Battlebots Returning To TV?
March 13th, 2008 by SBSo there has been a humongous amount of foofaraw and kerfuffle bout the possibility of Battlebots coming back to TV.
We here at SB are enthused by this idea, we love robot combat in any form and have close ties with Trey Roski and Greg Munson, the guys who brought it to TV in the first place, and with a little luck, are bringing it back. Battlebots made it possible to make robot combat attractive to entities that can support it. May that day come again! (Please? Please.)
Some trustworthy media outlets are shouting this from the hilltops like it s a done deal, but according to the Horse’s Mouth, nothing is quite a done deal yet, but they are shooting for a college competition sometime in the next year, maybe as early as June, maybe November.
In the meantime, RoboGames is a done deal and will be filling San Francisco this June 13-15th with hundreds of robots. So polish that bot and sign up for RoboGames.
March 13th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
You know, there’s also this whole “online video distribution” model that’s popular with the kids these days. While TV exposure is certainly great for the sport, I bet an online arena combat show would do pretty darn well — I’d watch!
March 13th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Cool! Thanks for volunteering, Jackson!
Actually, a guy named Bob Pitzer tried this a while back wit the BotBash Network. it was kinda before it’s time and he was doing it all on his own, but now that tech has advanced, this could happen again, maybe. http://www.youtube.com/botbash
But seriously, if you want to shove a thing up on a site and do stuff, go for it. We can discuss whatever else at a later date.
March 15th, 2008 at 2:48 am
Well, the only probably with me doing it is a) I have no time and b) I have no money. (Well, I have a little time, but I’m still not level seventy in World of Warcraft yet). I think such a show could be produced for a lot cheaper than Comedy Central did, though maybe not as slickly. Best I can manage for now would be to show up with a camera and post stuff to YouTube, but that does not a business model make.
Now a dedicated site with forums, video and photo uploads, articles about the sport and, of course, multi-camera shoots of real battles… Sadly, I will probably be pissing off any remaining venture capitalists very shortly.