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By: Robert Janis
ATV-TV -- 24/7/365 On Everything ATV
Doug Meyer became a producer of ATV
Television, a television program about
ATVs. |
For Doug Meyer, the road to the creation of a
website that would provide video on all things
ATV evolved into a three pronged
process--familiarizing himself with the ATV
community, creating ATV content for broadcast on
television, and the discovery of the internet as
a source to provide ATV video coverage 24 hours
a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
It All Begins With ATV
For Meyer, the journey that would ultimately
bring him to the creation of ATV-TV happened to
begin at a time when he and his family
experienced a major event--the birth of his
daughter in 1992. The expansion of the family
was not trouble free. The little girl was six
weeks premature and spent 91 days in the infant
intensive care unit with multiple
life-threatening problems that were undiagnosed
until she was 3 years-old. It was then that it
was discovered she had a rare genetic defect
called Prader-Will Syndrome. Meyer came to
understand that life was too short to waste on
doing things just for a paycheck. He wanted to
focus on something that he loved. “With the
birth of my daughter I decided to start doing
what I loved rather than just what paid the
bills,” he said.
What was his passion? He wanted to publish his
own magazine that covered “back country
adventures” which included racing dune buggies.
He found that starting a magazine was a lot more
difficult than he had thought it would be. He
had to invest more time and money than he had.
Fortunately, about this time or just before, Hot
VW’s Magazine had done an article on his
interest in dune buggies; and he kept in touch
with the editor Mike Sommers. He kept Sommers
informed about his attempts to start the
magazine. So when it failed, it so happened that
VW’s Magazine introduced their own magazine, a
little endeavor called Sand Sports. Meyer was
hired as a writer.
Product testing a Yamaha Grizzly for one
of their many espisodes. |
Meyer used the job to discover all he could
about ATVs. He developed a friendship with Craig
Petersen of ITP, and Petersen informed him of an
ATV magazine which was starting up another ATV
magazine. Soon Meyer was writing for both ATV
magazines covering the sport of ATV. He became
familiar with the ATV racing community and
learned about the utility including the 4-wheel
drive ATVs.
By 1998 Meyer, armed with all sorts of unique
knowledge about ATVs, decided it was time to see
if he could develop a program on ATVs for a
television station. He started shopping the idea
among publishers of ATV magazines and others.
Although his personal meetings with interested
parties didn’t lead to a deal, it was soon known
in the market what he wanted to do. As a result
the vice president of programming for the
Outdoor Channel, Wade Sherman, contacted him and
showed interest.
Taking ATV to TV
Meyer understood that he knew the subject of
ATVs well enough, but he wasn’t familiar with
the business of television. So he explored what
it would take to actually produce a television
program. “I set out to learn what it would take,
one small step at a time,” said Meyer. “I
learned about video cameras and editing. I also
met a local guy who was learning film and the
new ‘digital editing’ in an effort to film
wildlife and hunting videos. Together we worked
several months to create a pilot episode.”
The pilot was produced and screened for
executives at the Outdoor Channel. They
accepted the idea, and Meyer became a producer
of ATV Television, a television program about
ATVs.
When the UTVs hit the market, Doug Meyer
and his crew wasted no time getting one
to abuse. |
His contacts in the ATV community were intrigued
with the possibilities and signed on the venture
as sponsors. On New Year’s Day 2000 Meyer’s
program was first broadcast and episodes were
shown three times a week. “From that time on, we
aired on The Outdoor Channel continuously three
times each week through December, 2006,” said
Meyer. “In the meantime we also ran one season
of ATV Television SportsEdition in 2004, but
lacked enough sponsor support to continue with
that program. We also started 4x4TV in 2001which
covered the world of four-wheel drive vehicles,
and it aired through 2005.”
Always looking toward the future, Meyer figured
that the future of providing video was moving to
the internet. The executives of The Outdoor
Channel figured the same and wanted to retain
the rights to Meyer’s ATV show for broadcast on
the internet. Meyer blocked the move by taking
the show to another network, and he started
working on plans to promote subscription-based
viewing of ATV television on the computer
through the internet and on television. However,
his move toward the internet was accelerated
when the new television network which was airing
his programs went bankrupt. “So we were left
without a network on which to air,” said Meyer.
Deciding not to wait, he plunged on to the
internet. “Fortunately, we had spent enough time
developing the video compression and layout that
was best suited to the internet. We just had to
educate everyone about where we were, and what
we were,” said Meyer.
Behind the scenes in filming for an
episode of ATV TV. |
Adapting to the Internet
The idea of an internet venture is still
considered cutting edge so it should not be
surprising that Meyer pretty much made the
transition from television to the internet on
his own. “I’m pretty much ‘hands on,’” he said.
“We are very small here.” So far the staff
includes Ray Gauger who is the senior editor and
an internet techy that was recently hired to
help with the actual website.
Meyer noted that at least so far ATV groups have
not cooperated with the venture. The idea of
television on the internet is still considered
to be in its infancy. So there are not many
groups, businesses, or individuals involved in
ATV that can provide content. “That is our next
step,” said Meyer. “Being so new to this area we
wanted first to get our programming running and
then start setting up categories for everything
and everyone, groups, other sites, viewers, and
even sponsor specific videos.”
He noted that ATV manufacturers have not yet
produced video promotions for their products,
but he has requested them. He hopes in the
future to be showing videos from the
manufacturers which introduce new products and
provide product reviews for older products they
offer. Meyer also expects the site to be
producing its own product reviews. “We’ll do the
product reviews as we’ve earned a reputation for
honest evaluation,” he said.
He expects to be showing video from ordinary ATV
owners and also plans to wait and see what
visitors to the site want to see. “There are no
time constraints and programming controls,” said
Meyer. “This has led us to start categorizing
our segments, and we can then add to them based
on demand. If we get enough demand for say
racing, then we’ll send someone out to cover
races only and put them in that category.”
Camping in primitive conditions is part
of the program when filming in
wilderness areas. |
“Of course, everything in this business is based
on finding the money to pay the bills. So
we’ll also have to show the demand to sponsors
to pay for the coverage,” he said. When Meyer
refers to sponsors, he is referring to companies
that advertise on ATV-TV. He said that he is
flexible as far as dealing with sponsors is
concerned. If, for example, a company wanted to
sponsor a particular segment, like racing, that
can be arranged.
Also, Meyer asserted that ATV-TV will be
controlling the type of videos it shows. “We are
very, very (and I mean VERY) careful about what
aspect of this sport we show,” he said. “We
won’t promote the crude music videos that show
inappropriate or dangerous riding, and we won’t
show videos of any ATV riders not riding with
the proper safety gear or under safe riding
conditions.”
We’ve heard the phrase “Video on Demand.” The
cable and satellite TV providers like to promote
the fact that you as a viewer can watch videos
any time you want. But with such features you as
the viewer have to settle for what the cable or
satellite company is offering as the videos it
can play on demand. With a website, you truly
get video on demand and the ability to watch
what you want to watch. With ATV-TV, that’s
videos concerning ATVs. “On demand is a good
thing. Think about it. If your refrigerator was
running like a television network, you could
only get a beer at say 6:00 p.m. and chips at
say 9:00 p.m. Also, if you have a TiVo on the
fridge, at least you could program it to save
your beer until the chips were available.
However, God help you, if you wanted a wine,
especially a Syrah. You couldn’t afford to buy
in to the “fridge time!’
Doug Meyer and crew. |
“Imagine, now there is a website where you can
log in to watch whatever it is about ATVs that
you love,” concluded Meyer, “whether it’s
exploring the great back country trails or
racing across the sand dunes, checking out the
latest products or learning about the newest
ATV. Also, imagine that you could subscribe to
these segments so they could be automatically
downloaded to your computer as they become
available. Then imagine that you could watch
them not just on your computer, but also on your
wide screen TV or on your iPod. The
possibilities are endless.”
Right now you can go to the site and see product
reviews, ATV tests, UTV--SxS tests, ATV
adventures, specials, ATV & SxS projects, tech
talk, ramblings, ATV trail tips, sports ATV
tests and sports riding and racing.
Visit
www.atvtv.com for all there is on
ATV.
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