June 11th: Prime Time Bias

A weekend, nationally televised, primetime broadcast is a hot commodity for any MLB team and city. Every Sunday night, two teams square off on ESPN, earning the spoils of a little extra spotlight and attention from those outside of the home market. For fans across the country, it may be the only opportunity to see a team that isn’t local. Fans of National League teams might get the chance to see AL matchups, and vice versa. The biggest stars can showcase their skills to viewers who otherwise might not get to see them.

Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much diversity on Sunday night baseball for the first nine weeks of this season. So far, there have been ten teams featured on Sunday night baseball. That alone wouldn’t be a huge problem, as it represents one third of the league. The bigger issue is that, of the nine games, seven of them have featured either the Cardinals or the Yankees. The other two? The Detroit Tigers. While there has been some diversity in the opponents, the overall skew of the telecasts doesn’t bode well for the rest of the league.

There may be some reasons for this bias toward big market teams. First, it is just the beginning of the series. By the middle of June, ESPN will have had the chance to see who are the teams with some life to them, which will allow them to select the most interesting prime-time matchups. At least for the first 10 weeks, it isn’t a bad idea to select St. Louis and New York, as you are pretty much guaranteed to see some good baseball. This week, the Cubs and Reds square off at Wrigley, the first game to buck the Cardinals/Yankees/Tigers trend of late.

Additionally, larger markets are going to have more viewer draw than small town teams. You won’t see the same rate of viewership with a game between Houston and Oakland, no matter what direction those teams are going. It benefits ESPN to wind up in a big market where more fans are likely to tune in.

This is a trend to keep an eye on throughout the season. There is plenty of baseball to be played, but ESPN should be using Sunday Night Baseball to promote the very best that the MLB has to offer, not just a Cardinals or Yankees game every week. That being said, here are my picks for three teams that deserve a little extra television love in the next few weeks:

1. 
   Houston Astros

This club has been a shock to almost everyone. While they’ve received some nice attention from the baseball media, it would be great for the American public to see exactly who these guys are and what is going into their success. If Dallas Keuchel could be on the mound, that would be even better, as he is emerging as one of the top pitchers in the American League. This team is good. Let’s show them off.

2. Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates are scary good, and they are led by one of the best young stars in the game. The staff is absolutely dealing, and this team is heating up just in time to give the Cardinals a headache as the year goes on. Pittsburgh is a market that could be the beginning of a baseball super power, and a little bit of spotlight could do the city wonders.

3. Arizona Diamondbacks

Maybe an odd choice, considering they are a sub-.500 team playing in a division with the mighty Dodgers and defending World Champion Giants, but they have, arguably, the greatest player in the game right now. Paul Goldschmidt is tearing the cover off the baseball, and a trip to primetime (possibly against a better opponent) would allow fans across the country to experience the treat that is Goldy.

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February 13th - Old News

Waking up in America, Olympic events are just wrapping up. Some events happen just as most Americans are getting up, but the majority are taking place while we sleep. To help keep us in the loop, NBC and its affiliates have been compiling the best of the competitions to be put on the air during the domestic primetime spot. This allows fans to get in on the action and catch up on what they may have missed.

This would be great if it weren’t for one problem: anyone who actually cares about the games already knows what happened. ESPN is well ahead on that issue, sending alerts and updates on most major Olympic events as they happen. Before I even have time to turn on the TV, I’ve already been updated on the night’s festivities.

The 24-hour news cycle that has become the standard no longer allows for the notion of “primetime television,” at least not in terms of rebroadcasting. If something is happening, the public wants to know about it as soon as it happens, not on a delay or after it has been compiled in a neat presentation afterward. What could be a neater package than 140 characters?

If you’ve ever watched a sporting event with real significance, though, you don’t need to be told what 140 characters fail to get across. You don’t get the pit in your stomach from the anxiety of seeing your team or favorite athlete put themselves on the line. You don’t feel the rush of joy when that athlete or team pulls away with the win. You don’t feel the confusion of a loss, and the disappointment that ensues. We might want to know what happened, but we live to see how it happened.

With that in mind, we’re pretty much stuck. How do we feel all of the excitement that comes with the Olympics, yet also get all the information as its happening on the other side of the globe?

There isn’t really a good answer. Nobody faults ESPN and the sporting world for getting us the news quickly. Quite the opposite. We would be upset if they didn’t. Yet NBC is also doing the best they can to get us the full package of the Olympic experience, and do it in the context of American life.

The reality is that the way different countries interact with the Olympics will have to change not only based on the location but also in conjunction with the technologies available. The days of watching suspenseful events on an American timeframe are over, leaving a few options.

One is, of course, to stay up late into the night or wake up ridiculously early to catch things as they happen. Nocturnal behavior isn’t usually recommended, but I’m sure your friends and colleagues would understand if you explained that you simply couldn’t miss the curling champions of the world (ok, maybe they’d judge you a little)

Short of that, though, some form of adaptation is going to have to happen, either by the consumer or by the producer. This year is one of the first where technologies are as easily accessible as they ever have been. Twitter and Facebook were hardly around in 2010, let alone as widely used as they are now. Maybe the change will come in the form of a new technology. Maybe we will find new ways of broadcasting to meet the changed expectations. Maybe the notion of “primetime” will change to reflect the new “news cycle.” This is still a young system, and one that has some work to do in working out the kinks. But, when all is said and done, the Olympics will hold our attention, and ESPN and NBC will find ways to keep it that way.