ESPN Public Editor Jim Brady in his latest filing examined the net's experimentation with remote broadcasting, noting the reason ESPN and "many of its competitors are using remote broadcasters is simple: money." ESPN's use of remote broadcasting has "some production staff ... located at the event site" while the announcers are broadcasting from the net's Bristol HQ or from other locations. ESPN VP/Communications Josh Krulewitz said that approximately 2% of ESPN broadcasts "currently occur with announcers not on site, most of them college sports events." Remote announcers have "never been used for MLB, NFL or NBA game broadcasts on ESPN." Brady notes ESPN "carefully chooses which games in which to use remote broadcasters." ESPN Senior VP/Event & Studio Production Stephanie Druley said given the volume of college basketball events on its various networks, ESPN identified 65 games out of the possible 1,200 to announce remotely “based on a combination of available facilities and level of national appeal.” Sources within ESPN said that the company has "pulled back on the use of remote announcers in the past year," but because of the "associated financial savings, the practice is unlikely to be discontinued." Druley: "We don’t feel it’s crucial to specify the rare examples when the commentators are not on site. If a situation was to arise that would warrant a mention because the location of the commentators would play a role in our ability to document a situation, we would certainly specify it then.” Brady wrote ESPN does not need to "overdo it by reminding viewers after every commercial break," but he added "saying nothing is problematic in its own way." He suggests "three times in which ESPN should make that clear that announcers are not on site: (1) at the beginning of the game; (2) at the traditional halfway point of the game; (3) if news breaks on site that ESPN is unable to cover effectively because the proper staff is not on location" (ESPN.com, 12/2).
