So how about that good news? Though no longer on TV, today DCI is bringing drum corps performances to fans in a variety of alternative ways.
 
DVDs & Blu-ray: It’s almost hard to believe that it’s been more than 10 years now since the first DCI World Championship DVDs debuted in 2000. All 23 World Class performances from the 2010 Championship in Indianapolis are now available on DVD, with the top 12 corps coming out on High Definition Blu-ray disc very soon.
 
The DCI Fan Network: DCI’s online media platform continues to satisfy the “I want it now!” drum corps fans with live webcasts of events during the summer and on-demand playback of current and historical performances. If you live on the East Coast, remember even just a handful of years ago what it would take to see or hear anything about the West Coast corps prior to the middle of the summer? Now the only barrier to following along at home (or from virtually anywhere) is a high speed Internet connection.
 
Check out how this family of fans has stayed connected with the Fan Network.
 
Movie Theater Events: Since 2004, DCI has brought the World Championship Quarterfinals live to movie theaters across the country. In 2010, nearly 40,000 people attended the seventh annual “Big, Loud & Live” event in 475 movie theaters nationwide. And with DCI’s annual “Countdown” cinema event in the works again for the spring, the popularity of drum corps at the movies continues to rise.
 
So we hope that this Thanksgiving you’re still able to keep up your own World Championships tradition. Fire up those DVD players (or dust off the VCR if anyone still has those broadcasts of yore on tape), gather the family around the big screen, and decide whether your dad or crazy Uncle Al will be best to throw out the one-liners ala DCI Hall of Fame broadcaster Michael Cesario in between corps performances. Then let’s kickoff the countdown to the start of the summer of 2011 … It’ll be a mere 205 days away for those keeping score at home!