Idea: A game broadcast with the specific goal of educating new viewers

[StupidGenius]

In the interest of growing the game in non-traditional markets, would it be a worthwhile idea to produce a single game broadcast completely designed for new/learning viewers?

I wonder how much the game could benefit from a network doing this once a season or so, and cater to the audience that might be more interested in our sport if they weren't as ignorant about it.

As it stands, typically a non-traditional market needs to start having playoff success, if not an outright championship to start getting people to take notice, at which point you start seeing fans begin learning the game. I may be speaking in ignorance, but I feel as though that's the case in places like Raleigh and Nashville, and part of the reason Atlanta never panned out.

I don't imagine it would be prohibitive to produce such a broadcast, and I truly think it might be the simplest way to have a tangible growth in the sport.

This also could be the dumbest idea ever, but I'm curious to see what people think of this, or reasons it hasn't been done already.

Click to read more...

 

[IWantSakicAsMyGM]

Why not have an alternate audio stream for every game, instead of only doing it for a single game? So, you'd have your normal broadcast team on one stream, then a second group on an alternate stream where you have someone explaining the rules (offsides, icing, penalties, etc) instead of a color commentator. With the live internet streams, digital cable and all of that, the technology shouldn't be a problem, it's just a matter of capturing a secondary audio feed and giving people a mechanism to select it.

And Raleigh has a Cup and a good group of fans. Nashville has a good group of fans. Atlanta... well, they've failed twice. Not sure if it's a lack of knowledge about the game, bad ownership, or what, but maybe we shouldn't be spending money/effort trying to make Georgians into hockey fans.

 

[triggrman]

In Nashville, Pete Weber and Terry Crisp did this a lot in the early years. Including in the broadcast some hockey101 segments.

 

[DaNaultinus]

Great idea! like said above, an alternate audio stream would work well. I'm hoping that one day there will be streams with only ice and arena sounds.

 

[Rebels57]

Great idea actually.

As long as it's not the clowns on NBCSN doing it.

 

[IWantSakicAsMyGM]

Great idea! like said above, an alternate audio stream would work well. I'm hoping that one day there will be streams with only ice and arena sounds.

The more I think about it, the more I want like 7 streams.

Home/away TV announcers
home/away radio announcers
home/away hockey101 announcers
no announcers - stadium/ice sounds only
no announcers - miked up players only
no announcers - miked up referrees only

Could definitely be interesting.

 

[SUBdrewgANS]

The Penguins broadcasters did this awhile ago IIRC

 

[Siludin]

The Winter Classic and the 24/7 broadcasts are literally this.

I don't know the present status of the lead-up episodic broadcasts to this year's Winter Classic (are the guys who do 24/7 still doing them?) but that's something that should be advertised more every year.

The first Pittsburgh/Washington one they did was chillingly good.

 

[jw2]

Good idea, but the NHL would mess it up.

I'd imagine, instead of hearing Pierre between the benches every whistle, we'd see a picture in picture of someone explain the rules/basics of what happened.

Would be good to have this be an afternoon game in the weekend, gets some kids to see, too.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

The more I think about it, the more I want like 7 streams.

Home/away TV announcers
home/away radio announcers
home/away hockey101 announcers
no announcers - stadium/ice sounds only
no announcers - miked up players only
no announcers - miked up referrees only

Could definitely be interesting.

Re: bolded. One of my biggest hockey-related laughs was in the 90's when...either NBC or FOX was breaking in to do NHL games, and one of their brainstorms was to have mics to catch player conversation.

American tv primetime:

"And now, let's hear what the players on the ice are saying, Bob!"
"**** YOU, YOU ****ING *********** MOTHER****ING PIECE OF ****!!!"
"...and back to you, Bob...!"

 

[Reddwit]

I...really don't think many people would watch it.

 

[sharkhawk]

They could bring back Peter Puck from NBC in the 70's.

Edit
Just saw as I was fixing it, Peter was also on HNIC.

 

[Caeldan]

Honestly, both Coaches Corner and the Behind the Mask segments on HNIC used to be about teaching the game. Behind the Mask used to be my absolute favourite intermission segment.
Unfortunately now Coaches Corner is more just about making noise in as short a time as possible (thanks Rogers!), and Behind the Mask disappeared a while back.

 

[TrillMike]

This happened in the early 90s when the Stars moved to Dallas. They'd announce offsides in the arena.

 

[skymachine]

ESPN did exactly this back in 2000 with their "NHL Rules!" nights. It didn't last very long.

Here is an article I dug up about it. I remember watching this exact game and getting frustrated as they dumbed down the game for sure:

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/ESPN-Plots-Hockey-Lessons-During-NHL-Rules-2699755.php

 

[IWantSakicAsMyGM]

Re: bolded. One of my biggest hockey-related laughs was in the 90's when...either NBC or FOX was breaking in to do NHL games, and one of their brainstorms was to have mics to catch player conversation.

American tv primetime:

"And now, let's hear what the players on the ice are saying, Bob!"
"**** YOU, YOU ****ING *********** MOTHER****ING PIECE OF ****!!!"
"...and back to you, Bob...!"

Yeah, that's kind of my hope for that stream. Might need the password protect that one...

 

[Fig]

Snoop Dogg narrating a Pens v Flyers game might be interesting.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Edzo has this covered with his nightly "for all you young hockey fans out there" moments

 

[Tweed]

It's a great idea... And I'd be interested in an advanced version of this. A Strategy stream... Where tactians draw on the screen as the game is being played, illustrating to you each teams preferred style of play, as they attempt to execute their plays. Different breakouts, entries, o-zone possesions and setups... Assignments, defenses, etc etc... Where they tell you what the stuff you're seeing, is called. Basically the telestrator stuff you see at intermission, but not slow-mo, and is continous. They could bundle it as one of the camera views on GameCenter, and make available the next day, since it would likely have to be executed and edited pretty heavily, post-game.

The novelty of it would wear off pretty quickly... if they tried to do it live and they didn't find the balance between teaching, and letting you watch. It'd probably get super annoying.

 

[Arthuros]

And then the advanced stream has you take notes on hockey trivia, and it's called by Pierre Macguire and Chico Resch.

 

[DonskoiDonscored]

So just one game? Would this air while the game was going or after? How would they market this?

 

[Jeremy2020]

I think it should be done every game.

I think they should also make the puck glow or something to help people keep track of it...

 

[Flukeshot]

Iirc Fox did a lot of this when they started to broadcast games... Then the glowing puck came. They took it over the top.

It could be done subtly. Just a few casual reminders a game on core rules and then do like baseball when anything a bit complex comes up show the rule book quote and have the broadcast team explain it.

I wonder the Punjabi broadcast does?