Well, this is going to be different. And it could be the start of a future trend.
John Ourand in Sports Business Daily writes that Turner Sports will use TNT, TBS and TruTV to cover the two Saturday games during the NCAA Final Four in 2014. TBS will have the traditional national telecast, while TNT and TruTV will have calls geared toward individual teams.
Ourand writes:
Let’s say the country’s top two teams last week — Kentucky and Michigan State — meet in one semifinal. TNT would use announcers with connections to Kentucky during its telecast, while truTV would use a Michigan State-focused crew for its production. Turner officials have not decided what types of talent they will pursue and maintain that all options for using unique personalities are on the table.
“This concept is born out of the popularity and incredible passion fans have for their college basketball teams and schools, and with this innovative approach we are tapping into their enthusiasm with three distinct telecasts,” said Lenny Daniels, Turner’s executive vice president and COO.
Later, Ourand writes:
Daniels said Turner and CBS collaborated on the decision, which he says was the result of pushing for innovation rather than chasing viewer numbers.
“This is really about giving fans alternate viewing options,” he said. “Ratings are always a consideration, but we’re not worried about them. We’re looking for innovative, forward-thinking ways to present these games.”
CBS and Turner have not made any announcements about who will call the games. CBS’s top college basketball team — Jim Nantz, Steve Kerr, Greg Anthony and Tracy Wolfson — are considered likely candidates to handle the traditional telecast on TBS.
Daniels said the companies have not decided who to pursue for the TNT and truTV telecasts, but they want to target people who know those teams best.
“We are planning to go after the person who best fits what that’s about — bringing passion to these telecasts,” he said. “People who know the most about certain schools are the people who live it and breathe it every day.”
Next year’s tournament marks the first time the NCAA semifinals will be completely on cable. CBS still will air the championship game. The same format will be in place in 2015. Then in 2016, Turner will air the entire Final Four, with CBS covering the big games in alternate years through 2024.
Considering Turner is paying a sizable chunk of the $771 million rights fee per year for the NCAAs, it makes sense for them to try to maximize their investment. It gives them a way to showcase all of their outlets.
Given how some of these school have huge fan bases, the option of hearing calls geared towards those schools should be extremely popular.
It could be the start of a trend with networks using multiple platforms and announce teams for coverage of big events. In an age where customize coverage is going to be at a premium, why not give fans the opportunity to hear more of a hometown call? Not to mention pushing viewers to your other outlets.
Will be interesting to see how this works out.
I like this idea…it’s like back in the day when NBC’s World Series telecast would always pair a “home team’ announcer with Curt Gowdy.
So if a game was say in Los Angeles, Vin Scully would be with Gowdy…when the series moved to Oakland it was Monty Moore.
No “national” announcer can know a team as well as an individual who has done every game that season and spent time with the players and coaches to develop a relationship, and frankly there are a lot of very good “local”, “single team’ announcers that are a lot better than the passion-less, neutral “national” people.
I like it. And I wish they would do this for other sports. We really miss the home call during final series. Imagine Hawk calling Uribe’s last out in 2005 Game 4, Pat Foley with Kane’s call in 2010.
Ed: Your breakdown of the what will be on each channel differs from the breakdown of Mr Ourand’s which you cite.
Thanks.