Do You have a Favorite Hunting Show?

[shawnv]

I've got the Outdoor Channel, but I don't watch any of them. Except for the very, very rare show that is owned by the network (and not 1 listed in this thread is), every show pays big time money to the channel to air their show. they then have to get sponsors to cover those costs, plus production, hunting expenses, salaries and more. there is such a glut of TV shows and so much competition for sponsors that the vast majority of the shows are forced to trip over each other to attract sponsors. It gets to be a feeding frenzy, where the TV shows keep being their own worst enemies by promising more and more exposures (product shots or name mentions), all to outdo the other shows fighting for sponsorship. You can't blame the shows for being product pimps, as they have to be to be on TV these days. You can't blame the stations for charging the shows what they do, as they are trying to make $ and it costs a ton to run a station. you can't blame the companies for demanding they get XX exposures a show, as sponsorship rates are ridiculously high and the market is over saturated with shows (making each exposure worth less and less). It's just a mess.

Frankly, I sincerely believe that hunting shows have done more to hurt the sport of hunting than any anti could. That said, I'm a hypocrite and cash my check for tips and interviews each year. I think the ones I'm on are better than the majority, as far as pimping products goes...In 3 years of doing tips and interviews for D&DH TV, Destination Whitetail and Land of Whitetails - all owned by the company that owns D&DH magazine, I've been asked 2 times to mention a specific product in my tips. One was when giving a tip on practice...instead of saying "bow" they asked me to redo it and say "my Mathews" and another was changing "spray down with scent eliminator" to "spray down with Scent Killer." Since I pro staff for and use both, I did....They have it better than others though, as they package sponsorship with ads in magazines. So, it's a lot easier for them to take a "higher" road.

The D&D are quality shows too, just I never get to see them when I actually have time to channel flip. I have watched what they post to youtube more than anything.

 

[wiscwhip]

Flipping through the channels last night and happened across an episode of D&DH that was talking about food plots and feeding deer. Informative for the novice and not that overwhelmed with product plugs at all. Steve B did a nice job as well. I mostly kept watching just to see if Steve was in the episode and after I saw that he was, I actually finished watching the whole 1/2 hour show, first time in probably 10 years I watched a full episode of an outdoors show.