What did CBS do wrong with March Madness?
The nets are all cut down. The champion has been crowned in one dreadfully sloppy game. 68 hopeful, optimistic, energetic teams yielded one proud champion – The Connecticut Huskies. Ravenous fans of college roundball must now wait a half a year until the ball is thrown into the air again; the first steps to the long, treacherous Road to the Final Four begin.
This year CBS’ new television coverage, with games spread across CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV, gave basketball fans instant gratification; a basketball buffet unlike any other. For the first time ever, all tourney games could be seen in their entirety over cable television.
This largesse, however, came with a very apparent downfall. More equaled more basketball games on your television set. The viewing experience, though, took a step backwards. Let me explain.
When you are watching a game on television, you probably want to know a few basic things:
- Your team’s score
- The opponent’s score
- Time remaining
- 1st half or 2nd half
- Number of time outs remaining
Any other statistics can be quickly gathered from your computer, iPad, or iPhone.
You probably understand CBS’ logic for going for an ‘information barrage’ at the top AND bottom of screen. (Other game scores are featured along the top of the screen; the game you are watching score is featured at the bottom.) This is March Madness; viewers want to know the scores of all of the games at all times. CBS wants to promote and entice viewers to check out their other properties (read: see advertisements); they’ve dedicated plenty of screen to the logos of TNT, TBS, truTV, especially because their investment is a pricey one. CBS and Turner paid $10.4 billion for the tourney’s broadcast rights. Is this information, however, vital to the viewer? No.
This is a different world today. Many viewers were either next to a computer while watching the games or viewing a digital device (iphone, Google Android, Bberry) with the television as a sometimes afterthought.
The big reason I did not like it: it lessened the stunning impact of the pageantry, passion and fire of college basketball. When the pep band was shown, I felt obscured. When the fans, many of whom trekked hundreds of miles to watch their alma mater, were shown reacting to a blown call, I felt slighted.
If CBS MUST go ‘overload’ on us, why not display just one score from other games and rotate in the upper-right corner of the screen? Viewers of the game stay focused on the action. Keen observers of ‘other games’ still get their ‘score fix. Problem solved.
ESPN, MSNBC, Fox News, CNN started us down this continual ticker stream of information years ago. Let’s be careful not to drown ourselves with data drunkenness.
So what do you think? Did you enjoy the constant barrage of scores and updates through the tourney’s first and second rounds? Naden’s Corner wants to know.
Until next time,
Dan Naden
