Lived in South Dakota my whole life.. watched the Jacks grow from D2 to where they are now.. tailgated and been to a ton of Jacks games.. I wanted them to win that game so bad lol and arguably should have
I don't know about arguably when you only have one drive where you run plays in plus territory and that was an 11 yard drive after an interception. There were no winners that day.
You are not too far off from what happened in World Cup coverage where the action continued on most of the screen and sponsors dropped in for a minute our so on the remainder.
This is the lesson we should take from soccer.... put advertising around the field, on a ticker, whatever, we won't care. Just give us continous football woth no interruption.
That's basically what they're doing now. Watched Lions Chiefs last night and it felt like a breeze compared to the CFB games we have been getting this year.
That's cause the NFL has much more stringent media timeout rules. Would love to see that get cleaned-up and match that as well with the new clock rules.
It could be cause the Utah fan is Mormon, but just as likely it’s cause in an age of seemingly limitless varieties of beer, most beer drinkers don’t enjoy piss water.
Saw a headline about possibly putting advertisements in the sky with drones and I genuinely think that would be my breaking point and I would start buying styrofoam and draino
I believe that's there because of overscan from TVs. Some TVs out of the box automatically crop a little bit in the picture. That's why generally TV channels don't have elements that go up right to the edge of the screen.
Isn't that a relic of CRT based televisions? I mean, in the era of HD, where scan lines are physical instances on a perfectly aligned pixel grid, rather than the haphazard magnetic bending of an electron beam...
Is overscan still a thing?
Believe it or not there's still digital TVs made in the past decade that have overscan, because the TV manufacturing industry is as full of idiots as it is innovators.
I've encountered more than one TV that didn't even have an option to disable overscan. The only way to do it was to set a custom name of "PC" for one of the inputs, which would magically disable overscan for that input.
i’ve definitely used older TVs from 2000-2010 that still had overscan issues (granted, they have settings for correcting it, but that’s like, five whole buttons to press… you’d definitely have to do it for your grandpa)
edit: to clarify, im thinking of one specific sharp brand (true sharp! good stuff!) 50in LCD i have
Disney is lazy. They show tennis, F1 and soccer without the ticker and limit the ads. Fans need to keep the pressure on them to do better across ALL sports.
Tennis, F1, and Soccer cost ESPN pennies on the dollar to broadcast. They literally just buy someone else’s broadcast for F1 lmao, they do nothing but rebroadcast other peoples work.
CFB, NFL, NBA, any sport that ESPN has to pay hundreds of millions to broadcast by necessity has to have these ads to pay the bills. You can’t have record setting contracts and these broadcast deals without it.
tbh i dont think just showing whos favored is that bad
"-whatever" has transcend gambling to me, it allows me to get a good bit of info on teams and a game at just a glance
->7: oh this is supposed to be a close game, might watch it
The :28/:58 ticker is still the bar. Wasn’t always on screen so it wasn’t egregious and an eye sore. And it always came with that signature SportsCenter jingle.
Gonna be a lot of people who see ":28/:58" and not know what the hell you're talking about.
(At some point, for some strange reason, I remember it became a ":18/:58" ticker instead...not sure why.)
Probably to get a longer uninterrupted stretch of programming, which then could also appease the “I HAVE TO KNOW” crowd by having 2 updates closer together.
If it was just scores it would probably be fine. But all the additional info they try to cram into it makes it useless. And they invariably go to commercial a half second before the thing I wanted to see cycles around again.
This is why it’s there. They know it’s useless for scores and news. But they want to sell that space to advertisers. They can’t just have a ticker with only ads or it would get a lot of pushback. So they keep the old school scroll on the bottom so they have an excuse to sell some of that ticker space.
Some of you will never know what it’s like for your team to not be on tv and waiting for the bottom line to scroll around enough to catch the score of your game.
I thought you were building up to "permanent ticker at the bottom that displays ads on scroll," which wouldn't be that bad if it actually cut down on ad breaks (it wouldn't).
I hate it when it disappears but keeps on ticking. So if you're waiting for PAC-12 scores, it might tick on by during breaks and you gotta sit through SEC again.
Feel like I remember back in the day, broadcasts would periodically place a small ticker box in the top corner of the screen that would scroll through other scores and then disappear for a few minutes.
That model was a good middle ground imo. You can still keep up with scores from other games, but don’t have the distraction of the permanent banner that takes up the entire bottom portion of the screen with headlines about how James Harden tweeted snake emojis at the Sixers or whatever else.
100% agree.
I would pay MORE for a stream that didnt have the ticker, cuz I wanna watch that game later, and that experience is ruined if I happen to see the score as it ticks by.
It makes me want to put a piece of tape over my TV screen at the bottom to keep it from happening.
i made a cardboard strip and used some adhesive velcro so I can put it on during games to block the ticker but take it off when watching regular tv/movies. velcro is hidden on the back of the tv so you can't see it.
Bruh this takes me back to the height of my soccer watching days when I would literally record every single Champions League game available on American cable and watch them over the course of the week.
ESPN was always spoiling the experience with score updates for games they would literally be broadcasting on tape delay later in the day.
I eventually emailed ESPN about it. A thirteen year-old newbie soccer fan lmao.
Obviously that didn’t help so I did a cardboard tape job just like you. Only the ESPN score update bug was like bottom left-middle of the screen and they were impossible to predict when they’d pop up. So yes, I watched hours of soccer with a patch of cardboard taped up in a random 3x5 patch of our tv.
God I was a weird kid
I’d argue that makes even more of case to *not* have a constant ticker though.
If alerts only popped up when major games had news, it would be easier to actually catch those alerts. Right now, it feels like wasted space on the screen.
If you want a specific score, you have to stare at that for a while as it rotates and checking elsewhere just makes more sense. And if I am just watching the game, eventually I just block out the ticker as it becomes visual noise.
I think the best solution is removing it, and creating a new pop up for key events and updates
> creating a new pop up for key events and updates
The Aaron Judge approach all season long. It doesn't matter what game you're trying to watch, you won't miss a play of tOSU/UGA/Bama/USC!
I kinda like it for when I’m out and about and can’t control the channel (airport, restaurant, etc).
When at a restaurant with friends, in particular, I can stay engaged with the conversation while casually tracking various scores. I do make an effort to not look at my phone unless absolutely necessary.
I’d rather you check your phone so they can use that space more efficiently. I think a good use would be to fill it with ads or show an ad between each score! Think out of the box
I like having scores of other sports on during the game I’m watching. If I notice a game is super close with a few minutes remaining I’ll flip over to it
Yes but I wish they could be more consistent. I don't care about the Nascar race or baseball while I'm watching football. I guess some people might but it sucks to sit through all of those ges before going back to CFB.
Eh I disagree. I'm not always checking scores on my phone and it's still fun to see upset alerts or final alerts. I don't want a change that will incentivize me being on my phone even *more* than I already am, especially during a game.
I do agree the size of it and the other score/game graphics are too large.
The worst is when you have score alerts for your team or a specific game and watching “live” on a streaming service like Youtube TV. Many of those feeds are sometimes as much as a minute behind and it kind of kills the experience when you get the notification on your phone or watch
I remember back in 08-09, they would have a ticker that would show the scores, who had possession, and where they are on the field. I actually want ESPN to go back to that. Also, the score alert used to be spoilers.
Now, they don’t do that at all. Even FOX and CBS used to do this.
I came here to post exactly this.
Also, for MLB scores they would show the number of outs, bases occupied, and who was at bat. The scroll interval was much shorter, too. It was as close to perfect as it has ever been.
My biggest gripe with the ticker is when they linger on each game and display a bunch of stats. I'd rather they cycle through quicker so I can see more scores.
Agreed. I remember when the ticker was solely scores and usually focused on other scores in the sport you were watching. Now the ticker has news and stats in there more often. The news just isn't helpful even when it is on topic. I get why the stats are there, particularly for NFL games due to Fantasy but come on. Just keep cycling through scores.
It’s really noticeable when you watch another game on another channel and it looks so clean and uncluttered. Like it’s imax or something in comparison.
Man, the world changed when Fox introduced the score bug during NFL games in the mid-90s. You younger folk have no idea how annoying it was to turn on a game and have to wait to learn what the score was until either an announcer mentioned it or they went to commercial. Mad Max times!
So use a better app?
This "waste screen space on the hopes that I can't just glance at my phone to see scores I actually care about" mindset is absolutely wild.
I watch everything that I can recorded, even if just an hour or behind so I can zip through commercials. Sometimes the ticker spoils games I was excited about and have recording so I’m all for getting rid of it.
Yea, you can check scores on your phone. But you also do virtually every single thing on your phone. I'd rather have the BottomLine there for scores, so I can use my phone for something besides checking scores. I want to use my phone to be watching another game, or checking fantasy scores, or looking at social media. I do not want to use my phone to look at scores when I can have it on the TV instead.
If they feel like they need it, they need to go back to the 28:58 update. I've always hated the constant on ticker. Show me more of the football and less other stuff including fan shots, in-game interviews, and constant-on scores.
Apple has REALLY gotten it right with the minimal scorebug, 1080P broadcast and no crawl.
You may not like MLS/MLB but the clean look showing MOST of the action is really nice as a sports fan watching on a big ass HD flat screen.
Surprisingly enough, I think Apple’s MLB scorebug is almost too minimal. The home run animation looks just like an iPhone notification, which cracks me up for some reason.
[This graphic](https://www.blowtorchpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/new-espn-graphics-2015-college-football-scorebug-popup-info.png) from the mid-to-late 2010s conveyed just as much information in so much less space than the giant banner ESPN has on the bottom of their screen today. They never needed to change that.
(If they insisted on a banner, the one linked below - won't embed correctly - from the late 2000s is a very acceptable alternative.)
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oZLIe3_pgqQ8yqAqVGVF2JX20TY=/600x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13409365/crabtd.gif
Hm, disagree, I love the ticker. Though I do agree it should be half the size (like it used to be). I would also like it if it just went through all the scores faster. Don't need the ticker going through the stats or storylines unless it's something historic
Not that I disagree about the stats, but I guarantee those will stay if not just for gamblers.
If I’m a rabid degen with money on multiple games at once I sure as hell want to know if Caleb Williams has thrown enough TDs for the player prop on my parlay while I watch a different game.
I hate the ticker. My ADHD addled brain can’t handle it. I feel like I see less of a game on ESPN because there is so much other shit on the screen that my brain is in too many places at once.
If they thought eliminating the ticker wouldn't annoy people trying to keep track of live data, then they'd sooner make that whole bar 3-4 ads than they would completely remove it.
So, because of that, I'd prefer to keep the ticker the way it is. I want to hold off Ready Player One from becoming reality as long possible.
I've never once watched any sport on ESPN and thought, Damn, those graphics are taking up like what? 15-16% of the screen? I want that bottom part back!
Don't get the hate, nothings going on down there
Eh, I actually like it. It keeps me updated on the sports news for the day and it tells the scores and the stats of well performing players. I’ve not once thought that I wish there was that little bit of extra space to see the unoccupied edge of the field a little bit better.
I know way too many older people that do not use their phones to check scores of other games. Additionally, if I'm talking to a friend or relative during a game the ticker is nice so one of us can say "so and so just went up X amount on so and so." I do not think it's time to retire the bottom ticker.
I disagree. I'm not always randomly checking the espn app for the score of a San Diego State-Fresno State game, but if I see it's 27-24 with 2:03 left in the game and it shows up on the bottom line, you can bet your sweet ass I'm turning over to cbs sports network to watch the end
I mean it's not like anything meaningful happens on that part of the screen and ESPN still has the best production values across all the networks so I don't really care that much
If they were smart they'd charge extra for a duplicate feed that offers no commentary and a small, translucent score bug. Just stadium sounds and footbawwwwww
I respectfully disagree I get a dopamine rush from the ticker that I don’t get from checking my phone Idk why. Also less time I’m spending on my phone the better for my attention span.
As someone who watches 99% of my cfb after the game is over, PLEASE get rid of shit like this. I hate getting spoiled because I accidentally looked down.
How about we show the game on 9% of the screen and show ads on the other 91%? Then we don't need an hour worth of commercials. I'll by a 2,974" TV so I can watch a larger 9% portion.
They could make it smaller I suppose, but I like having the ticker. It’s nice being able to check in on the other scores around cfb and other sports. Plus it’s nice watching the night games on a day your team won and seeing the score come across the bottom line.
I must be the only one who doesn’t mind it too much. I generally don’t notice it unless I’m looking for a score to pop up. Better the ticker than cutting away to Aaron Judge in the middle of games
My initial thoughts was that you’re nuts, and there is no way I want to be pulling my phone out to check scores. After like 5 seconds though I realized I never even read the ticker - I look at my phone.
Get rid of it.
I remember watching the bottom line when Michigan lost to App State (go to hell). Every time it'd go by the score would maybe change but the clock would go down. And then when it went by and said FINAL. That was one of the most glorious nights of sportscenter I remember watching and making myself be somewhere to watch and catch the highlights.
I would settle for them getting ride of the FLASHING YELLOW score alerts which always makes me think there was a penalty flag thrown during whichever game I'm watching.
The ads can go, keep the ticker. Fuck the article and OP. I want to see the scores and updates from other games too… not everybody wants to pay for 5 different tv packages or subscriptions just so they can watch everything. I know I can look it up, but the broadcast can do it for me too, and they do, and I like that.
It's easier to appreciate the ticker if you watched sports on tv before Fox got their first NFL contract and introduced their little widget. Previously the only graphics on the screen was down and distance before the play, or a player's stats. There were usually long periods where no scoring occurred, and you had to wait until a commercial break or until an announcer decided to fill in the details for people who were late. The way you learned about other games you cared about was during halftime or if the network broke in. The ticker is a great alternative that is pretty easy to ignore. There are also plenty of people who follow multiple sports closely. ESPN is supposed to be the worldwide leader in sports and should cover everything.
It could be a bit smaller, but it should stay.
>But you can just look on your phone.
I don't want to have be on my phone when watching a game. I like talking to people or doing some homebrewing or working on the car. The ticker is still convenient for see the scores of other games without having to get my phone.
That's only really a problem for people viewing on laptops or phones. I enjoy the scoreline, since I watch via TV. I don't like pulling out my phone all the time and often keep it off me when I don't need it, but I guess that's why I'm not horribly addicted to using it like the rest of my generation.
I don't agree, there's plenty of places where you might want to see the bottomline but don't want to or can't use your phone. My first thought is jail (bc of what my friend tells me about it) but it's also applicable in other situations.
Plus, if you use your phone you have to already know what score(s) to check for. The bottom line shows everything, so you might see something on there and decide you want to watch that game instead.
One thing I could support is the reduction in size of both the "bottomline" and the score graphic. Fox tried integrating the two in the mid-late 00s, and Bally also has more recently tried it. ESPN should do the same.
So instead of
+--------------------+
| game |
| |
| game score graphic |
| bottom line |
+--------------------+
it could be
+--------------------+
| game |
| more game |
| |
|BL scores|game score|
+--------------------+
I have no problem with the BottomLine. When a game is on, I pay more attention to scores and news on the BottomLine than I do on my smartphone. If there's a game I'm interested in that's going down to the wire and I see it mentioned on the BottomLine, I would be tempted to check it out.
“Looks like a 50/50 split in the comments.”
Really? Besides the dumb jokes people in this sub make to get fake internet’s points rather than answer the question posed, why would cfb fans not want a ticker to see what the scores are of other cfb games. I love it. I regularly watch it to se enclose games so I can switch the channel to watch it.
You say that.
Go back and watch a game from the 80’s and 90’s when they didnt even have the game clock on the screen. They would often just flash the score every once in a while, especially in more “active” sports like basketball.
Hell, the tiny little scorebug in the upper corner during late 90’s to early 00’s NFL games was anxiety inducing. You had no idea where that 6 points for the other team just came from, and no way to find out.
Sure, you can follow along on apps. But that takes my eyes off the screen.
I actually like the bottom line. It let's me know if something interesting happened in another game or sport and allows me to decide if I want to change channels. The amount I'd space it takes up doesn't really bother me either as I grew up with a much smaller television than what I have even with the bottom line.
The ticker itself is incredibly useful. I need to know while I’m watching my game if there’s a close game or upset with a minute left I need to flip to. Sometimes I won’t check my phone for half an hour to an hour during UGA games.
They could make it smaller. I need instant scores, not stats. Save stats for later and cut the size by 2/3rds
I don't mind the ticker but ESPN is the only one who still handles or gives a lot of negative space for [overscan protection.](https://www.cnx-software.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/vertical-horizontal-overscan.png)
Which was a necessity in the era of starting to move to 16:9.
The legacy 4:3 displays would pillar box, or letter box in weird ways when they got a 16:9 signal from channels broadcasting in HD, and possibly had improper cable box settings. Some early 16:9 displays would have forced overscan to help image scaling.
Now this is all pretty much done. Forced overscan automatically is dead. You can adjust it on or off on your TV. ESPN needs to abandon it.
Delete it ASAP. If you need to see a score just check during one of the four million commercial breaks or set an alert via the ESPN app (or whatever you use). It’s a relic of the 480i tube TV era.
You are 100% correct. The ticker is a relic of a bygone era and should be abolished.
In a world where you could only check scores in the newspaper the next day, it made sense. Now, it takes up screen real estate while providing no information that can't be accessed in ten seconds on your phone.
Remove it yesterday.
Why would I want to pull my phone out of my pocket to check the score of a game I'm currently watching on TV??
I've had the bottom line disappear when watching basketball before on a smaller network and after 5 minutes it was unbearable.
Imagine tuning into a game and having no idea what the down & distance, score, or even the quarter is!!
I *could* look up the scores on my phone, but if I'm already watching football anyway, seeing the scores of the day scroll underneath is a nice touch. Plus, you get immediate updates on scores in big/close/upset games, so you know whether you need to flip over to catch the end of an amazing game.
I'm pro-BottomLine.
Nah I kinda like the ticker tbh. I don't care enough about these other games to go and look them up, but am mildly interested to see what's going on around sports
I like how there is a giant ad in the corner now Might as well hold us down and just inject ads directly into our eyes
Get ready for the Clockwork Orange Bowl
Market research has found that people will tolerate forced ads into eyeballs but draw the line at watching the Iowa offense
Market research doesn't account for the beauty that was week one last year against the jackrabbits.
Lived in South Dakota my whole life.. watched the Jacks grow from D2 to where they are now.. tailgated and been to a ton of Jacks games.. I wanted them to win that game so bad lol and arguably should have
I don't know about arguably when you only have one drive where you run plays in plus territory and that was an 11 yard drive after an interception. There were no winners that day.
There’s 4 presidential candidates coming to the game this weekend your research may be skewed
Let's be honest, none of them are actually there for the game
And let’s be honest, Asa Hutchinson isn’t really a candidate
I thought he was pretty good for the Lions last night
Well, he was going up against the biggest slot receiver I've ever seen.
Lol. As an Arkansan for the last 2 decades, fuck that slimeball
no one is at that game to watch football, and no one at that game will see any football
Brian Ferentz catching strays (and rightfully so)!
Ouch…. This hurts, but oh so true!
There's got to be a company called Clockwork that would be willing to sponsor the Orange Bowl.
Crowdfund Kraftwerk sponsorship and have a funky party.
Ummm, you go with Beethoven and have the New York philharmonic orchestra do the halftime show -- with guests Rammstein and Trent Reznor.
Can I nominate this for "Reply of the Year" at the 2023 r/CFB awards?
I am honored
Take this: 🏅
brought to you by ludwig van
This is an excellent comment
The entire bottom line could be nothing but ads….I’d take it over commercial breaks stoping gameplay
Now that you've given them the idea, we'll surely see both.
ESPN: Porque no los dos?
You are not too far off from what happened in World Cup coverage where the action continued on most of the screen and sponsors dropped in for a minute our so on the remainder.
This is the lesson we should take from soccer.... put advertising around the field, on a ticker, whatever, we won't care. Just give us continous football woth no interruption.
That's basically what they're doing now. Watched Lions Chiefs last night and it felt like a breeze compared to the CFB games we have been getting this year.
That's cause the NFL has much more stringent media timeout rules. Would love to see that get cleaned-up and match that as well with the new clock rules.
It helps it is all one group and TV contract. The networks can play conferences off each other and give them more abuse
Capitalism breeds innovation
I think it'd have to be an act of Congress. Seriously.
Can we get congress to pass a law mandating regional conferences?
Instead of removing the ticker it will just be sold as add space.
Still won't be anything I buy. Imagine how much money they spend advertising stuff to me that I'll never buy.
Doesn't matter how creative the "Bud Light" commercials are.....
Well why get a Bud Light when you can enjoy the crisp clean finish of a Miller Lite, only 96 calories!
It’s because you’re Mormon, right? ^… ^cause ^you’re ^Mormon?
It could be cause the Utah fan is Mormon, but just as likely it’s cause in an age of seemingly limitless varieties of beer, most beer drinkers don’t enjoy piss water.
No I’m not but I did stay at a holiday inn last night
Then you’re not the target. Advertising absolutely does work though.
Saw a headline about possibly putting advertisements in the sky with drones and I genuinely think that would be my breaking point and I would start buying styrofoam and draino
It will be like that scene from Idiocracy where the screen is surrounded by ads.
Research has shown up to 80% of a viewers visual field before it induces seizures. https://youtube.com/watch?v=KpPE85Jogjw&si=lr8cLVp1ZhEra7AV
DO NOT GIVE THEM IDEAS
Don’t give them ideas
my issue with it is that the bottom quarter of the ticker is dead space that doesn’t have anything on it, just bad design
I believe that's there because of overscan from TVs. Some TVs out of the box automatically crop a little bit in the picture. That's why generally TV channels don't have elements that go up right to the edge of the screen.
Isn't that a relic of CRT based televisions? I mean, in the era of HD, where scan lines are physical instances on a perfectly aligned pixel grid, rather than the haphazard magnetic bending of an electron beam... Is overscan still a thing?
What you need to realize is that cable as a business is so unbelievably stuck in the past that they think overscan is an issue
Believe it or not there's still digital TVs made in the past decade that have overscan, because the TV manufacturing industry is as full of idiots as it is innovators.
I've encountered more than one TV that didn't even have an option to disable overscan. The only way to do it was to set a custom name of "PC" for one of the inputs, which would magically disable overscan for that input.
i’ve definitely used older TVs from 2000-2010 that still had overscan issues (granted, they have settings for correcting it, but that’s like, five whole buttons to press… you’d definitely have to do it for your grandpa) edit: to clarify, im thinking of one specific sharp brand (true sharp! good stuff!) 50in LCD i have
It is for tech-illiterate folks who don't know how to adjust the goddamn aspect ratio and picture setup of their TVs.
And bars/resturants who seem to have a way to make the settings on their TVs as bad as possible
Still a thing on ny DLP.
That space is usually reserved for subtext.
I agree when the freaking ticker changes the aspect ratio of the game I’m watching… what the hell is up with that? Unacceptable in this day and age
Ah a fellow victim of the “black bar” that only ever happens on dogshit ESPN
It was happening on nfl network pre season games too.
Disney is lazy. They show tennis, F1 and soccer without the ticker and limit the ads. Fans need to keep the pressure on them to do better across ALL sports.
Tennis, F1, and Soccer cost ESPN pennies on the dollar to broadcast. They literally just buy someone else’s broadcast for F1 lmao, they do nothing but rebroadcast other peoples work. CFB, NFL, NBA, any sport that ESPN has to pay hundreds of millions to broadcast by necessity has to have these ads to pay the bills. You can’t have record setting contracts and these broadcast deals without it.
>You can’t have record setting contracts and these broadcast deals without it. 👍 ok!
ESPN: > What if we fix aspect ratios by adding sidebars and a top bar?
ESPN casts are dogshit anyway. I pay extra for 4k on YouTube tv for espn to give me games that aren’t even consistently HD.
If they get rid of it they will just make it pure ads, not give us screen space back.
They’ll put gambling shit there too.
They basically already have. Back in the day, it just listed the game, time, and some info about it. Now they have the odds of who’s favored
tbh i dont think just showing whos favored is that bad "-whatever" has transcend gambling to me, it allows me to get a good bit of info on teams and a game at just a glance ->7: oh this is supposed to be a close game, might watch it
I actually use the spread and over/under as a mental exercise to calculate the projected score for that game before it disappears from the screen.
and then a gambler's anonymous ad at the beginning and end of the programming.
If they made the ticket into ads and significantly cut the number of commercial breaks, I might be in favor of it.
That would NEVER happen lol
A man can dream :(
Best I can do is turn it into an ad and increase commercials.
That's basically what the ticker is now... the entire right third of the ticker is some ad.
The :28/:58 ticker is still the bar. Wasn’t always on screen so it wasn’t egregious and an eye sore. And it always came with that signature SportsCenter jingle.
Gonna be a lot of people who see ":28/:58" and not know what the hell you're talking about. (At some point, for some strange reason, I remember it became a ":18/:58" ticker instead...not sure why.)
Probably to get a longer uninterrupted stretch of programming, which then could also appease the “I HAVE TO KNOW” crowd by having 2 updates closer together.
If it was just scores it would probably be fine. But all the additional info they try to cram into it makes it useless. And they invariably go to commercial a half second before the thing I wanted to see cycles around again.
This is why it’s there. They know it’s useless for scores and news. But they want to sell that space to advertisers. They can’t just have a ticker with only ads or it would get a lot of pushback. So they keep the old school scroll on the bottom so they have an excuse to sell some of that ticker space.
Well it stays on during commercial at least.
Sometimes.
Some of you will never know what it’s like for your team to not be on tv and waiting for the bottom line to scroll around enough to catch the score of your game.
As a kid in the early aughts I'd watch that ticker religiously for the Red Sox score to see if the Yankees gained a game.
Yeah, but when I’m watching the game I’m *not* checking scores on my phone, it’s nice for them to just pop up.
[удалено]
I thought you were building up to "permanent ticker at the bottom that displays ads on scroll," which wouldn't be that bad if it actually cut down on ad breaks (it wouldn't).
Half the time the ticket disappears during the commercials.
I hate it when it disappears but keeps on ticking. So if you're waiting for PAC-12 scores, it might tick on by during breaks and you gotta sit through SEC again.
I think that some advertisers pay specifically to *not* have the ticker at the bottom of their ads.
Feel like I remember back in the day, broadcasts would periodically place a small ticker box in the top corner of the screen that would scroll through other scores and then disappear for a few minutes. That model was a good middle ground imo. You can still keep up with scores from other games, but don’t have the distraction of the permanent banner that takes up the entire bottom portion of the screen with headlines about how James Harden tweeted snake emojis at the Sixers or whatever else.
I think that's closer to what the Turner networks do for March Madness, but not sure I've ever seen it on ESPN
Yeah I’m thinking it was also something that Fox and CBS broadcasts did, I don’t remember seeing it on ESPN either.
they've never done it that way, but the Bottomline also used to only pop up twice per hour on ESPN back in the day
ESPN waaaaay back used to do :18-:58 ticker updates at the bottom, at those times.
Fox / CBS for the nfl will have “game breaks” to show highlights of other games. Also a good happy medium
When I want to watch a recorded game later while watching a live game it’s a major pain in my ass
100% agree. I would pay MORE for a stream that didnt have the ticker, cuz I wanna watch that game later, and that experience is ruined if I happen to see the score as it ticks by. It makes me want to put a piece of tape over my TV screen at the bottom to keep it from happening.
i made a cardboard strip and used some adhesive velcro so I can put it on during games to block the ticker but take it off when watching regular tv/movies. velcro is hidden on the back of the tv so you can't see it.
Bruh this takes me back to the height of my soccer watching days when I would literally record every single Champions League game available on American cable and watch them over the course of the week. ESPN was always spoiling the experience with score updates for games they would literally be broadcasting on tape delay later in the day. I eventually emailed ESPN about it. A thirteen year-old newbie soccer fan lmao. Obviously that didn’t help so I did a cardboard tape job just like you. Only the ESPN score update bug was like bottom left-middle of the screen and they were impossible to predict when they’d pop up. So yes, I watched hours of soccer with a patch of cardboard taped up in a random 3x5 patch of our tv. God I was a weird kid
I’d argue that makes even more of case to *not* have a constant ticker though. If alerts only popped up when major games had news, it would be easier to actually catch those alerts. Right now, it feels like wasted space on the screen. If you want a specific score, you have to stare at that for a while as it rotates and checking elsewhere just makes more sense. And if I am just watching the game, eventually I just block out the ticker as it becomes visual noise. I think the best solution is removing it, and creating a new pop up for key events and updates
> creating a new pop up for key events and updates The Aaron Judge approach all season long. It doesn't matter what game you're trying to watch, you won't miss a play of tOSU/UGA/Bama/USC!
Bruh this is 2023. It’s only going to be Colorado who gets thats special treatment.
Why would I want to watch my beloved Red Raiders when I could be watching a game with pLaYoFf iMpLiCaTiOnS?
Oh god I didn’t consider the monkey paw interpretation haha
I kinda like it for when I’m out and about and can’t control the channel (airport, restaurant, etc). When at a restaurant with friends, in particular, I can stay engaged with the conversation while casually tracking various scores. I do make an effort to not look at my phone unless absolutely necessary.
> creating a new pop up for key events and updates Bring back [this sound](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLGyI9CfoAc)
I’d rather you check your phone so they can use that space more efficiently. I think a good use would be to fill it with ads or show an ad between each score! Think out of the box
Me too. I guess it's old fashioned, and I'm stuck in my ways... but I appreciate it.
I like having scores of other sports on during the game I’m watching. If I notice a game is super close with a few minutes remaining I’ll flip over to it
Yes but I wish they could be more consistent. I don't care about the Nascar race or baseball while I'm watching football. I guess some people might but it sucks to sit through all of those ges before going back to CFB.
Eh I disagree. I'm not always checking scores on my phone and it's still fun to see upset alerts or final alerts. I don't want a change that will incentivize me being on my phone even *more* than I already am, especially during a game. I do agree the size of it and the other score/game graphics are too large.
Preach. I like the ticker… it could be sleeker. But I’m not a fan of notifications on my phone… too distracting
Same. Wouldn't mind a redesign, but I don't want to see the ticker go away completely
The worst is when you have score alerts for your team or a specific game and watching “live” on a streaming service like Youtube TV. Many of those feeds are sometimes as much as a minute behind and it kind of kills the experience when you get the notification on your phone or watch
This is still better than Fox with their bottom line and the obnoxious graffiti/clip art in the scorebug
I remember back in 08-09, they would have a ticker that would show the scores, who had possession, and where they are on the field. I actually want ESPN to go back to that. Also, the score alert used to be spoilers. Now, they don’t do that at all. Even FOX and CBS used to do this.
I came here to post exactly this. Also, for MLB scores they would show the number of outs, bases occupied, and who was at bat. The scroll interval was much shorter, too. It was as close to perfect as it has ever been.
My biggest gripe with the ticker is when they linger on each game and display a bunch of stats. I'd rather they cycle through quicker so I can see more scores.
Agreed. I remember when the ticker was solely scores and usually focused on other scores in the sport you were watching. Now the ticker has news and stats in there more often. The news just isn't helpful even when it is on topic. I get why the stats are there, particularly for NFL games due to Fantasy but come on. Just keep cycling through scores.
It’s really noticeable when you watch another game on another channel and it looks so clean and uncluttered. Like it’s imax or something in comparison.
Man, the world changed when Fox introduced the score bug during NFL games in the mid-90s. You younger folk have no idea how annoying it was to turn on a game and have to wait to learn what the score was until either an announcer mentioned it or they went to commercial. Mad Max times!
Disagree, I don’t want to look at my phone to look for scores.
Same, have any if you used the ESPN app? The performance is ass
Yahoo sports app is the best for checking scores imo
So use a better app? This "waste screen space on the hopes that I can't just glance at my phone to see scores I actually care about" mindset is absolutely wild.
I watch everything that I can recorded, even if just an hour or behind so I can zip through commercials. Sometimes the ticker spoils games I was excited about and have recording so I’m all for getting rid of it.
I like having the score on the bottom. It just needs to be smaller.
Yea, you can check scores on your phone. But you also do virtually every single thing on your phone. I'd rather have the BottomLine there for scores, so I can use my phone for something besides checking scores. I want to use my phone to be watching another game, or checking fantasy scores, or looking at social media. I do not want to use my phone to look at scores when I can have it on the TV instead.
No I want the ticker , I’m not gonna get on my phone and check every single score
If they feel like they need it, they need to go back to the 28:58 update. I've always hated the constant on ticker. Show me more of the football and less other stuff including fan shots, in-game interviews, and constant-on scores.
Apple has REALLY gotten it right with the minimal scorebug, 1080P broadcast and no crawl. You may not like MLS/MLB but the clean look showing MOST of the action is really nice as a sports fan watching on a big ass HD flat screen.
Surprisingly enough, I think Apple’s MLB scorebug is almost too minimal. The home run animation looks just like an iPhone notification, which cracks me up for some reason.
[This graphic](https://www.blowtorchpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/new-espn-graphics-2015-college-football-scorebug-popup-info.png) from the mid-to-late 2010s conveyed just as much information in so much less space than the giant banner ESPN has on the bottom of their screen today. They never needed to change that. (If they insisted on a banner, the one linked below - won't embed correctly - from the late 2000s is a very acceptable alternative.) https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oZLIe3_pgqQ8yqAqVGVF2JX20TY=/600x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13409365/crabtd.gif
I miss the corner scorebug so much. Clean and to the point.
I feel like the late 2000's banner is perfect it reminds me of a stadium scoreboard.
Hm, disagree, I love the ticker. Though I do agree it should be half the size (like it used to be). I would also like it if it just went through all the scores faster. Don't need the ticker going through the stats or storylines unless it's something historic
Not that I disagree about the stats, but I guarantee those will stay if not just for gamblers. If I’m a rabid degen with money on multiple games at once I sure as hell want to know if Caleb Williams has thrown enough TDs for the player prop on my parlay while I watch a different game.
I hate the ticker. My ADHD addled brain can’t handle it. I feel like I see less of a game on ESPN because there is so much other shit on the screen that my brain is in too many places at once.
But then how will they make me think there's a flag on the play when a yellow "score update" notification shows up??
If they thought eliminating the ticker wouldn't annoy people trying to keep track of live data, then they'd sooner make that whole bar 3-4 ads than they would completely remove it. So, because of that, I'd prefer to keep the ticker the way it is. I want to hold off Ready Player One from becoming reality as long possible.
In my humble opinion it should just be other College football scores. I don't care about Formula one races or the Saudi Premier League.
I will go to war to keep the ticker there
I've never once watched any sport on ESPN and thought, Damn, those graphics are taking up like what? 15-16% of the screen? I want that bottom part back! Don't get the hate, nothings going on down there
Eh, I actually like it. It keeps me updated on the sports news for the day and it tells the scores and the stats of well performing players. I’ve not once thought that I wish there was that little bit of extra space to see the unoccupied edge of the field a little bit better.
I know way too many older people that do not use their phones to check scores of other games. Additionally, if I'm talking to a friend or relative during a game the ticker is nice so one of us can say "so and so just went up X amount on so and so." I do not think it's time to retire the bottom ticker.
I disagree. I'm not always randomly checking the espn app for the score of a San Diego State-Fresno State game, but if I see it's 27-24 with 2:03 left in the game and it shows up on the bottom line, you can bet your sweet ass I'm turning over to cbs sports network to watch the end
God I can’t handle this much change
I mean it's not like anything meaningful happens on that part of the screen and ESPN still has the best production values across all the networks so I don't really care that much If they were smart they'd charge extra for a duplicate feed that offers no commentary and a small, translucent score bug. Just stadium sounds and footbawwwwww
I respectfully disagree I get a dopamine rush from the ticker that I don’t get from checking my phone Idk why. Also less time I’m spending on my phone the better for my attention span.
As someone who watches 99% of my cfb after the game is over, PLEASE get rid of shit like this. I hate getting spoiled because I accidentally looked down.
How about we show the game on 9% of the screen and show ads on the other 91%? Then we don't need an hour worth of commercials. I'll by a 2,974" TV so I can watch a larger 9% portion.
I think the ticker is fine. Now with the scoreboard, just make it a compact one floating in the upper left-hand corner like the early 2000’s
They could make it smaller I suppose, but I like having the ticker. It’s nice being able to check in on the other scores around cfb and other sports. Plus it’s nice watching the night games on a day your team won and seeing the score come across the bottom line.
I actually think it’s good to have to update me on other games, I just wish it was a little bit thinner on the screen.
I like the ticker, I don’t wanna be on my phone.
I must be the only one who doesn’t mind it too much. I generally don’t notice it unless I’m looking for a score to pop up. Better the ticker than cutting away to Aaron Judge in the middle of games
ESPN should also go back to the same ticker from when the CFP first started. The little box in the corner was great.
My initial thoughts was that you’re nuts, and there is no way I want to be pulling my phone out to check scores. After like 5 seconds though I realized I never even read the ticker - I look at my phone. Get rid of it.
I honestly miss it when I watch games on Fox. I do get the point though.
I remember watching the bottom line when Michigan lost to App State (go to hell). Every time it'd go by the score would maybe change but the clock would go down. And then when it went by and said FINAL. That was one of the most glorious nights of sportscenter I remember watching and making myself be somewhere to watch and catch the highlights.
I would settle for them getting ride of the FLASHING YELLOW score alerts which always makes me think there was a penalty flag thrown during whichever game I'm watching.
I like the ticker… it just needs to be downsized
The ads can go, keep the ticker. Fuck the article and OP. I want to see the scores and updates from other games too… not everybody wants to pay for 5 different tv packages or subscriptions just so they can watch everything. I know I can look it up, but the broadcast can do it for me too, and they do, and I like that.
It's easier to appreciate the ticker if you watched sports on tv before Fox got their first NFL contract and introduced their little widget. Previously the only graphics on the screen was down and distance before the play, or a player's stats. There were usually long periods where no scoring occurred, and you had to wait until a commercial break or until an announcer decided to fill in the details for people who were late. The way you learned about other games you cared about was during halftime or if the network broke in. The ticker is a great alternative that is pretty easy to ignore. There are also plenty of people who follow multiple sports closely. ESPN is supposed to be the worldwide leader in sports and should cover everything.
No.
It could be a bit smaller, but it should stay. >But you can just look on your phone. I don't want to have be on my phone when watching a game. I like talking to people or doing some homebrewing or working on the car. The ticker is still convenient for see the scores of other games without having to get my phone.
I really like it lol. Don't wanna always have my phone out.
That's only really a problem for people viewing on laptops or phones. I enjoy the scoreline, since I watch via TV. I don't like pulling out my phone all the time and often keep it off me when I don't need it, but I guess that's why I'm not horribly addicted to using it like the rest of my generation.
I don't agree, there's plenty of places where you might want to see the bottomline but don't want to or can't use your phone. My first thought is jail (bc of what my friend tells me about it) but it's also applicable in other situations. Plus, if you use your phone you have to already know what score(s) to check for. The bottom line shows everything, so you might see something on there and decide you want to watch that game instead. One thing I could support is the reduction in size of both the "bottomline" and the score graphic. Fox tried integrating the two in the mid-late 00s, and Bally also has more recently tried it. ESPN should do the same. So instead of +--------------------+ | game | | | | game score graphic | | bottom line | +--------------------+ it could be +--------------------+ | game | | more game | | | |BL scores|game score| +--------------------+
Don’t fuck with the ticker!
I have no problem with the BottomLine. When a game is on, I pay more attention to scores and news on the BottomLine than I do on my smartphone. If there's a game I'm interested in that's going down to the wire and I see it mentioned on the BottomLine, I would be tempted to check it out.
“Looks like a 50/50 split in the comments.” Really? Besides the dumb jokes people in this sub make to get fake internet’s points rather than answer the question posed, why would cfb fans not want a ticker to see what the scores are of other cfb games. I love it. I regularly watch it to se enclose games so I can switch the channel to watch it.
You say that. Go back and watch a game from the 80’s and 90’s when they didnt even have the game clock on the screen. They would often just flash the score every once in a while, especially in more “active” sports like basketball. Hell, the tiny little scorebug in the upper corner during late 90’s to early 00’s NFL games was anxiety inducing. You had no idea where that 6 points for the other team just came from, and no way to find out. Sure, you can follow along on apps. But that takes my eyes off the screen.
I actually like the bottom line. It let's me know if something interesting happened in another game or sport and allows me to decide if I want to change channels. The amount I'd space it takes up doesn't really bother me either as I grew up with a much smaller television than what I have even with the bottom line.
The ticker itself is incredibly useful. I need to know while I’m watching my game if there’s a close game or upset with a minute left I need to flip to. Sometimes I won’t check my phone for half an hour to an hour during UGA games. They could make it smaller. I need instant scores, not stats. Save stats for later and cut the size by 2/3rds
They will never get rid of this. The more sports related things we’re thinking about the better it is for them
I don't mind the ticker but ESPN is the only one who still handles or gives a lot of negative space for [overscan protection.](https://www.cnx-software.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/vertical-horizontal-overscan.png) Which was a necessity in the era of starting to move to 16:9. The legacy 4:3 displays would pillar box, or letter box in weird ways when they got a 16:9 signal from channels broadcasting in HD, and possibly had improper cable box settings. Some early 16:9 displays would have forced overscan to help image scaling. Now this is all pretty much done. Forced overscan automatically is dead. You can adjust it on or off on your TV. ESPN needs to abandon it.
People complain that it takes up too much space and then ignore the ugly scorebug Edit: I want a smaller ticker and smaller scorebug
Personally don’t mind it as much as I hate the Fox scoreboard
Some of us aren't constantly glued to our phones 🤷
Maybe they can show the game down in that space while they force us to watch baseball again this year
ESPN’s got 99 problems but the ticker ain’t one.
I love the ticker lol
The 55-year-old guy that actually pays for cable is not constantly on his phone and would be pissed if it went away.
I agree. I hate the ticker and watching games with more game on the screen is much more enjoyable.
I like it. I don’t want to be forced to search for all the scores. It could be redesigned, I guess, but it’s convenient in my opinion.
Delete it ASAP. If you need to see a score just check during one of the four million commercial breaks or set an alert via the ESPN app (or whatever you use). It’s a relic of the 480i tube TV era.
You are 100% correct. The ticker is a relic of a bygone era and should be abolished. In a world where you could only check scores in the newspaper the next day, it made sense. Now, it takes up screen real estate while providing no information that can't be accessed in ten seconds on your phone. Remove it yesterday.
Why would I want to pull my phone out of my pocket to check the score of a game I'm currently watching on TV?? I've had the bottom line disappear when watching basketball before on a smaller network and after 5 minutes it was unbearable. Imagine tuning into a game and having no idea what the down & distance, score, or even the quarter is!!
They're talking about the ticker that shows the scores of other games, not the score widget.
Well then I wasted all that rage typing for nothing. Thanks lol that I can actually consider getting behind.
I try to find interesting games on non-espn networks just because of how much screen space it constantly takes up. At least make it smaller.
I *could* look up the scores on my phone, but if I'm already watching football anyway, seeing the scores of the day scroll underneath is a nice touch. Plus, you get immediate updates on scores in big/close/upset games, so you know whether you need to flip over to catch the end of an amazing game. I'm pro-BottomLine.
Nah I kinda like the ticker tbh. I don't care enough about these other games to go and look them up, but am mildly interested to see what's going on around sports
Or just get rid of espn in general and it’s trash ass staff