The Quest

Part of the journey to grow the sport of long drive has been associated with the best way to expose our content to the masses. There’s a lot at stake here. Series sponsorships, player sponsorships, and much more are riding on our ability to bring our audience together and deliver great content.  With The Golf Channel’s (TGC) exit from the sport, we searched all options (including TGC & ESPN, and other networks) for production and distribution of our content. The expense associated with working with those (and other) cable networks is enormous. There’s no possible return on the investment without major sponsorship….and here’s the kicker…there’s no possible major sponsorship without adequate distribution (audience) of the content. It is the proverbial catch 22.

Social Media

Social Media offers a lot, and it is a vital component, but it is not the ultimate answer for a variety of reasons:

1.) We’re not in complete control of the content. Most folks do not realize that by posting your content to social media, you give that platform (sometimes full) rights to your content. We’re not OK with that. We own (and will continue to own) full rights to our content. While the extent of this issue has not yet been tested, we are not willing to be the test subjects. This can also be an issue with some of the cable networks. Bottom line, we need to be able to have full control of our content.

2.) Our sport thrives on the excitement that comes (partially) from the fact that we perform with loud music in the background. Countless videos have been muted and taken down by Facebook and YouTube for PRO (Performance Rights) /royalty violations. We usually win the appeals weeks, and sometimes months after the event. It should be noted that it is not a violation of the performance rights organizations (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, Sound Exchange) when music is (clearly) in the background of an event. We always ensure we are within our rights without infringing on others’ rights in this regard. The point here….we can’t maintain viewer momentum when the product is muted or taken down because social media organizations are trying to protect their behinds. We will continue to use these platforms to promote our sport and Long Drive TV.

3.) We want our content to be easily found and available to our viewers instantly no mater where they are and no matter what device they may be using.  Content posted to social media is often lost in the millions of similar pieces of content trading on the same keyword search terms and tags.

The Future of Cable TV

While cable television distribution has been necessary in the past, those platforms are declining. Cord cutters and never-corders are growing rapidly while cable networks try to transition from their (previously profitable) tiered programming to streaming services. Some will survive the transition…some won’t. That tiered programming had consumers paying for content they didn’t want in order to have access to content they want to consume. Today’s consumer, simply put, wants what they want when they want it. Live and on-demand streaming is here to stay for the foreseeable future. We were faced with the decision of whether to over-spend (in our opinion) to get onto a declining platform because it is (currently) familiar to many sponsors, or to prepare for the inevitable future. We chose the latter.

Our Distribution On winding™ TV Is Unmatched

The powers behind wingding™ TV  have chosen Roku (appx 55 million subscribers), Amazon Fire TV (appx 50 million), and Apple TV (appx 40 million) as the platforms for their initial development phase. This phase is complete with even wider distribution coming in the near future. In addition to the aforementioned (rapidly growing) platforms wingding™ TV  developed apps for both Android and iPhones. Those apps are now available in their representative app stores. The wingding™ TV slogan “Content Any Time, Any Place, On Any Device” clearly satisfies what consumers are looking looking for. They (wingding™ TV) are clearly what we were looking for and where we need to be going forward. We proudly announce wingdingTV as the “Official TV Partner” of ULD.

The Secret Sauce

The most challenging aspect of creating an OTT network is getting traffic to the content being distributed. The creators of wingding™ TV, Zeus Digital Marketing, LLC, have been specializing in driving traffic via search engine marketing and SEO in Myrtle Beach, SC since 2008. In fact, Ultimate Long Drive was created by the same company and later spun off as Amateur Long Drive, Inc in 2018…then later changed the corporate name to Ultimate Long Drive, Inc.

Long Drive TV

The goal for Long Drive TV is to bring together long drive content from around the world. It is vital to the growth of our sport to shine an international light on it. That is happening. We will be announcing very soon participation from several other countries…bringing their long drive content to Long Drive TV on wingding™. For more information about wingding™ TV visit the website at https://wingding.tv.  If you have long drive (or any other video and audio)  content, reach out (via their website) for inclusion on the network.

 

Click the images to the left to go directly (on your phone) to the wingding™ TV app in the Apple app store and Google Play Stores. On your PC, Mac, or smart television add Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and/or Apple TV and search for and add wingding™ TV.