Dear ABC and ESPN employees.

It's been FANTASTIC to watch the Masters in such a clean screen, without any cluttering bugs like MLB scores, NBA scores, NFl news, etc...

Please do the same thing during the Euro 2008 coverage, as your cluttering during the World Cup 2006 was very, very annoying - while I am watching, say, Germany x Austria, I won't give a rat's... if, say, the Yankees beat the KC Royals last night or not. In fact, if that's what I am interested on knowing, I'd just go to your espn.com web site and find that information.

Sincerely,

Travelfan1

I hate posts like what I'm about to do, but I have nothing to add except...

+1

Hi,

The question is, how do we get them to read this?

Yes, count me in.

When I watched football (soccer) games back in Europe there was NOTHING on the screen beside the channel logo, and that was most of the time small AND "see-through," for a lack of a better word (very inconspicuous). The teams and the score appeared at the very beginning, then 15' in, 30' in and 40' or 44', and that was for a few seconds... The screen was full of... well, the football GAME.*

Watching the World Cup in 2006 on the ESPNs it drove me crazy how the logo and scoreboard were so huge and they were there the whole time. Not to mention the fact that in HD they were almost in middle of the screen. For some reason they can't make it be in the corner. It's where you see it if you were watching 4:3 SD. Gee, I could go on and on about this...

Regards,
Radu

* that was 12 years ago. Now it's probably like it is here in the U.S.

Hi,

The question is, how do we get them to read this?

Yes, count me in.

When I watched football (soccer) games back in Europe there was NOTHING on the screen beside the channel logo, and that was most of the time small AND "see-through," for a lack of a better word (very inconspicuous). The teams and the score appeared at the very beginning, then 15' in, 30' in and 40' or 44', and that was for a few seconds... The screen was full of... well, the football GAME.*

Watching the World Cup in 2006 on the ESPNs it drove me crazy how the logo and scoreboard were so huge and they were there the whole time. Not to mention the fact that in HD they were almost in middle of the screen. For some reason they can't make it be in the corner. It's where you see it if you were watching 4:3 SD. Gee, I could go on and on about this...

Regards,
Radu

* that was 12 years ago. Now it's probably like it is here in the U.S.
I was in the Netherlands in March, it hasn't changed Radu, what a pleasure it was to watch the Champions League and Uefa Cup matches there without anything like "YOu are watching GolTv"... Oh, really, I thought I was watching Martha Stewart!:rolleyes:

Hi,

The question is, how do we get them to read this?


Posting here is a good place to start, industry members read this board.

Mostly industry members who feel the same as you but aren't involved with those kinds of decisions.

If they're not gonna turn off the bottom line for baseball or college football, I seriously doubt they'll do it for soccer. Not that I'm against you.

Posting here is a good place to start, industry members read this board.

Here's another suggestion: Send e-mail to John Skipper of ESPN (John.Skipper@espn.com). He has been responsive in the past, but I'm not sure how many other people have e-mailed him about this particular issue. So, please send e-mails and let's hope our collective concerns get listened to!

Below is the portion of the response from him to a polite complaint about the screen clutter during the soccer broadcasts, and how their US Open Golf broadcast was clean. According to him, more people are interested in more info. on their screen! :confused:

------------

I appreciate your comments and that you are watching.

We always struggle with how much information to put on the screen. While you may have seen a clean screen in us open that happens less and less - and most of our viewers want the information - now soccer, bacause of the size of the field and the quick moving from end to end needs as much screen as possible -....

He's probably referring to the scoreboard and in-game graphics.

I think if you want to make a complaint I would be specific that you're sick and tired of the ESPN bottomline and all the useless information that accompanies it. In the internet age, it is ludicrious to suggest that anyone who's a big enough sportsfan to care about the information scrolling through the ticker is going to wait on an archaic device like the ticker to inform him when he has the Internet at his fingertips.

At the very least, said sportsfan would go to ESPNEWS. Hmm, maybe someone needs to convince ESPN that less useless tickers on ESPN/2/U might actually increase the value of ESPNEWS to subscribers? Even worse, why in the world do we need 18/58 updates when we have Sportscenter 30 at 30 updates? It's absolutely insane how far they've gotten carried away with all this annoying branding.

Also, the new graphics that tell me what's coming up next? Yeah, thanks, but that's about 10 years too late in its usefulness. Digital boxes and on-screen guides make that information entirely useless. Save your money, please!

I remember when the only thing on a TV screen was the new "Network Bug" and many people complained very loudly about it.... see how effective that was ?? :(

+1

I am sure the Masters people insisted on the clean screen -- just like a part of their contract with CBS allows only four minutes of commercials, with Masters officials having veto power over all sponsors.

No one can possibly believe that ESPN, with ESPN2, Desportes, 360, ABC, Disney World and who knows what else to promote, would ever leave those promos, err, updates, off without a major reason.

If ESPN didn't remove the BottomLine for tonight's NBA game on ESPN2-HD (usually seen on ESPN, but not this week because of the Masters), I doubt there's any hope for any major soccer tournament.

Here's another suggestion: Send e-mail to John Skipper of ESPN (John.Skipper@espn.com).

Hello,

I just emailed him.

--
Radu

Hello,

I just emailed him.

--
Radu

once again I hate myself...

+1

Well, at least one person at ESPN responds to emails....

John noted that the bottom line will be left on for MLS games, but they are evaluating what to do for World Cup and other events. I replied asking about HD coverage for Euro 2008 and UCL Final. John forwarded my email to David Berson who replied with a confirmation that both the Euro 2008 Finals and the UEFA Champions League Final will all be in HD on the ESPN family of networks

Well, at least one person at ESPN responds to emails....

John noted that the bottom line will be left on for MLS games, but they are evaluating what to do for World Cup and other events. I replied asking about HD coverage for Euro 2008 and UCL Final. John forwarded my email to David Berson who replied with a confirmation that both the Euro 2008 Finals and the UEFA Champions League Final will all be in HD on the ESPN family of networks

Thanks for the update. It seems that our pleas were not all in vain. It is encouraging that they are at least "evaluating" the request!