With the Australian Open wrapped and the Winter Olympics about to begin, it’s got me thinking. Not just about the athletes and who I want to win, but the broadcasts itself. I know less is more is such a cliché, but I feel like sports broadcasters should really use it as a guiding principle. They do not stop talking!
I know that they have to throw a lot of information at you sometimes. Though I would argue they share too much, sometimes, because some of that stuff could be left to the sports talk shows the next day. But it’s not like the sports talk shows these days are reliable for more than shouting and the same old questions. That’s a rant for another day.
It would be different if they were narrating the action and giving relevant background information or statistics to explain any significance of a game or moment. It just turns into story time, or worse, incessant rambling (*cough* John McEnroe *cough*). To the point where they’re not even talking about the action in front of us.
I wish they would embrace the art of silence, and letting the action speak for itself. The good thing about sports on television is that we can see what is going on. The TV broadcasters don’t have to narrate everything that happens like radio broadcasters have to so the listeners can follow the action. They can task advantage of us seeing the players and hearing the crowd reaction. Take last year’s French Open final, for example. From my memory of watching it, it felt like the broadcasters laid out, and from time to time Brian Anderson would chime in with something we would need to know or an exclamation after a big moment, but mostly let the drama of that final speak for itself.
Sol sports broadcasters, sometimes the best way to do your job is to say nothing at all.
