ESPN Planning Bartman Documentary

ESPN must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel for programming ideas. The sports network announced that it is planning to do a documentary about Steve Bartman for its '30 for 30' project to commemorate the network’s 30th anniversary. If you recall, Bartman is the unfortunate Cub fan who was in the wrong place at the wrong time during Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS at Wrigley Field. He attempted to catch a ball that was in foul territory at the same time that Cubs’ outfielder Moises Alou reached in to grab it. The ball bounced away instead, and Alou lost his temper. The Cubs subsequently lost the game and the series, and Bartman has been a scapegoat ever since.

I’m not sure why ESPN would want to document this story. It serves no purpose except to prolong the memory of another disappointing Cubs’ postseason. It’s time to put this story to rest for once and for all.

ESPN Expands Hometown Coverage

I guess it’s not enough for ESPN to be a global presence in 200 countries and cover college sports as well as the pros. The New York Times reports that ESPN is expanding its reach into several local markets after a test run in Chicago has shown that the sports network can compete with local broadcast outlets . Since its launch in April, ESPNChicago.com has become the city’s top sports site, attracting more than 590,000 unique visitors in June, according to comScore, an Internet measurement company. The network plans to add three more sites in Dallas, New York and Los Angeles beginning later this fall and early 2010. The Chicago site covers the city’s seven professional sports teams and sports at nine area colleges. It plans to add high schools sports coverage.

ESPN entering the local sports market is like a major big box retailer opening up a store in neighborhood with independent retailers, only to see those smaller businesses go out of business. Seems kind of unfair, like a big bully picking on the smaller kids on the school playground. Granted, ESPN has the staff, the money and the branding behind them. It’ll be difficult for any smaller site to compete at their level. Sadly, as ESPN gains a stronger foothold in localized sports coverage, look for smaller sites to fall by the wayside.

The Weiner's Circle

While I was in bed with the flu on the 4th of July, American Joey Chestnut gobbled up a record 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes in the annual hot dog eating contest at Coney Island. Chestnut beat out six-time champion Takeru Kabayashi by consuming one dog every 10.9 seconds.

There are five things I find astounding about this event:

1) That anyone could inhale that many hot dogs in such a short time without barfing.
2) That ESPN finds the event worthy of live national TV coverage
3) That people will actually watch this stuff, either in person or on TV
4) That this competition has been an annual event since 1916
5) That I'm wasting perfectly good Web space writing about this crap on my blog.

Seriously, this event has generated more media attention than it's worth. So enough already!

Is Televised MLB Draft Worth Watching?

ESPN recently announced that it will be televising the baseball entry draft on ESPN2 on Thursday, June 7th beginning at 2 p.m. The NFL and NBA have had live draft coverage on ESPN for years with much success. But can MLB match that success? Are baseball fans willing to sit around for four hours watching each team make their first-round selections?

According to ESPN SportsNation poll, nearly 80 percent of fans said they would not watch the MLB draft. It seems to me that fans have better things to do with their time than to watch the draft live — like watch an actual game.

NBC Deal Promises Fresh Start for Figure Skating

I was thrilled to learn that the U.S. Figure Skating Association signed a three-year deal with NBC to broadcast the national championships and Skate America competition beginning October 2007, with much of the finals broadcast live during primetime. In a Woman’s Eye post several months ago, I wrote that the USFSA would be better off working out a deal with another network or forgoing a deal altogether rather than renew their arrangement with ABC/ESPN. In recent years, TV viewership for the sport had declined and ABC was clearly lacking any kind of commitment or motivation to promote the sport on its network. ESPN serves a predominantly male audience while figure skating’s largely female fan base was ignored. Programming also suffered as the network resorted to fluff stories and overhyped dramas to appeal to viewers. Even long-time announcers Dick Button and Peggy Fleming seemed old and tired at times. It was clear that it was time for a change.

Figure skating is a natural fit for NBC. The three-year deal will conclude with the 2010 national championships and will serve as a promotional lead-in for NBC’s coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. The network’s cable outlet, USA Network, its local affiliates and online resources open up bigger and better promotional opportunities for the sport.

The deal is a testing ground for both parties. NBC can help figure skating rebuild its fan base, and the sport can help the network refine its programming capabilities of Olympic sports in preparation for its coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

The only remaining question is who will be in the broadcast booth. I can see Dick Button doing occasional commentary for the broadcasts, but frankly, I think his days in the broadcast booth are over. A fresh opportunity like this deserves fresh faces, and the team of Paul Wylie and Suzie Wynn would be a great asset to NBC. They have done a terrific job as the secondary broadcast team on ESPN, covering the Four Continents and the Grand Prix events. They’re professional, unbiased and knowledgeable, and they refrain from “cheerleading” the skaters the way some of their colleagues at ABC/ESPN are guilty of doing.

ABC has been the broadcast home to figure skating for 43 years and still has rights to the international events, such as the World Championships, through 2008. After so long on one network, many fans may have a hard time adjusting to NBC as the new network for figure skating. But in this case, the change was not only good, it was necessary.

ESPN Target of Poison-Pen Letters

I guess someone doesn’t like the way ESPN covers college cheerleading competitions and professional female athletes. In dozens of letters sent to the network and its affiliates, the writer complained that the network’s use of camera angles exploited cheerleaders, WNBA and WTA Tour players “for their own personal entertainment,” according to one letter obtained by the Associated Press. Some of the letters also contained a potentially harmful insecticide. The FBI believes the author has some knowledge of college athletics, cheerleading or TV production. The agency is offering a $5,000 reward for any information about the case.

Is It Live, or Is It Tape Delay?

There is nothing like seeing the spontaneity and drama that unfolds during the live telecast of a sporting event, like the NCAA tournament or the World Series. Tape-delayed broadcasts seem like such a waste of air time. With the Internet making news available almost immediately, why would anyone tune into tape-delayed sports events when they can get the results online? Most sporting events should be broadcast live as it happens, even if it means showing them in the middle of the night.

The World Figure Skating Championships, which wrapped up this weekend in Tokyo, is a case in point. While the NCAA tournament was being shown live on CBS, the figure skating championships were tape-delayed and shown on ESPN in the same time slot as the tournament games. Because of the 14-hour time difference between Tokyo and Chicago, the results of the skating competition were posted on the Web. In fact, the pairs’ and men’s events were already concluded before ESPN even showed any of the competition.

ESPN handled the Australian Open in January differently. The men’s final between Roger Federer and Fernando Gonzalez was broadcast live at 3 a.m. Chicago time, then replayed at noon later the same day. Would more fans have tuned in to see the free skate programs if they were broadcast live from Tokyo, even at 4 a.m.? The network could still rebroadcast the events in primetime.

What do you think? Would you watch a live sporting event on TV if it was broadcast in the wee hours of the morning?

U.S. Figure Skating No Match for ESPN

When the U.S. Figure Skating Association’s contract with ABC television expires after this season, I would hope that its officials would think twice before signing on the dotted line. In fact, it might not be a bad idea to walk away from a deal altogether.

ESPN’s programming targets young males, not the older female audiences that generally tune in to figure skating events. There’s an obvious mismatch in demographics, which may be one of the reasons why TV ratings for skating events have declined. Figure skating simply doesn’t fit in with the male-dominated market niche that ESPN goes after. You get the feeling sometimes that figure skating has became the adopted child that ESPN no longer wants.

If U.S. Figure Skating does renew its deal with ESPN/ABC, I expect that the network will continue to give the sport secondary billing as it has in recent years. That means more tape delayed broadcasts, more events broadcast at off-peak hours, more broadcasts (or rebroadcasts) bumped in favor of other sporting events that appeal to their young male audience. (For example, a rebroadcast of the 2006 World Championships last July got bumped in favor of the replay of the World Cup Soccer final between Italy and France). That kind of programming decisions will hurt the sport even more.

The quality of the broadcasts has also suffered in recent years. Perhaps it’s because the same broadcast team has been in place for so long that the broadcasts often look tired. And the new faces they’ve brought on board, such as Kurt Browning and Terry Gannon, infuse a false enthusiasm for the sport. The broadcasts also have resorted to sensationalism, gimmicks and over-hyped dramas to create more fan interest. The result is programming that looks like a contrived three-ring entertainment circus. The competition gets overlooked.

I’m not convinced that a deal with ESPN will work favorably for the sport. So what should U.S. Figure Skating do? It has several options.

1) Negotiate a short-term deal with ABC/ESPN for no more than three years with the understanding that the major events be carried by ABC. If events cannot be broadcast on ABC, request that ABC Family, not ESPN, be used as a backup channel. ABC Family may be a better fit for skating’s demographic (women and families) than the male-dominated world of ESPN. The shorter-term deal will force both parties to not become so complacent.

2) Be proactive about pursuing other networks. To hear sports writers and experts talk, you would think that ESPN is the ONLY broadcast option for U.S. Figure Skating. That’s narrow thinking in my view. If the sport can be promoted as family sports entertainment, it expands your broadcasting options to networks that aren’t necessarily sports-oriented. Invite other networks to bid. NBC, USA, TNT, TBS are possible alternatives. A change in network will also force a long overdue change in broadcast team.

3) Walk away. Sometimes the best deal is the one you don’t make. If U.S. Figure Skating can’t work out a network deal that works best for the sport, then perhaps the best thing to do is step away from the negotiating table and say, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Walking away without a deal may seem risky to some, but it sends the message that the organization will not settle for a contract that does not meet their needs and interests.

In the absence of any deal, U.S. Figure Skating could expand its IceNetwork.com, which shows regional skating competitions, or form an alliance with the U.S. Olympic Committee, which is looking into launching a 24-hour Olympic sports network. Despite declining TV viewership for the Olympics, figure skating still remains one of the most watched winter sports on TV. If the USOC does launch its own sports network, you can bet figure skating will be one of the sports receiving top billing.

With some smart maneuvering, figure skating can get out of the ESPN doghouse.

ESPN Adds Arena Football to Lineup

The ESPN sports broadcasting empire continues to grow. The network has acquired national TV rights to air Arena Football games for the next five seasons beginning in 2007, as well as a minority stake in the 19-team indoor league. ESPN will air 26 games in all — 17 regular-season and nine postseason, and will add a regular Monday night telecast. The network also will have extensive multimedia rights for everything from Internet to radio to publishing to international distribution.

NBC covered the AFL games over the past four seasons, but decided not to renew when the contract expired after the 2006 season.