Superimposed fans to piped-in noise: What to expect from unusual NBA, MLB broadcasts
With network MLB coverage beginning on Thursday and network NBA coverage starting next week, a primer on what to expect:
NBA PLANS
Either TNT or ESPN will carry games — usually multiple games — on each of the 16 days that NBA seeding games are played. That will allow both networks to make up for games missed after the temporary suspension of the season.
Whereas local broadcast crews (such as the Heat’s Eric Reid and John Crotty) are calling the games from their home cities, the ABC, ESPN and TNT announcers will be in the arenas at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista.
And the games will look different with the absence of fans.
“Camera angles will be unique and unlike anything fans have ever seen before,” ESPN sideline reporter Lisa Salters said, noting ESPN will use as many as 30 cameras around the court, including 27 robotic cameras. Announcers will be elevated and have plexiglass separating them from players and coaches….
As we saw in the Heat scrimmage on Fox Sports Sun on Wednesday night, viewers will see occasional video of fans cheering for the “home” team...
ESPN gets Lakers-Toronto and Toronto-Dallas in its two Saturday night slots, which had previously been ABC windows. ABC will air three games, including a Sunday night, Aug. 2 Bucks-Rockets game and two Sunday afternoon games: Portland-Boston and San Antonio-New Orleans....
Mike Breen, Mark Jones and Dave Pasch will handle ESPN/ABC play-by-play, with Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson and Doris Burke doing analysis. Hubie Brown, 86, is skipping the games because he’s in an age group vulnerable to COVID-19...
Breen, Van Gundy and Jackson call the Heat’s Aug. 1 seeding opener against Denver (1 p.m. on a Saturday), with Fox Sports Sun (Reid, Crotty) also televising that game....
TNT gets the Orlando openers (Utah-New Orleans and Lakers-Clippers on July 30) and lots of Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday games — and even games on the second Friday of seeding games, which is unprecedented for Turner....
All 18 of the TNT seeding games will be called by Ian Eagle and Stan Van Gundy and Kevin Harlan and Reggie Miller. Marv Albert, 79, is sitting out the Orlando games. Chris Webber, who was Albert’s broadcast partner, might be added in the playoffs....
Paired with Eagle on Turner’s Tuesday night package in the spring, Stan Van Gundy was a smashing hit as a TNT rookie, delivering keen insight mixed with a dollop of dry wit. He’s an ace at discussing strengths and weaknesses of players, coaching strategy, shot selection and everything else required of a game analyst.
Van Gundy already is the best game analyst on Turner’s staff, and he made a smart post-coaching career move by relocating from ESPN (where his work was limited to the studio) to games on Turner….
TNT has not decided who will replace Albert as voice of the Western Conference finals. Harlan and Eagle would be the obvious options, but both might need to miss a game or two because of CBS NFL commitments. Brian Anderson, the TV voice of the Milwaukee Brewers, is the other in-house option…
The view here: The NBA should have asked ESPN and TNT to work together and have Albert and Brown call several games on each network remotely from a studio, including a first-round playoff series...
Not surprisingly, every Lakers game will be on ESPN or TNT. Network assignments and times haven’t been announced for each team’s final seeding game….
NBA TV will carry 14 games. But 31 seeding games won’t be televised nationally….
Only one weekday afternoon game will be on ESPN or TNT: the Heat-Bucks game on Thursday, Aug. 6 at 4 p.m., on TNT.
Prime time games will air at 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m., meaning earlier bed times for East Coast viewers than is traditionally the case. That’s a lot smarter than MLS’ decision to have some of their Orlando restart games at 10:30 p.m….
We have details about the Heat’s local TV coverage here and here. Fox Sports Sun will air all Heat games, including the one on ESPN (against Denver) and the two on Turner (against Boston and Milwaukee, which Harlan and Miller will work).
The Heat scrimmage was watched in 2 percent of Miami-Dade/Broward homes with TV sets, making it the most-watched program in South Florida between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Wednesday night.
MLB PLANS
The big news: Fox is superimposing “virtual” fans during all of its broadcasts, with all seats filled and fans displaying emotion at appropriate times.
Was MLB at all resistant?
“They were supportive of us going down that road,” Fox sports executive vice president Brad Zager told me this week. “They were partners all the way through.”
Zager said Fox had two reasons for becoming the only network to superimpose fans on a sports broadcast.
“The first part is we really believe part of our DNA is innovation, and we feel like we like to solve problems with innovation and technology,” he said. “We feel [a crowd] is a big part of a Major League Baseball broadcast. We felt empty seats would distract the viewer, and we wanted to create normalcy for the broadcast.”
Fox won’t superimpose anything on screen noting that fans were superimposed but the announcers will mention it.
“We’re not trying to fool anybody,” Zager said.
Fox will air piped-in audio from the stadiums and “we will enhance that to make it natural sound.”
Zager said Fox also is discussing superimposing “virtual” fans on NFL games....
Fox begins coverage on Saturday with a tripleheader: Brewers-Cubs, Giants-Dodgers, Yankees-Nationals. The network will air Saturday night games on most weekends, plus four Thursday night games early in the season. The Marlins, predictably, didn’t make the cut, though FS-1 will air two Marlins games….
None of the Fox announcers will be on site, at least initially…. Joe Buck, Adam Amin (a rising talent who moved over from ESPN) and Joe Davis will be Fox’s primary play-by-play voices, with John Smoltz, A.J. Pierzynski and Erik Karros returning as analysts...
ESPN will carry the Thursday night season openers, its usual Sunday night games and games on select other nights. ESPN’s announce teams (Matt Vasgersian/Alex Rodriguez; Jon Sciambi/Chipper Jones; Karl Ravech/Eduardo Perez) will call games from network headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut or from their homes…. Rodriguez won’t call Mets games because he’s trying to buy the team....
On ESPN games, fans will hear crowd noise that’s piped in at the stadium where the game is being played.
But “we, ESPN, are not padding or sweetening anything from Bristol,” ESPN senior vice president Mark Gross said. “We are just taking everything in from the stadium. [The piped-in crowd noise] has worked out well and I think it makes for a better viewing experience.”...
Except on Fox broadcasts, fans will see cardboard cutouts of fans in a few ballparks, including Dodger Stadium and RingCentral Coliseum, formerly known as Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum….
Games will look different in this way, too: MLB, for the first time, is allowing real and virtual on-field advertising on the back of the pitcher’s mound, behind home plate, on tarps in the stands and in the grass in foul territory and down the first-base lines....
TBS will air Sunday afternoon games, with its group of broadcasters (Ernie Johnson, Brian Anderson, Jimmy Rollins and others) announcing from a studio. TBS also gets a league championship series.
Here are details about Marlins’ broadcast coverage; every game will be televised by Fox Sports Florida and air on WINZ-940 AM. With a shortened schedule, neither the TV announcers (Paul Severino or Todd Hollandsworth) nor the radio announcers (Dave Van Horne, Glenn Geffner) will get any games off.
Last year, the Marlins used some of their TV studio voices (including Tommy Hutton and Gaby Sanchez) as substitutes in the booth for some TV and radio broadcasts.
Here’s my Thursday piece with a longtime general manager and former Marlins coach weighing in on the Marlins’ roster.
Here’s my Wednesday media column with news on how MLB and NBA are eager to compete with each other, news on Dan Le Batard and Bob Costas and other notes.
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 6:56 PM.
