National Title game coverage

[Schnauzer]

Anyone else flip channels to check out ESPN's other options for watching the game? When I saw that they were going to multi-cast the game with different options, I was interested to check it out.

In my experience, I very quickly went back to the traditional broadcast. I had the following issues with the other options:

1. Two of the options were pretty similar, with panels or groups talking about the game, with several smaller video windows on screen. I quickly left these options for the same reasons: Lots of people talking over each other, making it difficult to hear the sounds of the game and most importantly, the game itself was in a smaller window with others windows dedicated to things I didn't care to watch. If I am going to have HDTV and a big screen, I want to see the main game with all of my screen.

2. Speaking of sounds of the game, I tried the ESPN Classic option without announcers. I would have stayed on this and checked it out longer but ESPN Classic is not in high def on DirecTV. That is a non-starter so I quickly retreated from that too.

All in all, it was a quick return to Brent and Kirk for me. Anyone else try the other options? What did you think?

 

[mnsports1]

I did the exact same thing, same experience.

 

[Lakeville Goldy]

I didn't mind the ESPN2 broadcast (relaxed panel of coaches, players and celebrities). I didn't try any of the others (besides the regular). But I was also flipping back and forth to other stuff. At times it was really good. At other times it was really annoying.

One of the annoying parts was people were just kind of randomly brought in and then ushered out. Some groups worked better than others. Once Manziel and Tebow got comfortable they were pretty interesting. Both had good insights, but then someone else would say something stupid and it would devolve. But it was kind of like watching a game in a bar with someone else's group of friends. It wasn't ever awful, but the celebrities mostly were worthless (Taylor Hicks is even a celebrity?).

I think if I was running the show next year, I would have Michael Smith and Jemele Hill hang out in that atmosphere with Lou Holtz (who was informative though he is hard to understand nowdays) with a couple of Heisman finalists and maybe defensive player of the year finalist and one coach who wasn't in the game and keep the same lineup the whole time but have the very casual atmosphere (serving food and lounging while watching the game). I think if there was continuity it would have helped and getting rid of some of the idiot celebs (though they might have helped keep it more casual). Or maybe get a celeb or two that actually knows something...

Or show it on HBO and serve drinks

 

[MGGopher]

Anyone else flip channels to check out ESPN's other options for watching the game? When I saw that they were going to multi-cast the game with different options, I was interested to check it out.

In my experience, I very quickly went back to the traditional broadcast. I had the following issues with the other options:

1. Two of the options were pretty similar, with panels or groups talking about the game, with several smaller video windows on screen. I quickly left these options for the same reasons: Lots of people talking over each other, making it difficult to hear the sounds of the game and most importantly, the game itself was in a smaller window with others windows dedicated to things I didn't care to watch. If I am going to have HDTV and a big screen, I want to see the main game with all of my screen.

2. Speaking of sounds of the game, I tried the ESPN Classic option without announcers. I would have stayed on this and checked it out longer but ESPN Classic is not in high def on DirecTV. That is a non-starter so I quickly retreated from that too.

All in all, it was a quick return to Brent and Kirk for me. Anyone else try the other options? What did you think?

All great points, and I imagine ESPN got similar feedback from many sources. I bet they'll continue something like this next year, but with the modifications you pointed out. I'd especially like to see them make the "film room" panel MUCH smaller (two or three guys TOPS). And as you pointed out, they need to have the analysts on a smaller screen offset from the game broadcast, which needs to take up at least 80% of the screen. Being a former coach and a goofball for X's and O's, I was pretty interested in this option for the game, but I flipped after the first series because it was so poorly executed. I found "Spidercam" to be the most interesting view, and I actually stuck with that for about a quarter. It was about as close as you can get to being immersed in the game without the QB wearing a helmet cam (which I guarantee isn't too far off).