Executives at Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic are trying to reinvent pregame and postgame shows this fall.
For Joe Ferreira, the regional sports network’s vice president of content strategy, that means his network will spend less time on talking heads sitting at a studio desk after Capitals and Wizards games. Instead, it means more voices from more places, more debate and commentary and a lot more fan interaction.
“We’re going to have themes every night, and we will carry those themes through the pre- to the postgame and into other programming,” Ferreira said. “We’ll have highlights. But we won’t worry about a format that is so strict in terms of doing highlights, followed by the coach’s reaction and player press conference, and that’s our show. Now the themes of the night will override that, and we have the ability to blow through that and present to the fans what they are looking for.”
CSN Mid-Atlantic’s pregame and postgame shows still will use an anchor desk from its Bethesda, Md., studios. But the network also will use reporters, analysts and bloggers who are at the games. CSN Mid-Atlantic is committed to using more outside contributors, like radio hosts Grant Paulsen and Scott Jackson, to provide different perspectives.
“We have all this talent sitting there at Verizon Center,” he said. “They have their finger on the pulse of the Capitals and Wizards. It doesn’t make any sense for me to go to a sterile studio situation.”
A big part of Ferreira’s plan centers on social media. The RSN’s announcers will conduct Facebook live chats during intermissions. The show also will use Skype, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat to gauge fan interest and help tell the story around the game.
“That’s the piece that has been missing from most shows out there,” Ferreira said. “There’s been lip service to fans — ‘check us out on Facebook.’ This is us reacting to the fans. It’s not us hoping that the fans react to us. If we notice a theme that’s rising to the top, we’ll make the whole show about that.”
— John Ourand
