American television directory (1946)

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increase his audience profitably. His plan is to telecast major fights to a chain of theaters around the nation. Thus, while the boxers might be mixing it up before sparse attendance in Madison Square Garden or exchanging blows in some well-lighted studio — the gold would flow into Mr. Jacobs’ pockets via admissions paid to many telethea¬ ters across the land. Baseball, for example, presents an¬ other kind of problem. A discussion of professional baseball’s attitude toward television is slated for this winter’s big league meetings. Baseball men are con¬ servative and it is quite likely that major league baseball will enunciate a baseball television policy that will keep the “ike” out of ball parks for years. Baseball’s problems in relation to television are formidable. For example, baseball men in New York City are ask¬ ing what would happen to attendance, not alone in their parks here in the city but also in their farm team parks in Newark and Jersey City, if games of the Dodgers, Yankees and Giants are available on television screens every afternoon in the New York and New Jersey area. Tele-broadcasters and base¬ ball men must soon sit down together to work out their joint problem if an im¬ passe is to be avoided. One prominent sports leader has al¬ ready proposed informally that all or¬ ganizations controlling sports events should band together in a syndicate. One avowed purpose of this syndicate would be to protect athletic attendance from what is believed to be the threat of television. Another aim is to see that “good prices” are obtained for rights to telecast sports events. It would be easy to say that television will bring sports to millions. Television can, and should, do exactly this. What a contribution it would be to the enjoy¬ ment of the American people, who love sports! Television will not achieve this great contribution, however, unless we move energetically into the task of working out with those in control of American sports the economics of tele¬ vision’s place in the sports picture. TELE-SPORTS ANNOUNCERS WILL TALK LESS By BILL STERN Director of Sports, National Broadcasting Company I feel that television will do a great deal to promote sports in the United States. It will permit many uninitiated actually to witness their first big-time sporting event, and I believe that this, in turn, will not only prove of interest to the spectator but will make him a fan for that particular sport from that moment on. This was true in radio broadcasting and I see no reason why it shouldn’t be even more so in television. I do believe, however, that the sports announcers in television will have to adopt a different method than that employed for radio. In radio, sports announcers were the eye as well as the voice for the listening public. In television they will no longer have to be the eye. I believe that a new format will have to be developed for sporting events when the public can see these events. In television the announcers will work more as we have on news¬ reels. He will complement the pic¬ ture by explaining technical phases, and dealing more in generalities than he will in specific plays or moments. The announcer will have to learn not to speak continuously but to speak only when the occa¬ sion demands. I think, frankly, that those of us who have been fortunate enough to have had newsreel experience will find this experience invaluable in aiding and abetting television broadcasts. The worst malady a television announcer can succumb to, in my opinion, is over-explain¬ ing and over-talking, rather than letting the action carry itself as the picture unfolds. Television offers a splendid op¬ portunity for sports announcers but I would suggest to any of them who are seriously contemplating this medium, that they first try and find out what television is all about; secondly, that they learn exactly what the public can see and what the public must be told; and thirdly, that they try, if pos¬ sible, to get as much experience as they can in the cutting and editing of film subjects. For this is the closest work available at the pres¬ ent time to the conditions under which television will operate. MAJOR SPORTING events, such as heavyweight championship bouts, World Series ball games and the Bowl football games are generally conceded to be the most compelling of television programs. Home and theater audiences are expected to be at their peak for these events. 37