Fox TV Baseball coverage aims to be unwatchable

• Fox chose to appeal to a young demo that uses video games. David Hill had his staff play video games at least 30 minutes a day. From Los Angeles Business Journal, 4/11/05, by Andy Fixmer:

(Fixmer article): "At the outset, (David) Hill hired CBS Sports veteran Ed Goren to be president of Fox Sports. Goren remembered getting into the office around 8 a.m. for days that were finished late at night over drinks, working out ideas for the fledging division. "We'd come in the next morning and try to figure out whose stupid idea was written on this wine-stained cocktail napkin," he said.

• Every time Hill would come up with an idea that raised eyebrows, Goren remembers, he would always convince skeptics by telling them, "Don't worry, I did this over in England with Sky and it worked like a treat, trust me."...

During the early years at Fox Sports, Goren said Hill took cues from any available pop culture source--

• including videogames, which Hill had his staff play for at least 30 minutes a day.

That exercise convinced Hill and Goren that for every action or graphic there needed to be a coinciding sound.

• "To put together a broadcast that had appeal to a younger demo, if this is their experience then there are things we can incorporate in our broadcast from those games," Goren said.

"Today watch Access Hollywood or Fox News and when the graphic comes up there's an audio effect. Nobody had done that before we did it in our football broadcast back in 1994.""

• Archived on thefreelibrary.com from LA Business Journal article by Andy Fixmer, "(David) Hill Makes Climb to DirecTV post," 4/11/05

P.S. Baseball seems not to be the point. (sm)

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