Now that football season has come to a close, I can now focus much of my attention on one of my other favorite sports – amateur wrestling.
I have participated or watched the sport pretty much my entire life. Thanks to the growth of streaming video and niche channels like the Big Ten Network, I can watch way more college wrestling than I ever anticipated.
BTN shows two or three matches a week on TV while a few more matches show up on regional sports channels. ESPNU showed one big match and will show two days from the NCAA Championships. It’s heaven for a guy like me.
As always, I have to find the downside in something like this. I love seeing more wrestling on television, but I wish the producers and commentators would stop treating me like I’m a moron.
Since I follow many niche sports, I know this problem well. The broadcasters know that not everyone knows the rules or fundamentals of the sport so they throw in graphics or special video segments or dumb down the commentary so novices might feel welcome as they watch.
The problem is that these kinds of sports are finding their way onto TV more and more, as I said, so the core audience have to sit through a primer on the sport every single time they tune in. I know how many points people get for a reversal and understand the basics of choice at the beginning of the second period. So do most people watching. Stop telling us what we already know.
Sure, people who don’t generally follow the sport might have to do without the broadcaster holding their hand, but baseball announcers talk about a cut fastball and football announcers discuss the Cover 2 defense all the time. I bet most people watching really have no idea what those things truly mean.
With the segmentation in viewing audiences growing deeper and deeper, the people putting sports on television have to – at some point – just accept that most people watching know what is going on. The rest of the audience can just figure it out on their own.
Some of this exists. The top BTN crew of Tim Johnson and Lee Kemp do a good job. Jeff Byers, who broadcasts for Penn State’s radio network, is outstanding. But when the BTN uses its “Student U” format, which has students putting together the production, things go downhill. I don’t expect the students to be perfect, but they need to assume the audience knows the basics.
Put away your fears of alienating the people who just stumble upon the broadcast and take some steps to please those who tune in time and time again. I think you’ll be amazed how much it means to us.