Sports is local TV's dinosaur

As air time for local sports is shaved, its audience moves to cable and the Internet.

By ERNEST HOOPER

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 15, 2000

TAMPA -- Someday, in a broadcasting museum next to Marconi's radio and the first television antenna, you may find a different type of relic.

In a glass case, the curator may have the bust of a local sportscaster.

"I think we're dinosaurs," WFLA-Ch. 8 sports director Chris Thomas said of himself and other local sportscasters. "And I'm not ripping the business, I'm just saying that's the way the business is going. The media is changing dramatically because of the emergence of cyberspace.

"I guess in a market like this, there'll always be some need to have sports. But I think they (news directors) would be happy if they could have no sports at all. I don't think they would mind."

Thomas' view may not be shared by others, but is understandable considering how much local sportscasts have changed. No Tampa Bay area station devotes as much time to sportscasts as it did 10 or 20 years ago, even though the market has more college and professional teams.

With national sports shows such as ESPN's SportsCenter and CNN/SI's Sports Tonight garnering most serious sports viewers, local stations have found it more advantageous to focus on news and weather, which has an ever-increasing presence on nightly shows.

"Sports as a content source has been migrating to cable and the Internet the last couple of years," WFLA news director Dan Bradley said. "People sometimes forget we're a business and like any business we try to pay close attention to what our customers say they want."

Bradley said research shows that about 25 percent of local newscast viewers have a strong appetite for sports, while another 25 precent don't and either change the channel or leave the room. The rest are indifferent.

"It's a difficult balance between giving enough to whet the appetite of the sports fan, but not so much that the people who hate it go running away," Bradley said.

Fox Sports Net and Sunshine Network heard the rumbles from those unsatisfied appetites. They are preparing shows devoted solely to Florida teams and events.

Fox Sports Net debuts the 30-minute Regional Sports Report at 11 p.m. on Monday that will focus on Florida's pro and college sports. Sunshine has broadcast Sunshine Network Live for nearly two years at 10 p.m., but that 60-minute show will be retooled and renamed Florida Sports News and will debut in September.

These state-oriented versions of national shows viewers could further erode the significance of local sportscasts.

"It certainly will make the local sportscasters evaluate the priority they put on local sports," Fox Sports Net vice president Rod Mickler said.

Several changes indicate the de-emphasizing of local sports coverage is occuring even without new competition. WTSP-Ch. 10 recently pulled sports off its 5 p.m. newscast, and WFLA once employed three full-time sportscasters but now has only two. Conversely, most stations around the state have as many as five on-air weather personalities.

"Weather is the big thing with newscasts," said Pat Clarke, host of Sunshine Network Live and a former sports director at an Orlando station. "A twig could fall off a tree, and some producer would be back in the sports office saying, "Pat we need 30 more seconds.' "

Time also is not on the side of local sports. On average, the four network affiliates devote between two and four minutes to sports on their weekday broadcasts. And three of the four network affiliates have 15-minute versions on Sunday night. WFTS-Ch. 28 has a 30-minute show, Sports Rap.

Still, the weekday offering is hardly enough to capture everything happening in Tampa Bay and cover the national scene.

"That's the negative side of local sports," said Sage Steele, who will cover Central Florida for the Regional Sports Report while continuing to work for WFTS on Sundays. "The trend is to keep cutting time. You look at Ch. 10, they completely cut it out of their 5 o'clock. What does that tell you? It's scary."

Steele said she would hate to see a time when local news didn't include sports, "but it wouldn't surprise me. The trend is obvious, not just in Tampa Bay, but around the country."

The situation is not totally bleak, however. Bay News 9 offers viewers a nightly sports report with telephone calls from viewers.

WTVT-Ch. 13 sports director Chip Carter said he could not be happier with the commitment from his station. WTVT has sports for 3 to 31/2 minutes on its 5, 6 and 10 p.m. broadcasts, plus features that extend that time. Carter said the sports commitment of parent company Fox has trickled down to local stations.

Likewise, officials at WTSP and WFLA insist their sports commitment remains strong despite some trimmings.

WFLA will have an added sports focus with NBC televising the Summer Olympics in September, including special programs. In a similar vein, WTSP will gear up sports because CBS will broadcast Super Bowl XXXV from Raymond James Stadium.

WFTS often uses its station location, next to the stadium, to tie into Bucs games.

"I think sports is like anything else we do here," WFTS news director Jeff Godlis said. "If we can put out a product that's relevant and local, just like news and weather, they'll watch."

Still, local stations are not likely to increase daily offerings to compete with Fox Sports Net and Sunshine Network.

"I wouldn't expect us to make any changes at all due to this," WTSP marketing director Pete Nikiel said. "Is it competition? Yes and no. They're aiming at a limited audience, the real hard-core audience. If they weren't watching this, they would probably be watching ESPN SportsCenter.

"The people that turn to local newscasts are a different audience, a more casual fan."

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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