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3rd Online Bingo Summit 2008 - TV - The Next New Bingo Thing

Stuart McCarthy gives his presentationThere was one topic that had a lot of time devoted to it across the two days, and remarkably was barely mentioned at the last summit. The topic was online Bingo's involvement with television. This covers a couple of different topics, firstly the use of TV as a means of delivering Bingo to both paying and non-paying players and secondly and more briefly the explosion of online Bingo advertising on TV.

Stuart McCarthy of Sky Bingo gave a fascinating panel on Bingo on TV, but the topic resonated throughout a number of the panels. Similar elements were picked out time and time again, to the point it seems that Bingo on TV is maybe a bit of the 'latest big thing'. As to its real potential, it depends on what you want out of it as an operator and whether or not the right format can be achieved and subscribed too by the audience.

There was a lot of talk about convergence over the two days, in the sense of offering Bingo on multiple platforms. Having worked in interactive television for the BBC myself in the past, I felt like I was on old and familiar ground. The levels of excitement in the online Bingo industry about TV is eerily similar to the excitement there was for it back at the BBC. But before people embrace the convergence ideal too much due to their current enthusiasm, they can take parallels from what happened in the media.

For existing broadcast TV, convergence is now little more than a footnote, despite piling lots of money into some excellent content and concepts. Given what's available, people still in the main like things the old way best - as in just watching TV. Further to that, convergence has led to compartmentalisation of the various elements of delivery (red button, mobile, web) and the uptake of cross platform content has always been pretty uninspiring. There are exceptions, but generally it's not that popular. Convergence has been hindered by what the viewers actually want and partially because of the limitations of the technology. In my opinion the Bingo industry could do well to learn from the last 6 or 7 years in the broadcast media, and temper its own expectations about TV as a potential platform.

Given all the press and enthusiasm, it's easy to mistake TV Bingo as the next big thing for the industry to movie into, but personally I'm not so convinced. I can see it succeeding on some levels, but there are a lot of ifs and buts alongside that. That said, I will try to pull together a number of the different topics and strands relating to Bingo on TV in this one piece, featuring information gleaned from all the panels and some stuff mentioned outside of the panels.

TV Bingo - Its Forms, Purposes, Pitfalls And Potential

In some ways, TV is a good medium for Bingo, and can help to gain the game exposure and deliver new converts to the game. Stuart McCarthy of Sky Bingo puts this down to some aspects of 'by association' credibility that TV lends to Bingo, such as a perception of scale and integrity. Alongside these positive aspects, other pluses include the size of the potential TV audience, which lends itself to big jackpots, exciting visuals. There are positive benefits for the viewers also; gaining a sense of participation and excitement that online Bingo is a bit weak at offering.

The game has taken many forms on TV, ranging from the top production values of ITV's Bingo Night Live, to their relatively cheap appeal of something like Bingo Joy's offering. Depending on which business model is chosen, TV offers a number of positive business incentives for an online Bingo operator. Primarily it is a means of generating new revenues and players outside of the insular online world. Secondary to the business aspect, there is also the added benefits of brand recognition and creating a buzz. For those offering free TV Bingo like ITV currently is, it's a tool for introducing new players to the game, and then converting them to members at their own online Bingo site.

ITV's Bingo Night Live was generally seen as pretty much the closest to a main stream crossover product, despite not having a real revenue generating aspect to it beyond recruiting new players to their online Bingo site. The show has been a bit of a hit in the time slot it occupies. It's been averaging 250,000 viewers per night in it's first week, and according to the non disclosing conversation Stuart McCarthy had with people from ITV Bingo, it's been a very successful acquisition tool for the site.

Personally, looking at the players online at the ITV Bingo site I'd question that. They may have picked up lots of sign ups for their Bingo, but the amount of players on the site and prizes is fairly lacklustre compared to other bingo sites and services without the driver of a glamorous nightly show.

The paid for model is the one more likely to be of interest to the average online Bingo sites. There are a number of examples out there, most notably the Big Box Bingo show, Gala Bingo and Bingo Joy. Big Box Bingo is integrating itself with online Bingo, but initially it was a very similar offering to ITV's Bingo Night with the added layer of actually purchasing tickets. Gala Bingo's channel is 24 hours a day Bingo, and as a result very expensive to run.

For operators choosing the satellite channel option, there are a number of things to consider. The location of the channel on the EPG can be detrimental to the success of a channel. Gala Bingo and Big Box Bingo are both down in the 800s, an area not often visited by the average viewer. Bingo Joy is in a better position, but maybe hampered by its lack of production values. There is also a big cost attached to having shows on TV. It was estimated that Gala Bingo's TV channel costs £4 -5 million to run each year. It was noted that Mecca Bingo had it's own TV channel but shut it down due to the cost.

It also looks like things will not be easy for Bingo on TV. There is currently a review going on by Ofcom surrounding whether gaming on TV should be classified as Teleshopping. The feeling at the summit was that this was most likely to be the case. This would effectively pitch any operator wanting to get Bingo onto TV against the likes of QVC and the other shopping channels. There are certain limits on the amount of Teleshopping time available to broadcasters, and given the potential commercial difference in gains between traditional teleshopping and Bingo, it could become very difficult to get Bingo onto some channels.

There are also a number of issues around what TV Bingo actually is by legal definition. It's not true Bingo in the sense of the retail game (as arguably online Bingo is not). Instead the game on TV is a glorified lottery, it's not played live in the way Bingo is and there's no skill element (stopping the caller) involved either. In Australia their own National Bingo Night show was exposed on a leading current affairs programme as being rigged, and in its small print it goes as far as to say viewers are not playing Bingo but entering a trade promotion lottery. If it was decided that this type of game was in fact a lottery in UK law, it would find itself in a lot of trouble and unable to continue.

With all this in mind, Stuart McCarthy ran through the existing shows with an aim to highlighting which of the formats would be a winning one in terms of mass market appeal and cost benefits to the operator, the Holy Grail to use his terminology. If you haven't already guessed, the answer was none of them. Each model has its own inherent flaws and issues, none of the shows yet really bridge that gap of true convergence and true crossover to the mass market.

Now, both Stuart and I agree on what would constitute the winning format for Bingo on TV. That would be a show with a prime time Saturday night slot here in the UK, presented by some top-flight celebrities (Ant and Dec in Stuart's presentation). This is something I mentioned here back when National Bingo Night first aired in America, so it was nice to see that feeling echoed by someone in a position to actually do something about it.

But Stuart went a bit further than what I had in mind, for him this prime time weekend show would be the Holy Grail, but it would also add a paid element into the mix. Unlike the free aspect of National Bingo Night and Bingo Night Live, the pay-to-play model would be that of Big Box Bingo or Bingo Joy. I think the show would be a hit without a paid aspect, and possibly like ITV's show act a funnel to online operators. Actually buying the tickets first could hamper a show of this nature in my opinion, especially as it would be going up against the National Lottery. But, as this is mythical Holy Grail is yet to appear, it's hard to know how it would pan out.

International Shows And Cultural Differences

It's worth taking a look at the international scene to see how that has fed into the UK's new range of Bingo shows, channels and multimedia offerings. It also gives an interesting insight into the potential audiences and exposure the right proposition could bring. Warwick Bartlett mentioned that TV Bingo was a mainstay in Eastern Europe. He went further to give examples of countries where it's popular and the sort of figures these shows can draw.

For instance, in Serbia a weekly Bingo show attracts 2 million viewers each week whilst in Macedonia 1 million viewers play TV Bingo each week. In Russia they hold the world record for the biggest Bingo game ever, played on TV with 3 million players who bought 7.6 million Bingo tickets and played for $1 million. The national lottery providers run the shows in these countries, and Warwick went on to state that maybe Bingo would be a great product for Camelot to try.

Peter Trinz and Stuart McCarthy both mentioned the USA show National Bingo Night and its Australian spin off. Interesting points were raised both about figures and the cultural differences of the US show with the UK TV image of Bingo. First up, viewing figures for the USA version of National Bingo Night averaged around 6.1 million per show. Over 22 million tickets were downloaded as well. Currently Bingo Night Live is pulling in around 250,000 viewers a night, which given its late night slot is pretty remarkable. These shows in other territories give an idea of where UK TV Bingo could be with the Holy Grail format mentioned earlier.

The point of the cultural difference was also interesting. Peter Trinz talked about the scale and razzmatazz of National Bingo Night, the big RNG, the auditorium like set, the spectacle. He then compared that with a still from a UK Bingo advert that featured an old lady sat under a hairdryer playing Bingo on her laptop. It was very telling. If a UK show could pick up the sort of glitz and excitement of the US show, it could make for some great entertainment and help to change the stereotypical vision the main stream audience has of the game, and that this sort of ad panders too.

The Online Bingo TV Advertising Explosion

Whilst there was this interest around TV Bingo as a delivery platform, there was also talk about using television as a means of promoting online Bingo sites. If you've spent any time watching TV in the UK recently, you can't help but notice that online Bingo is everywhere. September the 1st 2007 opened a floodgate of online Bingo adverts on the TV thanks to relaxed laws brought in as a part of the 2005 Gambling Act. There had previously been a small number of adverts for UK online Bingo prior to that, but the real push in to TV came from that date.

Foxy Bingo has been one of the leading advertisers online, and as well as their distinctive adverts, they've also made their name sponsoring the Jeremy Kyle show on ITV. Simon Collins of Foxy talked about Foxy's TV advertising in a couple of the sessions and spoke about how competitive it was becoming advertising on TV. The cost per acquisition (CPA) has been rising generally for operators, and whilst TV adverting helps to build brand and gain exposure, it wasn't just the brand advertising that benefited from it.

At one point the relative cheapness of daytime TV was mentioned, and its effectiveness for targeting a very specific female demographic in the north of the country. Personally I get really hacked off with the overly feminine adverts on TV. If you've followed my blog here at the site, you'd see it's a particular pet peeve of mine. Unfortunately (for moaners like me) we're likely to see a lot more advertising like this on TV, focusing on exactly this female demographic. That can only mean one thing in my opinion, the idea that Bingo is a women's game will continue to be reinforced, despite compelling evidence to contrary, but more on that in the next article.

All 3rd Online Bingo Summit Articles

Author: David Lloyd - July 2008

Related Links And Resources

ITV Bingo Night Live
Big Box Bingo
National Bingo Night
Sky Bingo

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