TRUTH & RUMOURS: MEDIA: BROADCASTING
Masters, CBS could learn
from NBC's wall-to-wall U.S. Open coverage

WILLIAM HOUSTON
whouston@globeandmail.com
GlobeAndMail.com
June 14, 2008

When you see what the U.S. Open is doing with television, it's difficult not to wonder when the Masters tournament will awaken and join the real world of broadcasting.

NBC and ESPN together have been giving the Open wall-to-wall coverage this week, starting at 11 a.m. EDT and ending at 10 p.m.

The late wrap-ups are due to the West Coast setting at Torrey Pines in San Diego, but the air time is still immense compared with the stingy amount meted out by the Masters on CBS - 4 p.m. starts for the first two rounds.

NBC's Open coverage will start at 1 p.m. today and will continue through to 10 p.m.; tomorrow it's 3-9 p.m.

In total, NBC will be on the air for 12 hours, compared with the approximate eight hours of Masters coverage provided by CBS this year.

Is it possible to air too much content?

The commercialism that the United States Golf Association brings to the Open may seem crass beneath the tradition of the Masters.

But they're both major tournaments. And what isn't right about watching the best players in the world tee off at the first hole?

ESPN's early show has been effective at setting up the day's round. A piece on Phil Mickelson's childhood in San Diego was particularly well done.

Head-strong and obsessed with golf, he caused his parents to take a class on how to raise a willful child without breaking his spirit.

Those on the PGA Tour able to contain their enthusiasm for Mickelson would attest to his willful personality surviving his youth.

Coverage today on TSN (which is airing the ESPN and NBC telecasts) begins at 3 p.m.

The U.S. Open limits commercial time on NBC to six minutes an hour, compared with the usual nine minutes. For the Masters, CBS is required to reduce commercial time to four minutes.

NHL awards ceremony host Ron MacLean poked fun at the CBC's losing the Hockey Night in Canada theme to CTV. He did a sort of Shelley Berman shtick with a telephone, in this case a cellphone that rang with the Hockey Night tune.

What a shock. A hockey show on the CBC, in this case the awards ceremony, actually focused on the NHL's young stars.

CBC Sports head Scott Moore was clearly surprised by Toronto radio station The Fan 590 host Mike Toth's aggressive questioning of Hockey Night in Canada personnel.

Moore defended the show, and when asked why the CBC doesn't use the TSN and NBC system of posting an analyst at ice level as part of the play-by-play team, he said he feels the system is "at times a little cheesy." The work of P.J. Stock has been criticized, but Moore said, "I think he's been terrific."

TSN's first NHL player of the year award (for regular and postseason) went to Detroit Red Wing forward Henrik Zetterberg. The award is voted on by a panel of 30, including general managers Brian Burke and Kevin Lowe, coaches Wayne Gretzky and Guy Carbonneau and players Joe Sakic and Martin St. Louis. Zetterberg receives $5,000 to donate to a charity.

Good work by the Rogers Sportsnet-TSN Euro 2008 studio show yesterday in illustrating with replays that a disallowed goal by Italy in the first half of the game against Romania should have counted. Analyst Craig Forrest said, unequivocally, the goal was good. Host Gerry Dobson agreed. Analyst Dick Howard, a member of the FIFA technical committee, refused to commit to an opinion, other than to say it was a difficult call.

Forrest, after the subject was raised of Poland's Prime Minister stating that he would like to kill the referee who awarded a penalty against the national team at Euro 2008, said, "Our Prime Minister [Stephen Harper] wouldn't know a soccer ball if it hit him on the head." A puck, yes.

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NBC-TV Sunday will cover the U.S. Open from 3-9 p.m.

NBC will be on the air for 12 hours, compared with the approximate eight hours of Masters coverage provided by CBS this year.

Is it possible to air too much content?

Golly, gee wiz. Not when Tiger Woods is pulling off the kind of shots we saw coming down the back nine of Saturday's third round . . . . coming from behind  to take over the lead . . . . purportedly in much pain . Two eagles and a birdie . . . . all in spectacular fashion.

After the display of golf NBC was privileged to televise---with a multitude of cameras from what seemed every conceivable angle, played over and over, helping to magnify the drama after each hole---Tiger has set the stage for NBC on Sunday to possibly draw the biggest North American TV audience to ever see the final round of a major golf championship, an audience that will likely sit spellbound  from the moment Woods tees off at Torrey Pines until the sun sets over the Pacific with the final group coming down the 18th fairway.

Is it possible to air too much content?  Not when this kind of golf is played.

With Tiger Woods out for the rest of the season, let's see how the ratings do.