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Technology Stocks : IATV-ACTV Digital Convergence Software-HyperTV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bruce Cullen who wrote (3921)	5/19/1999 4:33:00 PM
From: Craig Jacobs	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13157

Check out USA today, usatoday.com TV to offer more choices and gadgets By Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY Sports in the 21st century Adrenaline fuels new equipment Brewington's soccer wish list Medicine levels the field Stadiums with anti-gravity seats Sport-by-sport predictions Predictions are a risky business The wide world of future sports The good news about the future of TV sports: It's going to be better for viewers, if not for broadcasters. Viewers, already awash in channels, will have even more choices. Enhancements will include gadgets giving them more camera angles, on-line statistics available as real-time side dishes to TV games and frighteningly better TV pictures. But TV networks will face the challenge of tracking down viewers split into increasingly tiny audiences. Some trends to watch: Networks hanging on: Networks will pay more and more for major events such as the Super Bowl, Olympics and NBA playoffs, even though ratings are stagnant or even declining. Sure, it sounds nuts, especially when networks often lose big money. But "event television" is vital if networks are to compete. "Major sports properties will have ever-increasing value in the world of television as we move to a 1,500-channel universe," says Neal Pilson, a consultant and former president of CBS Sports. "Ratings are not the critical factors. Ratings may always decline, while rights fee always go up." The explanation is simple. The networks used to be big deals when everybody only had a few TV choices. Then cable and satellite TV began nicking away at network audiences. In a few years, digital TV will bring hundreds of channels, providing an a la carte TV sports menu aimed at narrower slices of the audience. OK, so maybe a Dick Vitale Channel wouldn't attract many viewers. But the future might belong to big brand names offering relatively low-cost programming. Even Ross Greenburg, executive producer of HBO Sports, part of Time Warner, lauds rival Disney: "In 2010, ESPN will make more money than the gross national product of the U.S." The networks, facing death by a thousand cuts, will grow increasingly desperate to keep the big events. "There'll be some big money-losing deals that could cripple networks," Greenburg says. "But the mainstay events will stay on networks like CBS, at least until CBS ceases to exist."(bold) Gadgetry: Arguably, no TV production innovation has really made a big difference since instant replay made its debut in the mid-1960s. High-definition TV is coming eventually. But being able to count how many teeth a hockey player is missing might not have industry ramifications. "It's like people getting their first color TV set," Greenburg says. "They'll just feel better about TV." Turner Sports executive Kevin O'Malley says, "The basics of the business aren't going to be affected at all." But tinkering will never end, assuming anybody really wants to see instant measurements showing how far home runs travel or the leader in an auto race highlighted by an electronic glow. Otherwise, networks won't be too happy about paying for such extras. "Technology has way outpaced what people may want," says Jerry Gepner, who helped develop the glowing puck at Fox and now is chief of SporTVision Systems, which creates production products. One thing people don't seem to want is interactive TV, where viewers can, for example, choose the camera angles they want to see. This has been available through various experiments for years. Says Gepner: "Watching TV in this country is a passive event. We choose not to interact." The on-line gorilla: Like everybody else, people in TV sports are rushing on-line, although how and when TV and the Internet will merge will be the biggest business question of the new young century. Disney's ABC/ESPN is out front with EnhancedTV, which it tested on the college football title game in January. The idea is to let viewers call up stats on players they're watching on TV and even play along in computer games created to fit the game. The target: viewers in about 10 million households who look at the Internet while their TV is on, says Disney executive Jonathan Leess. The concept will come to ABC/ESPN's NFL games this fall and spread to other sports in 2000. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------