Matt Yoder: Innovations in broadcasting can cut both ways. Sometimes they can completely transform the way we watch games for good (like the 1st and 10 line) and other times they’re completely superfluous. (Yes, ESPN, when a team gets to the 30 yard line, I can already surmise they’re in Field Goal Range without a big green line to tell me so.)
I’m a huge Aussie Rules football fan and one of the great things they do on telecasts is showing the probability of a successful set shot at goal. Depending on the angle and the kicker, a percentage is shown on-screen to tell viewers the likelihood of getting it through the big sticks. While this couldn’t really be applied in real-time in most sports, it could be helpful after the play/pitch/shot to tell us just how great something we just saw was in retrospect. But one sport where it could be expanded and be a great tool for viewers is in golf. We’ve seen some of this with advanced putting statistics being a bigger part of telecasts, but wouldn’t it be great to know the probability a golfer has to hit it in the fairway off the tee, or reach a Par 5 in two, or get an up and down out of the sand? More information and statistics could change the way we watch golf on television in a great way.
Dan Levy (Bleacher Report): I hope the next innovation is for networks to dial back innovations. I’m no technophobe, but it seems the use of technology is often misused. Take Fox, who had the idea during MLB Postseason to “hang” banners for lineups, but couldn’t fit all nine players on the screen, so they had to scroll their own graphic. Work to get better sound. Work to get camera angles that sync to offer simultaneous views of controversial calls. Stop trying to turn live TV into a video game.
Steve Lepore: I want to see the rail-cam that Rogers uses at the Air Canada Center in Toronto in every arena in the National Hockey League and used on every nationally televised NHL game. It gives a three-dimensional feel to extended offensive zone time and power plays. Other than that, I’m in agreement with all of those who say that using the most knowledgeable over whomever ‘played the game’ is a smart idea.
Andrew Bucholtz: I’d like to see more X’s and O’s analysis across sports, both as alternative broadcasts (like the BCS Megacast film room and Fox Sports 1’s sabermetrics feed) and also incorporated into conventional game broadcasts. The amount of film and data available via services like NFL Rewind, Synergy Sports and SportVu has led to great written play and scheme breakdowns in many sports from people like Chris Brown, Doug Farrar, Zach Lowe and Sebastian Pruiti (before he got hired), and their work has provided fans with a much better understanding of what’s going on in a game, but that level of analysis doesn’t currently show up much in most game broadcasts. That’s a pity, as there are excellent technological tools out there to make X’s and O’s analysis work well on TV, including Telestrators and the ability to easily track down previous footage of a team’s schemes.
Alternative feeds are a terrific first step here, and if they gain enough popularity with viewers, perhaps we’ll see more of this in typical game broadcasts as well. I’d much rather hear a commentator say “With the defence setting up in a deep Cover-3 look, they’ll be trying to get it to the RB in the flat” than “They really need a touchdown here.”
Reva Friedel: I agree with what Andrew said – I know certain QBs can’t throw into Cover-2, but visuals would be helpful. And when they are talking about certain offensive and defensive plays, something more clear than messy circles and arrows for five seconds before cutting back to live play would be a great step forward.
Joe Lucia: I’d like a technology where you could just click a button on your remote/interface and have a different set of broadcasters. MLB.tv has an option like this for TV and radio overlay, but imagine doing it on your TV for national and local games. Don’t like Buck? Click to get one of the teams’ radio feeds, or the crowd noise only, or the Spanish broadcast, or whatever. I think that would be an awesome way to truly give the viewer more control, though it would probably make our lives here at AA more difficult.
Comments are closed.