I'm a good example of how Australia's cable is laid out. I lived in a large suburban centre and got ADSL 2 for a while and it was good (if we ignore that by downloading the trial for After Effects CS3 I used a third of my monthly quota in 20 minutes. I can live with that). I move about two kilometres away, in the same suburb no less, and the best I can get is a slow ADSL 1 account for exactly the same money. Or I have to switch to Telstra's own (slow overpriced) service, which can deal with their massively multiplexed lines, to get something resembling ADSL 2 speeds. But their quotas are lower and they charge extra if you go over. If I don't like that I can request to get put on a different exchange, but that costs $70 just for them to find out if it's possible. If they can do it, it costs quite a bit more to have it done.
This is apparently pretty common, Telstra having been wringing every last drop out of every line they have, running RIMs and multiplexing like mad instead of installing new infrastructure for a very long time. The blame game here runs deep (not helped by the publicly owned company being half-sold back the public some time ago, making steering that ship something of a nightmare I'm sure) and we'll probably be tripping over this for a while yet. Some have said we ought to throw everything wide open, but after seeing how every US power line and conduit is groaning with fifty different cables from one hundred suppliers in some places I'm not sure that's the answer either (or is likely to result in Australia gets proper cable for very many people anyway).
Anyway, as some have been talking about, most sports only became really mainstream in their viewer popularity when they found a way to be televised in an enjoyable way to normal people who don't play them and don't even know the rules. As skillful as a good deathmatch is, watching one is really really dull if you're not a fan. It's just an incoherent mess of poor shots and explosions with a lot of annoying sound effects in even the best put together demos . People need to understand the game at a little more than a glance This is fairly straightforward with field sports and fighting games and so they are more watchable. A couple of characters running down a sci-fi installation hallway/ office building/ whathaveyou; much harder to illustrate what's going on to a lay audience, much less make them care. The rules of DM and so forth are easier to grasp than the average sport, much easier. It's the playing field that's the problem.
I could be done though; a little fly around of, say (for an old school example), Q2DM1 - The Edge while a commentator points out all the key landmarks and items to control etc. Special render modes that allow see though walls etc so the play can be watched unhindered. You'd need proper TV sports production values to do it though, as has been mentioned a bit; dozens of alert "camera" people watching from all angles, numerous switchers queueing the angles, directors calling the shots, editors spooling up slo-mos, replays, multi-angles, graphics on the fly. All of it live. It's a pretty massive undertaking. All those people generally have reflexes as good as the players themselves and don't come cheap.
I don't think anyone has gone to anything like those lengths yet have they?
Though the view points are still just way too narrow, in the SC matches I would love to see the whole map and only focus in for like huge plays or the end of the match when the final blow is given - Then picture that for any game on the competitive scene.
