I have a question about ESPN's coverage of the tourney... [Archive]

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bjornolf

03-26-2009, 08:43 AM

Has anybody noticed that in the first two rounds of the tourney, when Digger and others were talking about what teams were doing in the tourney, they were showing highlights that WEREN'T from the tourney? They'd be analyzing Duke's win over Texas, all the while showing highlights from the Georgia Tech game or the Maryland game. Duke's jersey colors are changing colors left and right, as are the designs on the floor. It was very confusing. What, they weren't allowed to have tape of the games? Why are they doing this? They did this with every game that I saw them analyze, Duke or otherwise. They can show highlights on Sportscenter, why not when breaking down the games? It just seemed so odd to me, and kind of cheap. I'm sure there's a valid reason for this, but it just seemed odd that the "worldwide leader" can't get tape of a NCAAT game for their analysts to show. At least they could have picked ONE game to show highlights from so that colors weren't changing constantly. Surely there were enough highlights in Duke's 41 point blowout of Maryland to fill a fifteen second spot. Just saying. :rolleyes:

Maybe somebody can tell me why they did this. I watched them analyzing the upcoming games this morning, and they at least had some tourney footage. What took them so long? :confused:

AIRFORCEDUKIE

03-26-2009, 09:06 AM

I have always thought that they were allowed to show highlights during sportscenter, but that was the only place that was allowed to show highlights. Thats why you have clips from other games, and you have Non-CBS new stations using puppets to re-enact games... saw a thread on here about that if I recall corectly

anyway not sure of the legal reason behind it but thats basically what is allowable from what I've seen. Which is wierd.

also I think after each round is played out, CBS releases the video so now they can use games from last week to analyze the teams this week

Airforcedukie

DukeUsul

03-26-2009, 09:08 AM

The NCAA and/or CBS won't allow anyone to show highlights of the day's games until all of the games that day are over. That's also the reason that NBC17's Penn Holderness has been using dolls and toys to re-enact the games during their 11pm broadcast. If you haven't seen them, they are hilarious.

http://sports.mync.com/site/sports/video/5924/Dollhouse_Theatre__Duke_Defeats_Binghamton/

bjornolf

03-26-2009, 09:20 AM

This was definitely NOT on the same day. It was the next morning. I assume that they taped Digger and the boys talking about it the night before. However, if nothing else, couldn't they show the highlights of the first game then when they're talking about Duke moving on through the tourney? This was after the Texas game, afterall. Further, they're showing a highlight reel while someone is talking. If they taped it live the night of the game, then re-showed it the next morning, couldn't they just edit the tape to replace the old highlights with the correct ones before the re-broadcast the next morning? Would that be so difficult?

Good to know the reasoning, though. Thanks.

Jumbo

03-26-2009, 09:59 AM

I believe networks are also given a certain amount of "time" they are allowed to show a particular highlight. So, for instance, ESPN might choose to use Tourney highlights during SportsCenter and not use up that time on whatever show Digger was on, too.

gadzooks

03-26-2009, 01:20 PM

Hancock 4 Duke

03-26-2009, 07:26 PM

Here is the deal: ESPN cannot show highlights of the day's games. It would violate the contract, and they could be sued. Also, every five years, they have some sort of coin flip type thing (not necessarily a coin flip) to decide who covers the Games for those five years. I wish they could both show two different games if they are at the same time.