Sports on the Air
Sabres increase Web content
Here’s a hat trick of news concerning the Buffalo Sabres’ television plans for the season.
• Rob Ray will be only at ice level providing analysis on MSG during home games.
• Maria Genero has joined the staff of the National Hockey League team to work with Kevin Sylvester and Mike Robitaille on features that will air on Sabres TV via the team’s Web site, Sabres. com, and on MSG during intermissions and in a weekly magazine show.
• The MSG postgame show, “The Shootout,” will air only after home games. On road games, Sylvester will do a five-to-seven minute wrap-up with player interviews and highlights.
Larry Quinn, the Sabres’ managing partner, said the moves are part of a new television strategy that was formulated in response to the changing media world. “We are really gearing up to do a lot of Web-based programs,” Quinn said.
Sylvester, Ray and Robitaille will continue doing “The Shootout” after home games because Quinn said they get 10 times the minuscule audience the program received after road games.
He attributes the loss of viewership on the road to the fact the players are scrambling to leave to catch a plane and don’t have time to do as many interviews.
“People don’t want to watch three guys talking about the game for an hour and a half,” said Quinn of the postgame show on the road.
Executive producer Matt Gould added the money saved is being put into the Web site coverage, which is where Genero comes in. The local TV personality — who will leave Channel 2 shortly — will do features that will be carried on Sabres TV online and that are aimed at getting fans to know the players better.
Shortened versions of the Web features could land during intermissions on MSG telecasts. Viewers who see a two-minute, behind-the-scenes TV feature on Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller will be told that a longer version is on the Web site. The Web features then will be collected into a weekly magazine show carried on MSG.
Sabres.com, which will be linked to the NHL Web site, NHL.com, also will have a feature that enables fans to call up every goal scored in every Sabres game and eventually every player shift or hit.
The online expansion could be bad news for local TV sports departments, which generally show the goals in each game. Viewers with a high speed internet connection won’t have to wait for the sports reports to see the goals.
In addition, the Sabres plan to put morning skates and interviews with coach Lindy Ruff online on game days. It also will introduce the team’s new jersey Sept. 20 online when it carries the Puck Drop festivities surrounding the first day of training camp.
In other news, Quinn said that play-by- play man Rick Jeanneret has signed a two-year contract extension. His contract and the contract of analyst Harry Neale now will expire at the end of 2009-2010 season.
By the 2012-13 season, Quinn said 66 percent of Sabres games contractually must be carried by MSG in high definition. That would require some road games to be in HD and it would be just as easy to carry them all in HD as it would be to carry some, Quinn said. It could happen as early as next year. MSG presently meets the requirement of carrying 50 percent of the games in HD by carrying the home games in HD. Quinn said MSG’s system can’t accommodate carrying the road games in HD now.
“There is no guarantee it will be next year,” said Quinn. “My guess is it might be.”
• Steve Tasker, who had opening week off because of CBS’ reduced schedule of games while it carried the U. S. Open tennis tournament, is the analyst on the Bills game in Jacksonville on Sunday alongside play-by-play man Gus Johnson.
The Bills’ 34-10 victory over Seattle in the season opener had a 32.6 rating on WUTV, the local Fox affiliate. Incredibly, Roscoe Parrish’s jaw-breaking punt return for a touchdown only finished second in ESPN’s Monday list of Top 10 NFL plays. No. 1 was Brett Favre’s Hail Mary touchdown pass on a fourth down.
• Aaron Schobel’s sack in the Seattle game will be highlighted in ESPN’s “NFL Matchup,” which airs at 3 a. m. and 7:30 a. m. Sunday.
