Phillies

Seems Like We’re Gonna Have to Get Used to Remote Broadcasts on NBC Sports Philadelphia

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Nov 15th, 2021 · 12:11 PM EST

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You noticed early this season that NBC Sports Philadelphia isn’t sending broadcast teams to Sixers or Flyers road games. The radio crews are traveling, which creates a funky juxtaposition of sorts.

This is a continuation of what started during the pandemic, with play-by-play and color commentary being done remotely from a home studio, as the broadcasters work off monitors instead. Viewers get a suitable experience, but some of the game “feel” is missing when the TV people aren’t in the actual building where the actual game is taking place.

At The Philadelphia Business Journal, Jeff Blumenthal offers up some particularly useful nuggets of information:

In an interview last month, NBCSP President Brian Monihan said neither the Flyers or Sixers broadcasters will be traveling with the teams for road games this season. They will continue to call the games from the Wells Fargo Center using a variety of monitors showing a feed of the game. Monihan said he was hopeful that might change as soon as the middle of this season, pending the status of the pandemic. He added that the leagues, teams and regional sports networks “would have to work that out together.”

Asked for clarification on what those issues were, NBCSP declined to comment.

A source familiar with the situation said the Comcast-owned station has held off on sending broadcast crews on road trips for a combination of reasons. There are the obvious health and safety protocols from the lingering Covid-19 pandemic: Logistics are different in every city and venue, such as the positioning of the broadcast area or how many people can be situated in the production truck, or whether or not they need to wear masks. Perhaps the most important factor, however, is advancements in technology — hastened by need during the pandemic — that will allow NBCSP to control more of the feed during road games from its production area at the Wells Fargo Center.

That’s a key point there, that last note about control of the feed. Smaller teams, like the Union for example, typically take the home team’s feed and talk over it. So if the Union are playing the LA Galaxy, they’re usually at the mercy of whatever they get from LA and have to call the game that way.

Blumenthal notes, that pre-pandemic, NBCSP would send “two broadcasters, a producer, a director and perhaps one or two other crew members.” Production truck rental is costly, and that’s where a lot of the $$$ is devoted on these trips, in addition to the obvious travel costs.

Beyond that, we all know NBC is pondering the sale or restructure of its regional sports networks. They might go the Peacock streaming route instead, and do away with the RSNs in their current format entirely. And the pandemic made for a convenient cost-cutting excuse, where a lot of corporations were able to trim fat and lower expenses while just blaming all of it on COVID. There were a TON of local media layoffs at the height of the pandemic in 2020.

So it is what it is, and nobody should be surprised. Radio is cheaper to produce, and not controlled by NBCSP, so those crews travel. Broadcast is a little more tricky, and when the future of the regionals is up in the air to begin with, they aren’t going to bend over backwards to push for a return to what we had in 2019 and 2018.

Edit –

Blumenthal updated his story with this line:

“NBCSP, however, said Monday that it plans to continue using broadcast trucks when it resumes traveling for road games – most likely early next year.”

(that’s assuming the RSNs are still a thing; my gut tells me NBC is gonna pull the trigger on a sale or reorganization before we even reach that point -kk)