which was both informative and enjoyable. Several times a week seems like an awful lot, though. Make sure not to sway from the formative goal of FYB as it has, IMHO, the best tennis lessons online. Thanks for teaching me so much.
Cheers!
hey, im here wit ya in the us. i didnt get 2 watch it but yea, plz do more webcasts. just at a more managable time. maybe you could like split screen your webcast with the actual thing for recordings!
I loved what you guys did.
I'd support more webcasts, but not all the time. Grand Slam semis and finals, maybe during a few Masters series tournies?
I also dug the format; discussion/watching, then strategy stuff on the board during commercials. More score updates are good, but don't overdo it
I just think it'd get old if you did the show weekly, but they're a -great- addition to the site.
Keep it up!
I've just watched your recap of the Fed-Murray AO 2010 match. Nice job, but it took me five pages into You Tube the get to your video and that happened by chance. Maybe you should considerer placing it here first. Anyway, congratulations for the coverage!
It's a fantastic thing to see people trying to educate others about the game. Too often sportscasters dumb it down to the point of just being background noise. Think John Madden, “The team that scores the most points is gonna win this game!” I 100% support you guys making this a regular thing.
Just one more thing, please stop using the phrase “beg the question” that way. Beg the question means circular reasoning, not, it makes me ask the question.
I think we're gravitation toward a ~30 minute show once a week. We'll make adjustments from there as necessary.
That's possible. A counter-argument would be that — assuming we did it at the same time each week — more people would tune in once the show got established. I guess the only way to find out is to try!
I think the mailbag would be merged with this. The advantage of this format is we can do it on the fly. In other words, 30 minutes = 30 minutes. When we greenscreen stuff, 5 minutes = 2 hours, minimum.
A 5 minute segment takes two hours to edit / render, that is.
Fair enough.
I can do a guest phone interview for my doubles thing then on your whiteboard
When I seek the answers to my tennis questions, and I notice that it contradicts what you say, I say to myself “Pfft, Will thinks otherwise so screw this site”
Same goes for tennis. All my tennis trust is in you Will, so please continue 
Will do it for the grand slams and a few other major tournaments. Maybe also the Dvid Cup finals.
I was watching the webcast in real time, but I had problems when I wanted to chat, because I needed to be logged, but I could not find the way to do it. May be the chat was only for premium users… I don´t know. That was the problem ? Thanks and I think you need to repeat this experience in real time.
Hey Pablo. There were several chat options — some required you to login in with Twitter or Facebook, others didn't. We'll be more explicit about how to chat next time. My apologies!
(Wondered what the “like” button is for. Now I know.)
Hi Will, I'm from Mexico City
I watched your podcast after the match and I support this idea all the way!
I hate the ESPN commentators. Most of the time they are dull and boring.
And I love the idea to hear you guys during commercials.
Hi guys!
First of all some thought about the broadcasting. enjoyed it a lot. due to watching the match on my laptop over the internet, a not so consistent WLAN-connection and a delay I sometimes had trouble to get where you were commenting the match. it would be great if you had said the score a little bit more often. it also makes it easier to “search” through the recoding afterwards (I tried to find a couple of parts I missed during the live broadcast).
also, the volume of your stream was/is very low. I had to turn up the main volume to maximum and minimize everything else.
so to your opening question: as long as you have something interesting/useful to say, I love listening to it. your regular videos on matches, recaps etc. are already great. I liked the chat idea to so other people could comment it live or pose some questions. keep this up!
I'm really looking forward to a next webcast, hopefully at the french and I would certainly listen again.
Watching the Australian Open with you and Ian was awesome, so much better than the blah blah blah on the TV set.
Definitely FYB should do more!
Hi guys,
I like so much your videos and the whole material on this web site, I think you do great job here, regarding the webcast I think you should do it as often as possible.
Hi guys,
I like so much your videos and the whole material on this web site, I think you do great job here, regarding the webcast I think you should do it as often as possible.
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