Cutting-edge technology blurring live experience between stadiums and sofas
02:42 AM CDT on Monday, September 19, 2005
On the opening Sunday of the 2005 NFL season, some fans around the
country had the luxury of two options. They could head to a stadium to
enjoy the ambiance of live professional football or they could sit home
and revel in the television experience.
Almost one million fans opted to attend Sunday games last week, swelling
14 stadiums to capacity. About 100 million fans, most of whom had no
choice, settled for television.
Was either group treated to a more fulfilling day of football?
Was it the minority, whose members commuted, paid, parked, paid again
and interacted, enjoying the smells of a single game, or the majority,
who stayed home for a more solitary, served-on-a-platter experience that
may have included a smorgasbord of games?
The NFL, which enjoys healthy revenue streams from fans in the stands as
well as television entities, is comfortably perched at midfield on this
subject.
"People enjoy doing both," league spokesman Greg Aiello said. "The
experiences are completely different."
There's no arguing with packed houses from New York to San Francisco.
But there's not much the NFL can do to improve the experience of
watching at the stadium. It can build newer, sleeker temples with more
bathrooms, exotic foods and additional luxury boxes. But stadiums rely
on one thing to bring the action on the field closer to fans – jumbo TV
screens.
"Television can't bring people at home the communal aspect of being in a
stadium, but also note that the stadium experience is relying more and
more on the screens at either end of the field," said Ed Goren,
president of Fox Sports.
The NFL has no fear of lost revenue resulting from fans choosing to
watch games at home. If a game isn't sold out 72 hours in advance, it is
simply blacked out in the home team's market, and the folks at home
can't watch the game.
But recent technological advancements are allowing the at-home
television experience to improve at warp speed.
High definition broadcasts allow viewers to eyeball everything from
which way the turf may be leaning to the number of heavy bags under the
eyes of sleep-deprived coaches.
The home theaters that have eaten away at movie box offices and boosted
DVD sales offer the same amenities to sports fans – big picture,
surround-sound audio and no one stepping on your toes, dripping nacho
cheese in your lap or shouting in your ear.
Networks also provide up-to-the-minute in-game statistics. Improved
graphics such as the first-down line, revolutionary five years ago, are
a staple today.
Ever notice what all those luxury boxes at stadiums around the country
have in common? The answer: TV sets to help improve the in-stadium
experience.
And now the piece de resistance for the stay-at-home crowd – the
NFL Sunday Ticket, offered exclusively to DirecTV subscribers.
Sunday Ticket has 2 million subscribers who shell out as much as $250 a
season – about the cost of taking a family of four to one NFL game – for
the privilege of having every game beamed into their homes.
The News Corporation, parent company of Fox, last year purchased
controlling interest in DirecTV.
Beginning next season, DirecTV will pay the NFL $700 million annually
for a new contract – more than the $622 million average CBS will over
the next six seasons and almost as much as $712 million average Fox will
pay.
It expects a return on the investment. Ideas for new trinkets are
flying. David Hill, who put Fox Sports on the map, has been handed the
reins.
Here's what was available on the opening weekend of the season: nine
games at noon, four games at 3 p.m.
A viewer could sit at home in Dallas and spend three hours staring at
the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals waging the battle of Ohio.
Or the viewer could wear out a not-yet-in-mid-season-form index finger,
hitting the remote control to flit between the nine noon games.
DirecTV's expiring contract with the NFL called for payments of $400
million a season. It's banking on attracting more subscribers and as
such is busily working to add more trinkets to attract more paying
customers.
"With the proliferation of cable over the years, television has expanded
from a limited menu of offerings to an old country buffet where there is
something for everyone," said Robert Thompson, director of the Center
for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. "It is only
natural that a sport like the NFL would expand its offerings as well.
"Like everything else in the television world, football is totally
fragmented. In a society where people are addicted to Short Attention
Span Theater, the Sunday Ticket option of moving from game to game to
game to game from the comfort of the living room is very inviting."
It's no secret that football and television rank among the most
successful unions ever. The game was made for television, and the
networks have worked diligently to improve the watching experience.
"Football and television are like the couple running in slow motion at
each other on the beach," Thompson said. "They form the perfect
marriage."
But even the most perfect of marriages needs occasional spice.
"I think football is a more interesting 'watch' on television than in
the arena," CBS play-by-play voice Jim Nantz said. "Every year, we tweak
the information we give fans. We give information you can never get at
the stadium."
The Sunday Ticket is supersizing that tweaking.
Three new offerings have been added this season: Game Mix channels, the
Red Zone Channel and the Short Cuts Channel.
The Game Mix brings up to eight games at a time to one channel. The
screen is divided into eight pictures with accompanying graphics. Game
Mix is more a guide to what's happening, allowing viewers to see where
they might want to go, than a way to a watch an individual game.
The Red Zone promises to flash between games where teams appear as if
they are about to score.
Short Cuts boils a game down to 30 minutes. Not available until 11 p.m.
Mondays, the channel offers every play from the Sunday and Monday Night
games. No huddles. No commercials. No halftimes.
Since DirecTV has borrowed from a similar service in Great Britain that
offers multiple soccer games and assorted trinket channels, it's not a
leap to conclude other sports such as college football and baseball
might follow.
"We are still a work in progress, getting our feet wet and looking for
feedback as to what people really want," said Eric Shanks, DirecTV
senior vice president for advanced services and content. "We know this
is the television future of the NFL."
E-mail bhorn@dallasnews.com
