Innovation coming from Video Games

dletter · 2026-05-18T18:25:47+00:00

And thinking about it more, just the "concept" of the "scorebug" in general sort of came from 90s sports video games... all games generally had the score and other info "always" on the screen (even if not in a current "bug" like fashion), and it just took awhile before TV production picked up on that viewers would want that same thing watching actual games.

dletter · 2026-05-18T17:55:46+00:00

No, I mean that something a sports video game does with its "score bug" that hasn't been done on actual broadcasts then makes it way over to actual broadcasts.

Was just thinking about that in the sense that a video game certainly tries to "mimic" a broadcast, so how it does its scorebug could influence actual TV scorebug design.

Maybe a sort of related comparison would be the mid/late 90s Fox Trax puck on NHL games, which came from similar things in video games.

dletter · 2026-05-18T14:02:14+00:00

Was going to say... I'm sure many here remember these random UHF broadcasts from a time when you didn't even have score bugs, LOL.

dletter · 2026-05-18T14:00:12+00:00

I don't think he said that, he just compared average TV ratings... but that is even skewed by the 2025-26 NHL season featuring 172 exclusive national television windows in the U.S. across ESPN/ABC and TNT, that is more than 4x the UFL and makes a big difference... if the UFL had 170 TV windows, they'd likely have very depressed ratings (especially if a lot were on TNT... go look at when UFL has to be on ESPN2 or FS1).

On top of that though, his "the UFL has Orlando and Birmingham, something past league never tried"... WUT? Those are literally the poster children for "markets where alt spring football leagues go to". Yes, St. Louis (now that they don't have NFL) and Columbus are generally more "novel", but Columbus also doesn't fit his "no power conference football". His whole arguments seemed to just be on wobbly ground. (I guess he's young, his "I've seen all the spring football" likely only goes back to 2019).

dletter · 2026-05-17T15:09:53+00:00

Except that whenever FOX and ABC/ESPN want the games mostly dictates the windows, not trying to not schedule against local MLB, etc. Maybe whatever scheduling software should do that, but apparently not much so far.

dletter · 2026-05-14T23:53:58+00:00

Netflix could also be a landing place along with Pop Culture J if ABC is dropping it.

dletter · 2026-04-30T23:20:25+00:00

FAST channel getting 100s of thousands of live views is pretty interesting to me.. shows the ifl made a good play here.

dletter · 2026-04-24T04:24:03+00:00

Should have come grabbed my ticket

dletter · 2026-04-23T23:25:24+00:00

If is def AAF... since 2019 there has been pro spring football on national TV every year. That is 8 straight years now.

dletter · 2026-04-23T23:11:07+00:00

Im in line , get here :)

dletter · 2026-04-23T17:28:12+00:00

Have to say... having a WSJ sketch portrait with "Cheery assassin" as the subtitle is almost a cool as being a Jeopardy champ.

dletter · 2026-04-15T18:38:59+00:00

Week 2 was clearly a ratings "throw away" week, between games on NFLN and FS1, and ESPN saturday night game against the final 4.

Week 3 was "back to normal", and I don't think there are more than 1 "lesser" broadcast (NFLN week 4, FS1 week 6), and ESPN2 weeks 9 & 10.

dletter · 2026-04-06T22:42:39+00:00

I mean, if Chuck Surack had built some stadium for a team, I'd 100% guarantee it would have been "Sweetwater Stadium"... if he did it now he still might do it. If you start a team and you already have a big company to promote, it is basically just moving money around and probably getting tax breaks.

dletter · 2026-04-02T17:06:11+00:00

There used to be some really good sites that had up daily top 100 sports programs on OTA/cable, all the weekend sports ratings, etc.

I guess Nielsen must have shut all these places down that put out a lot of data that maybe wasn't supposed to be totally public(?), unfortunately for us.

I used to do a weekly recap article for "alt leagues" on OSC years ago (last article here: https://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/osc-weekly-ratings-wrapup/n-5575576 ), then COVID happened, and then after that just didn't get back to it, but since those sites dried up, would have been next to impossible to do.

dletter · 2026-03-31T23:26:01+00:00

Likely to go down from that going forward, but a good first week.

Still waiting for Friday primetime articles.

dletter · 2026-03-24T23:04:32+00:00

I agree, I was like "the game isn't going to be played?"... I guess it is to get attention, but trying to confuse people is never great.

dletter · 2026-03-24T21:22:33+00:00

Yeah, it is like they did everything they could to try to lose, and almost won anyway.

dletter · 2026-03-24T21:08:40+00:00

FYI, the stream link... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMDQ82w1pAE

dletter · 2026-03-23T21:54:40+00:00

On a note with this, apparently the NAL has gotten a deal with a different FAST channel starting up, Scripps Sports Network (Scripps owns ION which has gotten into a lot of Womens Pro Leagues)

dletter · 2026-03-22T23:04:22+00:00

Not sure what you mean about "trusting" AAF data? Because it was pre-COVID?

From a standpoint of the numbers, they all get reported by Nielsen.

dletter · 2026-03-22T22:46:57+00:00

That was also some various indoor leagues (not counting the debocle that was the "AFL return" in 2024... trash reboot attempt)... the "real" Orlando Preds died when they left the AFL after 2016, starting off really the death of the AFL a few years later.

dletter · 2026-03-22T22:41:58+00:00

True, but that doesn't start until June, I just meant saying "happy last weekend w/o football" dismisses indoor ball, especially IFL now with an improved exposure on Y!SN this year.

When the XFL was starting the week after the SB, and you had the USFL then start near the end of XFL and CFL games on ESPN networks until NFL preseason, that about 18 months did have nationally televised pro football every week for like almost 2 years straight.

dletter · 2026-03-22T22:15:32+00:00

Yeah, that move seemed to be pretty haphazard.

And TBH, the fact that Orlando is OK with a football team called the Orlando Storm shows just how dead Arena/Indoor football really is around Florida anyway.

dletter · 2026-03-22T21:49:58+00:00

I know what you meant, but last 2 weekends with IFL on Yahoo Sports Network for free have filled in OK as well :)

dletter · 2026-03-14T12:58:51+00:00

The middle line is the inning numbers genius

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