What will Braves, Canes TV broadcasts look like when they return? FOX Sports updates fans
When you tune in for Atlanta Braves or Carolina Hurricanes games this summer, you’ll probably notice some differences from the broadcasts of years past.
FOX Sports South and FOX Sports Southeast will televise 55 of the Braves’ 60 games in their abbreviated season, and FOX Sports Carolinas will televise all of the Hurricanes’ Stanley Cup Qualifying Round series amid the MLB and NHL’s restarts during the coronavirus pandemic.
FOX Sports South senior vice president and general manager Jeff Genthner and executive producer Jamie Shapiro talked with The Observer about what fans can expect once live sports return.
MLB and NHL restarts have each presented different challenges. For MLB, it will be the home broadcast teams that will produce a world feed for their respective clubs. For the NHL, the broadcast feeds will all originate from the hub sites in Toronto and Edmonton, Canada, produced by NBC and Sportsnet, respectively. Because of this, plans for the Braves have taken shape a bit sooner than those for the Canes.
“It’s unlike any other thing we’ve ever attempted,” Shapiro said. “However it unfolds, we’re going to see some things that we’ve never seen before and have stories we’ve never been able to tell before. Hopefully, fans enjoy it.”
The most glaring change, Genthner said, is the most obvious one — there will be no fans in the stands for noise or visuals.
To create the crowd buzz without people, both the MLB and NHL have provided their teams with a soundtrack of noise that can be amplified with an overlay of cheers for exciting plays.
“The absence of a real audience actually creates some opportunities that have never before been available to us,” Genthner said.
MLB has told teams they will be “more lenient than ever before” with local broadcasters having field access for cameras and microphones, Genthner said. While plans are yet not solid, the Braves and FOX Sports have discussed placing microphones around home plate and first base to catch player chatter and GoPro cameras on first and third base coaches, among other new camera positions to bring fans into the action.
“I think everybody really enjoys trying to both solve the puzzle and contribute some unique ideas to take creativity forward in the situation that we’re in,” Shapiro said. “It’s a very unique opportunity. It’s something I don’t think anybody has any sort of instruction book for.”
Aside from getting creative with in-game video and sound, Genthner and Shapiro were tasked with finding a way to keep broadcasters and reporters busy with social distancing protocols in place.
“The challenge is definitely access to the players,” Shapiro said. “We’re not able to actually be in physical proximity to players during the pandemic.”
For the Braves, player interviews will be conducted via Zoom for pregame and postgame broadcasts. Sideline reporters, like the Braves’ Paul Byrd, will give analysis from other locations than the sidelines of Truist Park.
Broadcasters will be calling both home and away games from the booth at Truist Park since there won’t be any reporters traveling for road games this year. When the Braves are away, broadcasters will call games as they watch live feeds.
Shapiro said he and Genthner have spent the past few weeks moving at “a mile a minute” to put plans together for broadcasts, and they are optimistic about fan enthusiasm for the return of live sports.
“I think the social media world … is going to give us a lot of feedback on what they like, what they don’t like,” Genthner said. “And we’re going to weigh that against what obstacles we have to navigate because we don’t have the normal access we would have in a regular season.”