• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Newsday, Melville, N.Y., Sports Watch Column: Soccer Fans Won't Have to Wait

Posted on: Friday, 9 June 2006, 09:00 CDT

By Neil Best, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Jun. 9--In theory, ABC and ESPN could have done with the World Cup what NBC did

with much of the Winter Olympics: shown the action on tape delay to account for the time difference from Europe. In practice, doing so likely would have fomented a multi-ethnic, multi-thousand-strong protest march on Bristol, Conn.

So ESPN chose the saner, safer approach.

"There was no discussion this time about doing anything but carrying games live," said John Skipper, ABC/ESPN's executive VP for content. "We would never think about doing this tape delayed."

Wise choice, one that worked despite a bigger time zone gap from Japan and Korea for the 2002 World Cup. Still, most games from Germany will be on weekday mornings and afternoons, which will mean challenges for fans bent on following play beginning today.

For them, ABC/ESPN offers its favorite solution: multi-platform coverage.

"I do not want to say [the time difference] is irrelevant as it relates to ratings, but the soccer fan will be served at any time of day," senior coordinating producer Tim Scanlan said. "The sports fan will want this information no matter where they're at or what device they get it on."

Every game will be live on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2, with former Mets play-by-play man Dave O'Brien on the United States' games. ("In soccer I'm a so-called 'baseball guy,' which can be a dirty word in the soccer community," he said.)

The complementary platforms include everything from updates on Mobile ESPN to replays on ESPN Classic to giving away World Cup patches to kids at ESPN Zone restaurants. (The band U2 signed on to aid the promotional hoopla.)

The most intriguing wrinkle is that all 52 games on ESPN or ESPN2 will be simulcast on ESPN360, a broadband service available in only eight million households, mostly through Verizon DSL.

For 10 games, though, including three quarterfinals and both semifinals, ESPN will offer 360 free to every broadband company in hopes of inspiring fans to pressure their Internet provider to pick it up. That, in turn, surely will lead to the phenomenon that swept the nation during the NCAA Tournament, thanks to CBS' March Madness on Demand: goofing off at work to watch at your desk.

Skipper was unapologetic. "I think the United States economy will be fine," he said. "We can probably live with a little less productivity, like the rest of the world, during the World Cup."

Whether Americans will care enough to risk trouble with the boss remains to be seen. Absent World Cup office pools, that figures to depend how well the United States does. Its marquee game against Italy is on a Saturday, but it faces the Czech Republic Monday at noon and Ghana at 10 a.m. Thursday, June 22.

Executive producer Jed Drake recalled working on the 1987 America's Cup competition from Australia, which despite the unfamiliarity of the sport and the time zone problems was a hit.

"There will be people absolutely absorbed by this event and good numbers of them," Drake said. "And they will watch it whenever it is played because it is live."

Sound bites

Bob Wolff, 85, a living institution in TV sports, signed a two-year extension with News 12 Long Island to remain a special correspondent . . . Sam Ryan, who last year was a fill-in sideline reporter on "Monday Night Football," has joined CBS Sports as a reporter and will be a weekend anchor on Ch. 2. She lives in Smithtown . . . Mike Francesa and WNBC have agreed to a four-year contract extension for "Mike'd Up."

STRANGE BUT TRUE: FSN DECLARES SHTICK-FREE ZONE

At first thought, it seemed the world could do without FSN's planned highlights-only, shtick-free wrap-up show (debuting July 3).

Then ESPN inadvertently offered evidence to the contrary yesterday.

SportsCenter spent more than two minutes promoting "Cars" with a music video and an excruciating interview with actor Owen Wilson, who does voice work on the Disney flick. (Disney owns ESPN.)

Memo to ESPN president George Bodenheimer: You owe those who watched that segment 135 seconds of our lives back. Or at least an autographed John Buccigross bobblehead doll.

ESPN does offer a no-nonsense alternative on ESPNEWS, but that reaches 50 million homes full time versus a combined 81 million for FSN's regional nets. SNY's news focuses mostly on local events.

So FSN might indeed have found a 30-minute niche it can fill. No joke.

JUST WONDERING: WILL SLEEPY EAST EVER GET A BREAK?

Once again, every game in the NBA Finals will begin after 9 p.m., so as with the World Series or NCAA hoops final, millions of children (and adults with jobs) on the East Coast will not stay up to watch.

That stinks, but it never will change unless California secedes from the union and/or ratings data take a dramatic turn.

TV executives will accept some whining from the East in return for prime-time eyeballs in the West, and the numbers back them. Take last year's baseball playoffs. Fox reported its average ratings were 31 percent higher after 11 p.m. Eastern Time than before (10.2-7.8).

Even among boys ages 2-11 ratings were 13 percent higher after 11. For male teens, 32 percent higher.

Was an earlier start considered at least for the weekend during the Finals? Uh, no.

"We think the 8:30 pregame and 9 o'clock start is a way to continue this renaissance of ratings we've seen for the NBA," said Len DeLuca, senior VP of programming for ABC/ESPN. "It's also a lot fairer to all the fans, including those in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones."

BEST BETS: HE'LL LIKE THIS BETTER THAN A TIE

Men are simple organisms, which makes shopping for creative Father's Day gifts a challenge.

So don't try. Stick to basics. For example, two male staples - sports and TV.

HBO this week sent a three-DVD set that goes on sale Tuesday, or as the news release said, "just in time for Father's Day."

It's called "Legends in Pinstripes" and is a repackaging of its documentaries on Joe DiMaggio (1997), Babe Ruth (1998) and Mickey Mantle (2005). Only a third of the nation has HBO (the figure is higher on Long Island), so many people missed these shows the first time.

Is it a nice gift at the $29.92 suggested price? Yes, but be advised the quality is uneven.

The weakest is the one on Ruth, about whom there seemingly is nothing new to say, or no one alive to say it. The best is "Mantle," in which his wife, Merlyn, laments that in The Mick and his sons, she was "living with five active alcoholics."

Powerful stuff.

Stanley Cup

Finals don't rate

The Stanley Cup Finals move to NBC tomorrow for the first time since 1975 after two games on OLN drew weak ratings:

0.9 percent of homes with the channel.

New York rated an 0.5 - 25th among 55 large markets.

The top five and five that registered no rating at all:

1. Raleigh-Durham 10.8

2. Greensboro 3.8

3. Charlotte 3.0

4. Buffalo 2.6

5. Denver 2.1

51. Louisville 0.0

52. Dayton 0.0

53. Albuquerque 0.0

54. Birmingham 0.0

55. Tulsa 0.0

Contact Neil Best | e-mail: nbest@newsday.com

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Tokyo:4744,

Source: Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

More News in this Category