Broadcasting has changed a lot in the last 25 years.
Utah Jazz Senior Vice President of Broadcasting Travis Henderson first joined the team in the 1997-98 NBA Finals season and remembers the first time they aired games on KJZZ.
Back then, creating a Jazz broadcast was a lot simpler, Henderson said: the team had to design the look of the score on the broadcast (called a scorebug), an informational banner at the bottom of the screen (called a lower third) and a full-screen transition graphic. Once that work was done, so was the graphic team’s.
But as the Jazz enter a new era of broadcasting games on KJZZ this season, a lot more work has gone into creating what Jazz fans will see in broadcasts. Fans now expect more flashy graphics, shot charts, analytics and statistics, and much more when watching an NBA game. There’s also more time for information to be shown during pre-game, half-time, and post-game shows. The Jazz’s marketing team has sold more and more sponsorships than they did back then, necessitating virtual ads on the court.
All-in-all, the average Jazz game will mean producing somewhere around three-and-a-half hours of content, and keeping fans engaged throughout is Henderson’s job.
The Jazz, though, can no longer rely on their regional sports network to do any of the work for them — AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain is dead. That meant a much busier summer than usual for the Jazz’s broadcasting staff. Because a similar situation could happen with multiple teams during the course of this season (as fellow RSN distributor Diamond Sports is in the throes of bankruptcy), the NBA wanted to have some templated graphics already done. The Jazz are using some of those graphics this year.
Take the scorebug at the bottom of the screen, for example: “I like the size, the strip, the readability on it, compared to some of the others, I think it’s very, very clean,” Henderson said. “And that’s how I would describe the whole graphic package: Clean. Readable. I think it came out pretty good.”
In general, it’s been a successful preseason for the broadcasting department. Audio issues caused some havoc in the Jazz’s preseason opener in Hawaii, but that was caused by a unique situation with a non-NBA venue. Since then, fans have generally found the Jazz’s broadcasts on KJZZ and Jazz+ to be of high quality.
During the regular season, the broadcasting team will add more wrinkles than fans have seen so far. First, they’ll edit the look and feel of the broadcast to the color of the jerseys the Jazz are wearing. If they’re wearing purple, expect purple-themed graphics; if they’re wearing black, white, or yellow, graphics will have those same colors.
They’re also working on copying a page from TNT’s book, showing a shot-clock graphic on-court near the free-throw line.
Regular season games will also be re-watchable through Jazz+, beginning an hour after the game’s conclusion, and will be replayed on KJZZ after the post-game show ends.
The preseason has also been a success from a subscriber point of view. While the team didn’t want to release exact subscriber numbers, a team source said that more Jazz fans had already subscribed to the Jazz+ streaming service than the Clippers have had for their equivalent ClipperVision, even though that service has been operational for over a year.
Team leadership was surprised at the number of people who signed up for Jazz+ when they first could — they expected Jazz fans to wait until games aired, but even before preseason began, thousands of Jazz fans ponied up the $15.50 per month or $125 yearly fee for the service. When fans sign up for the yearly subscription before Oct. 24, they also receive two tickets to a Jazz home game, along with a Jazz T-shirt and hat. After Oct. 24, individual games will also be available to watch on a pay-per-view basis for a $5 fee.
Jazz+ is available to fans in the state of Utah or within 150 miles of Salt Lake City. At the moment, the service is available on phones, tablets, and computers through the Jazz app and on the website utahjazzplus.com, but ahead of the regular season, they’ll add support for smartTV providers like Apple TV, Android TV, and Roku.
There’s also hope that distribution will continue to expand on KJZZ. Right now, KJZZ is freely available over the air and on traditional cable and satellite packages, but isn’t available on any bundled streaming services like YouTube TV or Hulu. While the negotiations come down to KJZZ owner Sinclair Broadcasting and those services, the Jazz are hopeful that deals will get done.
Even before that happens, with all of these options, a lot more people can watch Jazz games than could in previous seasons. And that rejuvenates Henderson and his staff.
“It’s really exciting to know that it’s out there, that people want to get it,” Henderson said. “Hopefully we get some of those casual fans or viewers that are getting back into it, are discovering the Jazz, or are younger fans.”
Just like 25 years ago, Utahns can freely watch Jazz games. Now, they just need a team to match.
