Viewer Participation

Viewer feedback is an invaluable tool.
Every single baseball TV production team strives to improve from telecast to telecast.
Viewer feedback is the single most important tool that baseball TV teams can use to improve the quality of the show.
There are three types of feedback that are relayed to the members of the TV truck.
There are the viewers that love everything.
There are the viewers that dislike everything.
There are viewers that give their honest opinion.
When is the best time to receive feedback from the viewer?
I believe the best time to receive feedback from the viewer is during the telecast.
There is a difficulty in obtaining this information during the game/telecast.
How does the viewer give feedback during the game/telecast to the TV production team in the truck without disrupting the "flow of the show."?
We utilized a unique tool during our telecast tonight that allowed us feedback that could prove to be invaluable in upcoming telecasts.
There is a text message question that allows our viewers to interact with the telecast during the game.
Every question in this feature - the text message question - has always been a question about the game.
Who is the Cardinals biggest rival in the Central Division?
Who will win the most games as a Cardinals starter?
How many homeruns will Albert Pujols hit?
You get the idea.
Boring!!!
Well, tonight we did something different. We tied the text message question into the telecast.
The question was - How often should we show catchers signals?
The three choices were: Never, All the Time, Big Situations.
Naturally, situations won but there were votes for never and always as well.
This feature was a success because the announce team of the PlayXPlay and Color Analyst did a great job of promoting and explaining the question.
I took shots of the catcher's signals during the sequence thus enhancing the question.
My favorite reason of why I love my job so much is that I learn something new with EVERY telecast/game.
EVERY time I sit in the chair, I learn something new.
EVERY TIME.
Feedback usually arrives after the game/telecast from friends and peers and this feedback is wonderful.
Immediate feedback DURING THE GAME/TELECAST is fun and invaluable.
Immediate feedback from viewers is very important in enhancing the quality of the telecast.
The immediate feedback from viewers MUST be objective as this feedback can be immediate.
Subjective feedback must be debated and therefore is useless.
The "Text Poll Question" is a great, great tool for the immediate enhancement of a telecast.
Help improve St. Louis Cardinals' telecasts.
Submit ideas for the "text message poll question" of the game. Contact me at www.cuttingthegame.com with your question.
Please make these questions telecast-related and not game-related.
I can't wait to hear from you.
Thank you.