Viewers who tuned in to WNBA games this season on Lifetime Television saw broadcasts tailored to women.
When players came to the free-throw line, for instance, viewers didn't see statistics. Instead, they saw personal information about the players, such as their hometowns and personal interests. Compared with a traditional basketball broadcast, viewers also saw more interviews with players and learned more about the hoopsters as people.
The approach, similar to NBC's strategy at the 1996 Olympic Games, was obvious. As a network that targets women, Lifetime thought it needed to woo viewers with human-interest stories rather than with stats and action.
What wasn't obvious was that Lifetime used an all-female production team for its telecasts. The director and the sideline and halftime producers were women. NBA star Reggie Miller, who appeared on the air, was the only male involved in the broadcasts.
Lifetime officials say it's the first time an all-female team has produced sports telecasts. Brian Donlon, Lifetime's vice president of sports, said the cable network didn't aim to hire only women; it just happened that way.
When Lifetime produced WNBA games in 1997, for instance, a mix of men and women worked on the broadcasts.
"I wish I could say we set out to hire women," Donlon said. "We didn't. We set out to hire the best people we could find."
Lisa Seltzer was director of Lifetime's WNBA telecasts. Her resume includes producing NHL games for ESPN. Free-lancer Amy Rosenfeld was line producer. She formerly produced Boston Bruins and Boston Red Sox games for New England Sports Network, and she's a veteran of broadcasts of the 1996 Olympics and Major League Soccer games.
Rosenfeld said it wasn't difficult to find an all-female production team.
"The women are definitely out there," she said. "It just happened that Lifetime collected them all in one place."
Finding a female play-by-play anouncer, however, did pose a challenge, Donlon said. Michele Tafoya did the play-by-play, one of only a few women with experience in that role.
"It was the hardest position we had to fill," Donlon said. "There's just not a lot of opportunity out there for women to build tape, to move from the regional level to the national level."
The team's status as a "first" did add a bit of pressure, Rosenfeld said.
"We wanted to prove this wasn't a gimmick," she said. "That was the biggest battle. It wasn't like they plucked these women off the street and said, 'Go do TV.'"
Another challenge was getting away from the nuts-and-bolts coverage to which the team was accustomed. Seltzer, Rosenfeld and others had to change gears to produce the softer sell favored by Lifetime, Rosenfeld said.
"The Lifetime audience is not the ESPN audience," she said. "Guys care about results, and women care about caring. They want to cheer."
Rosenfeld said she became a believer of the storytelling approach when she worked for NBC during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
"Sometimes, it can be a little bit of overkill," she said. "But in terms of the WNBA, we've got to sell heroes. I was proud of our coverage because we told stories, and we created a lot of heroes."
The approach gave Lifetime a rating of 0.5, or about 355,000 households, during the 1998 season. That's identical to Lifetime's 1997 ratings, Donlon said.
Donlon said female viewers appreciated the nontraditional approach. Instead of doing pregame shows in the arena, Lifetime shot its opens at local landmarks, such as the monuments in Washington, D.C.
"We just tried to have a little more fun with it," he said. "Not every game is the end of the world. Our mantra is, 'How can we do it differently and not be hokey?'"
Rosenfeld said the lighthearted atmosphere translated to the attitude of the production team.
"There wasn't quite the tension, the wrestling of egos," she said. "I don't know if it was a function of these particular women, or women in general. I just don't think people took themselves quite as seriously."
Jeff Ostrowski writes for the South Florida Business Journal.
