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Walk into the NHL offices in midtown Manhattan, and you're in television heaven -- a 50-inch flat high-definition TV hangs on the wall. A Red Wings-Wild game from last season is playing and draws you in. The players are big and clear, and the wide screen allows you to see the play as it develops. There are few, if any, close-ups. There are not a lot of quick cuts to different camera angles. If we're lucky, this is the future of hockey on television.
Of course, it could be the present if HDTV and widescreens were affordable to the greater public. The NHL is counting on that happening some time soon. High-definition television will have a dramatic impact on NHL viewership, league officials say.
But while the NHL
is sure of that, television experts are not. Robert Thompson, director of the
Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, says that
unlike something like TiVo, a digital recording service that changes the way
people watch TV, HDTV simply provides a higher quality picture. It is better,
but not so much that it has people running to the stores. Besides, the incorporation
of HDTV into the majority of homes is a slow process that won't be complete
for another 10 years, according to Thompson.
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A. Michael Noll, a professor at the Annenberg Center for Communication at the
University of Southern California, says the NHL's contention that HDTV will
change the way people watch hockey and bring in many more viewers is, to say
the least, flawed.
"That's nonsense," Noll says. "People don't watch television because of the quality of the picture. They watch television because of the quality of the programming."
There is, however, something to be said for the NHL on HDTV, mostly for the way it's shot. Ticketmaster
"More important than the picture clarity, I think, is the 16:9 (widescreen aspect ratio)," says Doug Perlman, the NHL's senior vice president of television and media ventures. "You can see the entire offensive zone in one camera shot. Now, you can really see the play develop."
That begs the question: If league officials know how much it helps the viewing experience to see such play, why aren't games shot that way now? The answer is twofold: 1) To pull back for such a wide shot with the typical 4:3 camera -- made for the square television screen rather than the rectangular high-definition shot -- would make the ice surface appear very small on the screen; and 2) Sports typically aren't shot in this manner; there are constant cuts and close-ups that show sweat dripping down between eyes instead of what those eyes see.
Knowing the color of, say, Devils defenseman Scott Stevens' eyes does nothing to help me when I'm watching the game. And he's sweating? Well, I hope so. He's playing a sport at its highest level.
But when Stevens stands with the puck on his stick behind the Devils' net, he's looking left and right, back and forth quickly. Who is he looking at? What are his options with the puck? Are the opposing defensemen moving up? Most of the time, we can't answer these questions until Stevens has made his decision and the camera work cuts away to a new player with the puck. Ticketmaster
Larry Kristiansen, senior coordinating producer for ESPN, works on standard and high-definition productions. He says that if high-definition televisions were the norm, he would produce differently. Right now, it's still a world of quick cuts and tight close-ups. According to Kristiansen, ESPN even considered developing a 16:9 telecast for standard-definition televisions -- much like the widescreen format most movies and DVDs are seen in these days -- but decided to concentrate on high definition instead.
ESPN has a high-def network. Most FOX regional channels can produce hockey in high definition -- and do. But few people can view the format at home. If the NHL really wants to help its fans see hockey at the optimum level and possibly produce games during which newer fans could learn the game by watching, the league needs to push its broadcast partners to change their ways now. Learn from the future that is HDTV. Realize, as many already have, that it's the wide shots that make the format so great for hockey, and give the standard-definition fans a chance to see it.
ESPN and FOX constantly are popping up annoying interactive polls so viewers can run to their computers and voice their opinion on something. Give fans a few games in the widescreen format and take a poll that means something. See if fans want widescreen telecasts, with more stable shots and less looking up players' nostrils. And if it's possible, as Kristiansen says, give it to them. Ticketmaster
When it arrives, high definition will make hockey on television a much better experience. Walk into the NHL offices, and it's easy to see that. But league officials need to step into fans' living rooms now, not work toward changing the viewing approach eight to 10 years from now. They need to find out what fans want. If fans want quick cuts and Stevens' sweat, so be it. But if they want to actually follow the game, let them see it so they can.