FIN and the 'Net

ALBA, Texas, August 12, 2006 – Casual observers would never know that a nondescript warehouse in this sleepy town east of Dallas is the studio for a new Internet fishing program that pushes the technology envelope.

Alba is one of the gateways to Lake Fork, but the Fishing Insider Network (FIN) could transform this town of 430 residents into a worldwide conduit through which fishing knowledge is sent and received. FIN's production team and investors are banking that modern anglers will embrace Internet programming created for NASCAR. They're casting their product like a topwater plug to a grassy point where a hungry fish should be, twitching the lure and hoping that the fish takes the bait.

"The FIN has been up and running for about two weeks now, and we're getting more hits on our Web site each day," said David McGuire, CEO of Wave Industries, the FIN's parent company. "Our best day so far has been about 1,400 hits."

Visitors to the site, www.getthefin.com, can download the first two episodes for free. What they get is a well-produced, five- to eight-minute fishing video that mixes action footage with studio commentary from Brian Duplechain and David Masterson. Both men are skilled anglers. Masterson is a video and production professional who does the editing.

"The shows will focus on fishing tips and tactics, destinations and product reviews," McGuire said. "We introduced this concept at a European trade show in Brussels. We know there are 40 million potential customers in the U.S. The Internet makes us a global company, however, and we don't know what the worldwide market may be. At this point, the fishing industry is not sure how the Internet fits in their future, but everyone knows the Internet will continue to gain importance."

The FIN video is not live nor is it streaming video. It's a new technology called Ignite that delivers high quality video to a desktop screen. Paul Whitman Sr., CEO of FIN, discovered Ignite while working on a Hall of Fame Racing Team project involving NASCAR. Whitman is an executive for the Staubach Company and an entrepreneur.

FIN subscribers pay $24.95 a year for 24 editions – two monthly. Once they've downloaded the FIN software, the videos are delivered automatically. Viewers will see a pop-up icon that announces the arrival of a new FIN show. They can view it immediately or save it for later viewing.

All programs can be archived and recalled for later viewing. McGuire foresees subscribers building a FIN library and calling up information as they need it. The episodes available for free viewing include an explanatory segment that tells what FIN is and a segment on bass fishing at Mexico's Lake Comedero.

Ignite technology offers FIN productions instant feedback from subscribers. FIN knows, for instance, when a subscriber views any segment of a program. They can quickly determine if subscribers are more interested in tips on how to rig a boat or prefer to view exciting fishing video.

They even know when subscribers lose interest and click out of a particular episode. If it happens a few times, it's no big deal. If 20 percent of subscribers click out of episode Six at the same place, however, the FIN team can review the video and hopefully determine what went wrong and how it can be fixed.

Studies have shown that the average Internet content viewer has a short attention span. About five minutes is the longest you can expect to hold his attention. That's why the FIN segments are short.

"We're also relying on feedback from subscribers," Masterson said. "They can tell us what subjects they want to see. We're set up to receive and answer e-mail questions."

Duplechain and Masterson have studied the competition and are trying to avoid what they see as pitfalls in sponsor-driven programming, which often winds up sounding like an advertisement for the sponsor's products. The same people who own Wave Industries, a bass fishing lure company, own FIN.

"We will have Wave products in our show because they catch fish," Masterson said. "We will also have the competitor's products because they catch fish, too. We're trying to be informative and entertaining."

FIN is in the process of recruiting regional on-camera personalities from around the country. Duplechain and Masterson traveled to Venice, La., last week to film several shows on offshore and inshore fishing. The high-tech baits are in the water, but these fishermen expect to land their prize with the Internet rather than a landing net.