Major League Fishing announced today that its first event, the Challenge Cup, will be offered on a 7-week, Internet-based pay-per-view plan beginning Feb. 13. The web-based broadcasts, called Advance Cast, will be offered only on the MLF website and are available for purchase beginning today.
“Bass fishing on steroids, that’s what this is” said MLF angler Skeet Reese of the competition staged last November at Texas' Lake Amistad. “You’re going to want to see these pay-per-view shows.”
The league will offer seven broadcasts, with one episode presented each week. Reese, a former Bassmaster Classic champion and B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year, said he believes the Advance Cast programs will be “absolutely the best bargain I’ve ever seen in our industry.”
“During the Challenge Cup, we had some of the most intense competition I’ve ever experienced. It was, in many ways, the most pressure I’ve ever felt. And now the public is going to get to an opportunity to get right in the middle of that competition,” Reese said.
Mike Iaconelli said that viewers will see pro fishing through “a completely different lens” on the Advance Cast presentations.
“On these pay-per-view shows, I assure you that Major League Fishing will let you see what it was like when 24 of the greatest anglers in the world tried to find fish with no practice before the event started and very little time to find fish. I believe every angler who competed will tell you we’ve never been through anything like it. It was gut-wrenching. I can’t wait to see the broadcasts."
The Advance Cast total-event BassPass, a package of seven broadcasts, will cost $17.94, with individual episodes available for $2.99 each. (The seven-event BassPass package features a “free” week.) Major League Commissioner Don Rucks said that each Advance Cast show will offer many attractions, including:
> More than twice the coverage than what will be televised on Outdoor Channel;
> Commentary from anglers during competition about how they searched for, found and caught fish;
> Unedited angler reactions to their own frustrations and successes, as well as reactions to other competitor activity.
“I’ve been involved in competitive bass fishing for more than three decades, and I can honestly say that I’ve never been so excited about an event or a broadcast. You’ll see the strategies, the struggles and the successes of the best anglers in the world,” said Rucks, a former VP and GM of B.A.S.S. and ESPN Outdoors.
The Advance Cast that launches on Feb. 13 will feature the first day of competition. Each subsequent week will offer the next consecutive day of competition. The seventh Advance Cast broadcast will be a wrap-up show that features in-depth, on-the-water segments with the winners from each round and the Challenge Cup champion.
