![]() ![]() For perspective, Bet365 has estimated roughly 80% of sports betting revenues in the U.K. In-game sports betting is expected to explode in the U.S. “You need a real-time audio/visual feed to make in-game prop bets,” Cohen reminded. But while a delay is fine for the purpose of short audio vignettes or an alternative feed, the approach would seemingly run counter to the leagues’ desire to capitalize on sports betting. Kosner reasoned leagues could “achieve 85% of the value and take out most of the risk” by doing so. Putting on-field/behind-the-scenes audio content on a short delay is a logical enough solution to the problem. “If has a star player, who is caught saying something offensive, and there is public pressure for the team to sever their relationship with that player, then the owner feels, the team feels it, and the league feels it,” Kosner said. Kosner suspects it won’t just be the players’ and coaches’ unions, worried about one of their members landing in hot water, that will oppose the increased use of hot mics on the field. Remember, there was already a lot of pushback before the recent series of mic slips. ![]() When you have incidents that come up, and the punishment is that the person who makes the mistake is gone forever, there is just too much risk,” he reasoned. The potential for “players, coaches and executives themselves up instantaneously by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time is so palpable that you’re going to have people retreating here. The former NBA and ESPN executive-turned-startup investor now views “the combination of hot mic risk, social media’s instant global distribution and the current unforgiving culture that we all live in” as too great a liability for the big four leagues, and thinks a change in approach is on the horizon. John Kosner was on board with that line of thinking until the recent succession of hot mic incidents. When given a choice of alternative production elements, most fans advocated for ones that brought them deeper into the telecast. The element fans were most passionate about was the utilization of player microphones to provide the natural sounds and conversations during a game. Research studies done by ESPN during the 2020 season have confirmed that point. Sports leagues are punching into the wind if they think they can turn the ship away from providing consumers a better viewing experience.” Gross agreed, saying, “Access has been increasing for a long time now across sports, so the cat is out of the bag in that regard.” “ opened up the opportunity for fans to be this close to the action. “This is an established element of broadcast at this point,” Cohen said. Our Take: Sports leagues looking to gain younger fans and/or keep them engaged will provide more and more access to their media partners because that is what sports fans have come to expect. “Collectively, the top priority is serving the sports fan, and access is at the very top of the list of what they want,” Gross said. But despite the series of costly microphone missteps, a pair of media industry insiders-Mark Gross (senior vice president, production and remote events, ESPN) and Dan Cohen (SVP, Octagon)-expect that leagues will only be providing their media partners with more access moving forward (think: MLB Spring Training on ESPN). (It’s believed he was fined the PGA does not publicly disclose disciplinary actions toward its members.) That followed just weeks after Meyers Leonard was banished from the Miami Heat indefinitely for using a derogatory term during a live video game stream (Kyle Larson was fired by Chip Ganassi Racing for a similar offense in 2020). That slip-up came two months after Golf Channel microphones caught PGA Tour star Justin Thomas uttering an anti-gay slur following a missed putt. ![]() Back in late March, NHL referee Tim Peel was fired after admitting on a “hot mic” that a penalty called in a game between the Nashville Predators and Detroit Red Wings was predetermined. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |