Monday Night Football To Be Broadcast In HDTV
(05/27/99, 2:03 p.m. ET)
By Junko Yoshida, EDTN
NEW YORK -- Moving to relieve the long-standing content deprivation that has plagued HDTV since its inception, ABC Network and Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems said Tuesday that they will team up to broadcast Monday Night Football live in 720-progressive (720p) HDTV format starting next fall.
The 1999-2000 season of Monday Night Football will be "the first live, regularly scheduled HDTV sportingevent in prime time," according to ABC. The HDTV telecast deal covers all 17 Monday Night Football games, one wild-card playoff game and Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta, on January 30, 2000.
The agreement will give a big boost to 720p, ABC's chosen HDTV format, at a time when other major TV networks such as CBS and NBC are using 1,080i as their preferred HDTV format. NBC, for example, began broadcasting The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this spring in 1,080i-based HDTV. CBS, meanwhile, delivered experimental 1,080i-based HDTV broadcasting of a couple American Football Conference games last season, but offered no schedule of live HDTV telecasts.
It remains unclear, however, if the upcoming HDTV broadcasts of Monday Night Football will carry additional data or interactive contents, such as relevant statistics on players and teams, along with the digital broadcasts. According to several sources close to the arrangement, the initial broadcasts are likely to be fairly basic, straightforward HDTV telecasts without auxiliary data.
Independent of its video feed for the traditional analog network, ABC will handle all of the HDTV video production for Monday Night Football through a 720p HDTV mobile production truck built and outfitted by Panasonic, an ABC spokeswoman said.
The truck will be equipped with "full-fledged 720p studio gear," said Warren Allgyer, president of Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems. The truck will include six 720p camera units for HDTV video production, one 480P/60-frames camera unit for preproduction, plus DTV monitors, converters, switchers, and VTR<Picture>.
Meanwhile, all of the audio feed as well as the graphics information that will be delivered as a part of the HDTV stream will be borrowed from the conventional analog network programming and "upconverted into digital," the ABC spokeswoman said. As for the delivery of extra data or interactive information related to the game, "nothing is planned at this point," she said.
"We have not discussed anything about delivery of interactive, auxiliary data at all," Panasonic's Allgyer confirmed.
Asked about any holdup to dive into the much-anticipated TV-plus-data DTV broadcast formula, ABC took a positive view of its plans. "We don't view it as a hold-up," the ABC spokeswoman said. "We are doing much more than anyone else in the TV networks by rolling out the first scheduled live HDTV sporting events in prime time."
Both ABC and Panasonic declined to elaborate on the financial aspect of the deal between the companies. The collaboration with Panasonic, however, is expected to give ABC a head start on working with 720p-based equipment and facilities.
In describing the company's move, Allgyer said, "We are supporting ABC extensively at least at the outset of the DTV broadcasting, by providing them an economic incentive."
The arrangement, however, also has some enticing incentives to Panasonic.
In exchange for the 720p HDTV equipment in the HDTV mobile production truck, Panasonic will receive a "billboard" announcement in the pre-game show on ABC's analog and HDTV telecasts. Panasonic will also receive commercial time during the HDTV broadcast.
In a similar arrangement between an equipment vendor and a major TV network, NBC teamed up with Sony last year to deliver "live" broadcasts of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in the 1,080i format. Under that partnership, NBC is using Sony's digital high-definition equipment in the control room and an editing suite of its Burbank, Calif. studio for The Tonight Show. Sony has served as systems integrator to complete the design and installation of the equipment. <Picture: TW> |
