New ESPN Graphics Set/LA Studio Opening

Not an April Fool's joke, new graphics are coming. They'll start with the first live SportsCenter on Monday at 9:00 AM EDT.

I saw the video - too long for the opening.

Sigh... I miss the blue screen opening with the swooping "SportsCenter" - you know, the days of Dan and Keith.

Why do they have to put so much crap on the screen I hate ESPN anyways so it don't matter to me I nly watch live sporting events and PTI the rest is pure garbage as far as I am concerned.

And you thought the sets/graphics for PTI, Around the Horn, and Jim Rome looked outdated before...

Well, I guess Jim Rome will move to the new LA studio.

I swear it must be someone with raging ADHD that designs this stuff for ESPN. You just cannot follow it all

As someone mentioned earlier, its looks like the graphics on ESPN News.

Bingo I think you are right on.

Is this only for SportsCenter? It's too much to have on during a live event.

It's like looking at the video wall at your local Best Buy if they had all the panels tuned to different stations. Has anyone told them about the revenue opportunity of pop ups yet?

I think their primary goal is just to make their game screens look less cluttered by comparison.

Idiocracy, here we come.

Somebody needs to explain to them that more is not always better. Great analogy CPanther that is exactly what it looks like.

It's for the late night and morning sportscenters.... they already use a similar graphics package - this is just a redesign/facelift.

Obviously it isn't for live events.

Considering the nature of the show - I think its just fine.... people tune in for information. (The morning shows are more heaving on info than highlight packages, which people tend to prefer on the 11pm show, which is why that is free of this set of graphics)

Intro is waaaay too long. Lost interest after 20 seconds.

Too much crap on the screen, as usual. Hopefully we will be able to get 50% of the screen for highlights.

Just even more reasons why I barely watch SC, if at all.

Why do we need an ESPN News 2?

i like all the info....im not 80 years old.

I am monumentally confused by those saying "too much information" on the screen. The point of both these screens is to display the scores/stats. Of course there's a bunch of information on the screen. Do you people even watch ESPN? These comments suggest no.

These graphics are no different from the current format/display. They're just slicker looking.

Of course that's the point - display as many scores and stats from a variety of different sports all at the same time - and all while reserving about 15% of the screen for a display of what's going to come up next.

And don't forget the numerous commercial breaks from a subscription pay channel (a channel that gets almost the same amount of money as HBO) that can't seem to pick up the stupid ticker where they left off when you were staring at it during the 6 minutes since the previous commercial break.....

What is the purpose of ESPN News then? If I wanted to see highlights I would watch ESPN. If I was a numbers junkie and cared about all that, ESPN News.

Considering we pay so much for this channel, why can't the ticker stay on screen during commercials? It's ESPN. Advertisers will still buy ad time on that channel. It should be like CNBC, no stopping for 'breaks'.

That is something that irritates me beyond belief. They're running some long sentence on the ticker and POOF! it's gone in a commercial break. And of course the thing starts all over again after the break.

Describe "late night." The pictures in the first post read 10:16 ET. I wouldn't call that the late night edition of SportsCenter.

Like it or not, ESPN just keeps taking more screen space. MNF was a big slap in our face after they claimed they were giving the viewer more room.

There's no doubt that ESPNEWS is just SportsCenter 24/7. But so what? It's sports. You can't just have a blank highlight or just some face reading statistics off the teleprompter. There is a multi-billion dollar fantasy sports industry (that ESPN helped create) that depends on this information, to say nothing of the multi-billion dollar sports commentariat that pours over this data and empowers that fantasy sports industry.

Stats aren't going anywhere. There's no value in doing a stats-free sports report. If you want long form feature pieces or in-depth sports reporting, you need to watch Outside the Lines, E:60, 60 Minutes, or Real Sports.

And ESPNEWS keeps the ticker on during commercials. But there's a larger point I haven't addressed that the SportsCenter screen has no-where near the information overload that you can get on ESPNEWS.

They should start a Nerd "Sports" network for fantasy sport players. Or just run player stats on a Dungeon & Dragons channel or when they log in to play their sports video games online.

Let the real fans get their real sports unmolested by stats that could easily be retrieved online - assuming the fantasy players' computers aren't occupied monitoring the health of their virtual pets - or seeing if their Facebook page was visited by an actual real girl.

I wanna give you a hug. Although I do confess I do have a fb page.

Snarky but pretty off the mark as far as I can tell. Fantasy sports is just the 2% of the iceberg you can see above the water. The 98% you don't see is the incredibly vast and invested world of sports gambling.

It's no coincidence that ESPN struck gold with the WSOP. They know their audience.

That 2% of the iceberg represents 90% of the clutter of our sports presentation. Professional gamblers typically have internet access and don't generally rely on a game broadcast to compile their player stats.

Very off the mark....

Considering the bottom line barely shows any stats.... its most scores with a brief stat summary... anyone into fantasy sports isn't watching sportscenter for that...

the "bulk" of the graphics is informing the viewer of the upcoming stories to be covered... what does that have to do with fantasy sports? or gambling?

The stats are on TV because so many people watch sporting events in sports bars, where they don't have internet access.


It's well documented that SportsCenter has a ratings problem due to the glut of sports analysis on ESPN. Why go to Sportscenter for any information when you've got ESPNews, ESPNU, NFL Live, Baseball Tonight, NBA Fastbreak, etc. etc. unless you see a story on the queue that you're interested in.

I don't see it as the "bulk." It's outside the 4:3 frame. Half the time it's just covering the wing, and there's no time when it's covering actual meaningful information since, as we whine about everyday, everything on television is framed for the 4:3 viewer.

I was referring to the graphics on display during the sports programming. The SportsCenter philosophy of packing in as much info beyond the primary topic of discussion bleeds over into their on screen graphics of game presentations.

Not that ESPN is alone - all the networks are catering to the fantasy-weenies at the expense of the real fans.

How does that change anything? The data is on TV because most people watch sports in a sports bar where they don't have Internet access.

The scores during March Madness are all online too. But does anyone really think putting the scores to concurrent games on the screen is a waste of space? How is the ESPN ticker telling sports scores from other events any different? It's not. And why do people care about what the scores are in the other NCAA games? Because they're gambling on them. This explains the entire philosophy behind on-screen sports graphics.

And if you are watching a football game in a sports bar - what do you need receiving/passing/rushing statistics from other games for - updated in real time throughout the broadcast?

The answer is, you don't. The guys at a sports bar watching a game want to drink beer and watch the game unfold. The only ones staring at the ticker are the ones sitting at a table alone because their internet date never showed up, or the guys bussing the tables to accumulate enough cash to pay the artwork charge for the custom pocket protectors printed with their fantasy football league logo.