Powerball and Mega Millions drawings still available In Kentucky on cable and satellite TV
Includes video report
The Kentucky Lottery has announced a major shift in its nightly televised drawing show. Starting September 16, the nightly drawing program will no longer be aired on broadcast TV stations. Instead, drawings will be streamed live and archived on the Lottery's website (kylottery.com).
There will however still be a cable and satellite outlet for the Mega Millions and Powerball drawings. These draws have been and will continue to be shown live on WGN-TV, an outlet on nearly every cable and satellite system.
"When we started our draw show 23 years ago, the Internet as we know it didn't exist," said Kentucky Lottery President and CEO Arch Gleason. "Newspapers, retailers and the nightly show were the main places where people found winning numbers. Now, more than half of our players — 54% at last count — say they use the Internet to find their winning numbers. This is more than double the amount which find drawing results in the next highest ranked outlet, newspapers at 25%."
As a result of this switch, lotteries across the United States have started moving away from televised drawings. Gleason said many states, notably Indiana and Tennessee, have shut down their shows completely. There are more states now that don't air their drawings (25) as there are states that still maintain a draw show (19). States in recent history who have taken the step of shutting down their draw shows have not seen a significant and lasting drop in sales as a result of the move.
[Editor's note: Both Indiana and Tennessee use computerized drawings to pick the winning numbers, whereas Kentucky uses traditional lottery ball drawings, in which the viewer can actually "see" the winning numbers being drawn. So a comparison between Kentucky's draw show and Indiana/Tennessee is probably not the best, since draw shows are more important when real lottery drawings are employed. Hopefully this does not signal a step toward computerized drawings in Kentucky.]
Research that led to this move included these findings:
- About 2% of Kentucky Lottery players watch the draw show daily either on TV or via the KLC's website, whereas upwards of 80% say they never watch the show or watch once a year.
- Around 50% of players say that, even though they aren't watching it on TV very often, it's important to them that televised drawings take place.
"By making this commitment to the platform most of our players are using to find winning numbers — and not completely shutting down the show as has been the case in other states — we're keeping the drawings available for viewing in the place where a majority of players look for results," said Gleason.
Players can receive text messages or emails with winning numbers by signing up for the Kentucky Lottery's Player's Fun Club on the website, or subscribe to the lottery's Twitter feed that automatically distributes winning numbers.
The savings from this move will be substantial, according to the lottery's Vice President of Finance Rick Kelley. "Our current production costs for the drawing are slightly over a half million dollars per year," said Kelley. "By bringing this production in-house, a significant amount of what we were spending (around 95% after start-up costs) can be saved."
"Every dollar we save is a dollar that goes to help send students in Kentucky to college," said Gleason. "The Kentucky Lottery is the sole funding source of the popular KEES scholarship program, and provides a majority of funds for the CAP and KTG college grant programs. When we take an action like this to save funds, that means more money we send to the Commonwealth – and more Kentucky kids get help to pay for their college education."
VIDEO: Watch the video report from the Kentucky Lottery
I watch on the internet anyway. Haven't seen a TV broadcast in some years.
"About 2% of Kentucky Lottery players watch the draw show daily either on TV or via the KLC's website,"
The reason I'm in that "2% group" is because it's usually a half hour after the drawing before the results are on their website and some times it takes over an hour. I sort of understand the reason for the delay because their site gives a breakdown of how many players won the individual prizes.
The good news is the Kentucky lottery will continue to have ball drawings and we should get the results sooner.
"By making this commitment to the platform most of our players are using to find winning numbers — and not completely shutting down the show as has been the case in other states — we're keeping the drawings available for viewing in the place where a majority of players look for results," said Gleason."
That is one player savvy lottery president; finding ways of cutting costs without jeopardizing the integrity of their games and not at the expense of the players!
Every dollar they save goes toward collage students........ good news.
Dont they have a phone line or electronic update for instant results Stack?/
I never watch a live broadcast either.
Why can State Lotteries cut costs and run efficiently,
but State Governments almost always operate with deficits? Those pesky "Rolls Royce" public employee
pensions,wages and health benefits .....................................
There is a phone number with the results but the drawing is at 11 PM and more of a reason why it's not necessary to see the live drawing on TV. I've never checked their mobile app but will tonight to see how quickly they post the results. The Midday drawings were never shown live and because of the change, those drawings will be shown live every day via Internet streaming.
If state lotteries had a deficit then there would be no reason for them to exist since their only purpose is to make money for the state.
UPDATE
I just updated the news story to include a video by the Kentucky Lottery explaining the changes, and showing the inside of the studio as they are finishing construction.
The Kentucky Lottery will be monitoring THIS THREAD, and will answer any questions you want to post to them, so now is your chance to ask any questions you have about the new drawings!
New York has a mixture of live and web draws.
The daily numbers and MegaMillions continues to be on ABC
The Take Five and Lotto have moved to internet. I am very happy to see it live, because it keeps them on the level. Everytime I cant get the draw on the abc website, my first thought is always, "ah man, I hope the fix aint in"
And another plus to having online draws is that they have a traffic webcam in place streaming before the draw, so i always know how the traffic is on the GWB.
I am also in that 2% because yes i like to get crunching again ASAP.
If a state didn't have any live draws, i might not play at all. A good reason to boycott. There is nothing that gets my LB going like a bunch of painted bouncing air filled machine driven pong ping balls.
Kudos to Kentucky!!!
Question for Kentucky Lottery:
Do you remain committed to the real ball drawings that players prefer for all games as opposed to ever going to computer drawings which players hate?
Kentucky now has two games that are drawn by a RNG, 5 Card Cash and the Kicker, but in both games the symbols and numbers on the tickets are QPs. Though the Midday pick-3 and pick-4 are ball drawings, they weren't drawn live on TV and now they will be on their website.
I'm interested in the answer to your question too, though I believe I already know the answer.
Which game is most profitable for your players?
Which game is most profitable for the Kentucky Lottery Commission?
What will the pick 4 numbers be, for your mid-day drawing for September 5?
Which question did you like the best?
^^^^^^^
dont make any more post on this thread it was the funniest reply by far on ALL threads