1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

How would you improve sports broadcasts?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Dick Whitman, Sep 17, 2012.

  1. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    That would be a lot of fun to watch.
     
  2. JosephC.Myers

    JosephC.Myers Active Member

    Don't they sort of have that already with the sky camera?
     
  3. spikechiquet

    spikechiquet Well-Known Member

    More shots of cheerleaders [/hypocritical comment from crossthread OP]
     
  4. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    I'm really not getting all this hate for the score/info boxes that are on the screen. It might be the single-greatest sports TV innovation since instant replay. You turn on the game, and in 5 seconds you can digest the game situation -- score, time remaining, timeouts remaining, down and distance (in football) or runners on base, the count and pitch count (in baseball), maybe even a series situation or other scored in the playoffs. It's basically like being at the stadium and being able to glance at the scoreboard whenever you want.
    It's a brilliant idea that has been smartly refined over the past 20 years. It's also such a simple idea that you wonder what took them so long to come up with it.

    By contrast, go turn on ESPN Classic or NBA TV and watch an old game from the 1970s or 80s. It takes them several minutes to show or mention the score. You turn it on, and you have no idea what's going on, who's winning, how much time is left, etc. (especially in football). If you were lucky they'd flash it during a drive or in the middle of an inning. Otherwise, you're waiting for a commercial break.
    Give me the box any day.
     
  5. JosephC.Myers

    JosephC.Myers Active Member

    I agree, but like someone else on here said, I get tired of the constant "Flacco 0-1" stuff that flashes after every single play. Somebody breaks a big run or there's a big pass completed, show stats. But not after every single play.
     
  6. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    I can go with that. I don't mind it once the game gets going -- especially in an era of Sunday Ticket, Red Zone and sports bars, where people constantly switch between games -- but on the first drive it's a bit silly.
     
  7. jackfinarelli

    jackfinarelli Well-Known Member


    In at least 80% of the cases, this is a HUGE improvement.
     
  8. Brian

    Brian Well-Known Member

    - No intricate line-up introductions by each player. I just want to know who is starting, not what high school he went to.

    - It to be drilled into the heads of every play-by-play man that silence and pauses can be golden. Fan noise is often the only commentary we need on a big play.

    - If you have a factoid or backstory on a player, it can only be mentioned once by an announcer. Mention it twice, you get yanked off mid-broadcast and replaced by a back-up announcer who will likely be Jim Lampley, the back-up quarterback of announcers.

    - No fake modesty by Hall of Fame color analysts. Stop pretending you sucked, Dan Fouts. You were awesome. To crack about you sucking only makes me think you want the play-by-play guy to disagree and tell you how great you were.
     
  9. Beef03

    Beef03 Active Member

    Count me in the crowd that likes most of the on-screen graphics, but then I like shiny things. Really though it comes down to being able to immediately ascertain important information, especially if you're channel surfing or get to the game late.

    You're always going to have bad broadcasters. I wish it was as simple as saying no more Berman, but you ditch him and then someone else would be drawing our ire -- I actually don't mind Joe Buck.

    What I would refine is their delivery of ads. I know they pay the bills, but damn, do they have to go pre-game show, ad, anthem, ad, kickoff, ad, then first series? Or an ad after every series even three-and-outs, then an interception two plays later followed by another ad break? takes bloody well forever to watch the game. Clump them together in bigger slots or extend the break between quarters by two minutes and between halves by five minutes. There is no flow in the game nowadays.

    Also, I would try rigging a gopro camera or come up with a more compact, less intrusive version, for real games, whether it be for a goalie, a catcher or even a referee, so that when he says he didn't see a certain play or infraction we can call bullshit or not. I know with goalies and catchers they screwed around with this a bit in the 90s and early 2000s, but the technology has come a long way, would be worth investigating again.
     
  10. ThomsonONE

    ThomsonONE Member

    Silence. Seems so simple, yet so hard to do. Watch a World Series game from the 70's with Gowdy and you will be stunned at how little he speaks.

    TV is a visual medium, there is no need for an announcer to tell me what I'm seeing.
     
  11. JosephC.Myers

    JosephC.Myers Active Member

    Especially if you have all the graphics on the board anyways.
     
  12. albert77

    albert77 Well-Known Member

    This applies more to college radio broadcasts, but I'd ban the words we, our, they and their from ever being uttered on the air.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page