The television sports juggernaut called ESPN has just made a decision we think deserves consideration across the entire spectrum of television. Even, and perhaps most importantly, for all of the local television newscasts across the nation.
(And it’s not their decision to give the ever-frenetic, high-volume mouthpiece Pat McAfee even more airtime on the sports network.)
No, we are talking about the network’s decision to drop its ubiquitous “BottomLine” score “ticker” from all college football games in the upcoming season.
Ryan Glasspiegel reports the exclusive for the industry website, Front Office Sports. In his story, an ESPN spokesperson confirms the decision to drop what television viewers recognize as that lower line of rotating text information (and often commercial messages, too) that persists while watching almost any live sports or news programming.
To which we would say, “It’s about time.” And perhaps add a sincere “Thanks.”
Plus, we say that as one of the people who actually helped create ESPN’s “BottomLine” way back when it was originally known as “the 28/58 Update.” It came about shortly after we started working at “The WorldWide Leader in Sports” in the mid-1980s, long before the network was the leader in anything other than spreading the unique television experience of watching “Australian Rules Football.”
Remember that way back in 1986, there were no cell phones smaller than a lunchbox-sized device. And they certainly weren’t smartphones by any means. Heck, Steve Jobs had debuted the first Macintosh computer only a couple of years earlier. So nobody was carrying around a device that could instantaneously give them the score of every other sporting event being played anywhere in the world, plus the real-time stats for every player in those events, as well as the betting odds for who might win those competitions, let alone who might commit the largest number of fouls.
Back in the veritable Stone Age of on-screen television graphics, things like scores and statistics were popped on and off the screen throughout each contest, forcing fans to actually watch the game to keep up with the score, let alone know the down and yardage for each play. Given its feisty desire to make a name for itself in the ever-growing lineup of channels on cable television, the decision at ESPN was made to try displaying the scores of any other sports events that were “in progress” across the very bottom of the TV screen for a few minutes—beginning at the :28 and :58 minute marks of each hour.
CNN had been doing the “ticker” with news headlines at the bottom of the screen since its debut as one of the earliest made-for-cable channels in 1980.
At ESPN, we distinctly remember that this “innovation” was not met with universal acceptance, either internally or externally.
For one thing, gathering, entering, and displaying these updates was a strictly manual process at the beginning. Computers were just arriving in the newsroom at SportsCenter, and there was no direct interface to move the score information from those computers into the Chyron character generator units that displayed the actual letters and numbers on the screen. Thus, the technology to accomplish this mostly came from the ten fingers of the hard-working folks who made this magic happen inside the network’s headquarters in bucolic Bristol, Connecticut.
Over the years, the 28/58 updates became the more elaborate and information-dense display now known as the “BottomLine.” It’s so signature to the network that a giant digital version of the display adorns the lobby of the network’s huge digital television production center in the center of its now-sprawling Bristol campus.
But this fall, the network says you won’t see it constantly displaying the scores of other games (along with endless promotion of other upcoming ESPN events) at the bottom of the countless regular-season college football games it produces and airs across ABC, ACC Network, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, and SEC Network.
Why the change? As the network’s statement to Front Office Sports frames the decision: “By removing the BottomLine during live action, we’re creating a cleaner presentation that keeps the focus where it belongs—on the field.”
What the statement didn’t say, but certainly could have if it was being honest: “We also recognize that you watch these games with other screens in your hand or on the table in front of you that all allow you to check the score of the massive contest between the football powerhouses like Lehigh and Colgate, without having to wait through dozens of other scores that you could care less about.”
Not to mention how much money you have at risk on a sports betting or prediction market website.
Whatever the reality, we applaud the decision to help “declutter” the screen displaying the actual game, which frankly has gotten busy enough in some productions to resemble the data density of every stock trader’s digital oracle: the twin-screened Bloomberg Terminal.
Local TV newscasts didn't miss the rush to slap more information across your television screen. As we wrap up our beach vacation on the Atlantic coast today, we’ve seen similar tickers plastered on the local newscasts airing across the local Savannah, Georgia TV stations run by Nexstar, Gray, and Hearst—just as they do on all of their stations’ local newscasts across the country.
Those tickers feature a mélange of national news headlines, weather data, local sports scores, and even daily lottery numbers. Not to mention their most important raison d’etre — an advertising message, mostly, it seems, for an accident injury law firm.
Again, back when we didn’t all have a small device on our person that displays all this information (and so much more) nonstop, the usefulness of having “the ticker” on a local TV newscast made much more sense.
Today it just seems like so much else of whatever makes up most of those newscasts: something to fill up the screen until it is time to show the next batch of commercials. That would be bad enough on its own. Still, given this particular time of year, those ad breaks are now filled with endless (and mostly negative) political commercials, which might be the only thing worse than the endless commercials for the ever-growing number of injury law firms that want to handle your case and get you “all the money you (and they) deserve.”
And to think that we in the business have the temerity to ask why fewer and fewer people are choosing to spend their time watching these newscasts.
It could be worse, of course. It could just all be more airtime for Pat McAfee.
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Kirk, as always you make some great points. Yes, ESPN and CNN were certainly the early adopters of the "lower thirds." As I recall, they became prevalent in New York City, and around the country, during 9/11 coverage. Initially used to update disaster information, flight cancelations, and other important information in the first critical days and weeks after the terror attack.
After that, they stayed, earning a permanent place in newscasts throughout the country--surviving to this day.
But I wonder, should all news time periods abandoned the lower thirds.?
I think you would certainly agree that lower thirds have their place in emergency situations--severe weather, massive floods, fires, etc. And I would agree time to chuck the lower thirds for afternoon and evening newscasts.
But what about the morning newscasts? It's been a while since I've seen research on how viewers watch a morning newscasts, but as I recall, it's a busy time in the household. So, how many viewers are sitting down and watching the morning news as opposed to having it on in the background and listening? I think the average viewer only watches a morning newscast for approximately 20 minutes. With news at our fingertips now, I wonder if that has changed?
Seems to me the "morning crawl" or lower thirds provides a service for viewers, providing frequent weather updates (# 1 reason folks watch a morning--in fact--all newscasts.) And headlines for other major local and national stories. As such, the lower thirds provide a tease of sorts to alert to busy viewer who glances at the screen about some story that may interest them. Morning news, like all newscasts is linear---it seems to take forever to watch a story these days, especially in the morning--often a rehash from the night before--or the lasted pistol packing punk hold up at the local 7-11 (complete with surveillance video.) But I digress.
Thus morning newscast lower thirds provide a service to those who who have a busy morning but might in interested in the weather (if they missed the four weather hits in a half hour segment) or a story of interest. So let's keep the morning newscast "crawl."
As for the lawyer and car sales ads---well, I was about to say ditch them too. But let's face it. Local stations are struggling financially. If a crawling ad can help pay a news salary, I see keep them!
Hope you had a great vacation.
Nick
Never liked the ticker - seems it took over all news broadcasts at 9/11 - necessary at the time - but then never went away. It's great when you're muted at the gym, but most of the time does the exact opposite of what we are TRAINED to do with video storytelling - focus on the story ! Good riddance I say, and if the worldwide sports leader has to lead us out of the cluttered wilderness, so be it.