spurschick
02-26-2006, 10:37 AM
Maybe it is only a gimmick to draw some attention, but NBA TV is serious about airing Sunday afternoon's Houston-Orlando game without broadcasters for the first time.
NBA TV head of programming Steve Herbst said the idea for what its calling "The Silent Game" came from the Magic's end, as they're promoting one of those "hardwood classic" retro-games with throwback jerseys and piping in organ music.
"We decided that, from an NBA TV perspective, we'd try to capture the same feel with some enhanced audio to let the fans at home hear the coaches yelling out plays, the refs making calls, the sounds of the shoes and the snap of the nets," said Herbst. "That's our goal in this exercise. We think it'll be an interesting experiment."
So without a play-by-play man or an analyst, the fans will only be able to follow the game via graphics and the public-address announcer. If there's decent viewer feedback, Herbst said he could see doing this on a regular basis.
On a normal NBA TV game, the network would take the feed from either the Houston or Orlando market telecast and use their broadcasters. The goal here isn't to try to put every NBA broadcaster out of work - although some might say that it could be a nice residual effect.
"We'd never try to do that," said Herbst. "As NBA TV tries to present the game of basketball in many different shapes and forms, we're just trying to see how this falls into that. It may not be for everyone, but we'll see what the reaction is."
If this experiment sounds familiar, it was tried by NBC in 1980 with a New York Jets-Miami Dolphins NFL game to mixed reviews. Last August, the Canadian Football League went several weeks without using play-by-play men or analysts on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation because of a labor dispute. For two weeks, CBC saw its viewership actually go up without the broadcasters.
NBA TV head of programming Steve Herbst said the idea for what its calling "The Silent Game" came from the Magic's end, as they're promoting one of those "hardwood classic" retro-games with throwback jerseys and piping in organ music.
"We decided that, from an NBA TV perspective, we'd try to capture the same feel with some enhanced audio to let the fans at home hear the coaches yelling out plays, the refs making calls, the sounds of the shoes and the snap of the nets," said Herbst. "That's our goal in this exercise. We think it'll be an interesting experiment."
So without a play-by-play man or an analyst, the fans will only be able to follow the game via graphics and the public-address announcer. If there's decent viewer feedback, Herbst said he could see doing this on a regular basis.
On a normal NBA TV game, the network would take the feed from either the Houston or Orlando market telecast and use their broadcasters. The goal here isn't to try to put every NBA broadcaster out of work - although some might say that it could be a nice residual effect.
"We'd never try to do that," said Herbst. "As NBA TV tries to present the game of basketball in many different shapes and forms, we're just trying to see how this falls into that. It may not be for everyone, but we'll see what the reaction is."
If this experiment sounds familiar, it was tried by NBC in 1980 with a New York Jets-Miami Dolphins NFL game to mixed reviews. Last August, the Canadian Football League went several weeks without using play-by-play men or analysts on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation because of a labor dispute. For two weeks, CBC saw its viewership actually go up without the broadcasters.