This past week we wrapped up Episode Four of Friday Night Flips (VOD’s are online for all episodes now if you missed any!) and I think it’s a good time to take stock of how it’s all going. When we started, it was an experiment to see if people would like it and enjoy it, and the plan was to give it a few episodes and see if people wanted to watch people in New England play pinball.
Look, it’s not ESPN or anything but I think we’ve captured some great low stakes, high quality competition of a game we all love. The goal was to capture moments like this. We’ve had a few that match that excitement so far!
So let’s not bury the lede any further: The plan is to continue to run Friday Night Flips for (at least!) the remainder of 2024. We are committing to at least 8 more episodes this calendar year, with a plan to be closer to 12. At the end of the year we will review and reassess if we will carry it past there after defining a set of sustainability and viewership goals.
Let’s talk about those goals a little bit and the two things we need to get there: participation and support.
People
We’re super excited that we’ve had the ability so far to feature 16 unique players on Friday Night Flips, as well as different folks in the commentary booth as well. In order to continue to grow that, we need a mix of returning and new people to come through and want to play. Friday Night Flips is a great way to get your “stream legs” under you, it’s a lot of fun and there’s no ranking points or big money to be won (only what the 4 players agree to play for), so it can help out with nerves of playing to an audience. If you’ve wanted to give commentary a shot, this is an equally great spot to try it out or to practice the craft!
All of this starts with you filling out the interest form. We plan to start reaching out to interested parties in late June to see if our open dates align with dates that you can make, as well as if we can field a group of 3 other players at the same time in the same rough skill level. Since everyone’s got calendars that are hard to manage at times, we can’t guarantee that we’ll get you on but we promise we will try to find a time for everyone who is interested in participating to be able to do so.
Again: Don’t worry about your experience, skill level, game knowledge, or any other reason — come play and have fun.
Advertising
Yes, I know that word might be scary. Bear with me. FNF is 100% completely free for competitors and commentators to participate in. We appreciate you taking the time to come and play and do something cool with us. We provide snacks and beverages and cover the house fee we charge at tournaments to help offset the electricity and game maintenance costs. But for this to be long-term viable, we need to be able to offset those costs as well.
The good news is this: We have a lot of great folks in pinball and we’ve got a broadcast format that gives you a bunch of great opportunity between games for natural ad placement. So here’s the plan: Starting with episodes in June, we’re going to solicit advertising to run on stream that we feel will benefit everyone equally.
For viewers:
- We will work to turn all Twitch advertising off on the channel as soon as we can. This would mean that no more twitch ads when entering or viewing the stream, automated ads interrupting a tight game, and weird, less relevant advertising during our breaks.
For those who choose to advertise with us:
- A fantastic, New England heavy audience of viewers who love pinball and the things around our scene, and
- Extremely reasonable advertising rates and packages (to quote a bit from Rick and Morty: “Our prices, I hope, aren’t too low!”
For us:
- Keep Friday Night Flips free for participants, and allow us to do prize money added episodes for special and charity episodes in the future.
- Advertise FNF on other local pinball areas in order to support those venues as well.
I see this as a way to do what we’ve always done in my time in the New England pinball scene: Support each other and the places and people who bring us the ability to play this game we all love. If you’re interested in getting on board for an episode or the rest of the season, there is more information for advertisers here, including some great perks for those who choose to support us at this early phase.
And Beyond
We’ll try to wind down FNF at the end of the year before the December holidays, and we’ll review how it’s going to see what the future is. Broadly, the things we’re going to be looking for are:
- Is this still fun for us? Is it too much work? Have we had anything major go wrong?
- Are people still excited/eager to play in it?
- Are we broadly growing the audience? Are people still watching? Are more people watching the show at the end of the year from the first episodes when we started?
- Are we able to keep this cost-neutral?
I promise we’ll be transparent in sharing the thinking as we go! If you’re wondering how you can help, please follow our YouTube channel, our Twitch channel, and leave a like or a comment. I know it seems odd, but it really helps the systems recommend the show to other folks, so it’s greatly appreciated!
I’m extremely excited about what we have planned and what we’ll fall in to serendipitously over the rest of the 2024 FNF season. Work is already underway lining up our next episodes and combing through the interest list to get ready for episodes later this summer. I’m excited for more close games, comebacks, wizard modes, and incredible flipper skills. I hope you’ll join us along for the ride, either as a viewer, a player, or a supporter of what we’re doing.
Thanks so much for your support, see you soon!