Eighty Years Ago, NBC Produced the Very First Live NFL Telecast With just two cameras and a crew of eight, NBC made sports-television history By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Tuesday, October 22, 2019 - 10:37 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Even the most dominant property in sports (and, one could argue, all of entertainment) media had its humble beginnings. Eighty years ago - on Oct. 22, 1939 - the very first NFL game was televised. NBC produced the show, a regular-season showdown between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Brooklyn Dodgers from Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.
On Oct. 22, 1939, NBC produced the very first live NFL telecast. It featured only two cameras.
The onsite crew was made up of just seven people, and the entire production was done with two iconoscope cameras: one positioned in the box seats on the 40-yard line, the other in the stadium's mezzanine section. There were no replay, graphics, or monitors for the crew and announcer Allen Skip Waltz, who called the game.
One of the biggest challenges facing the production that day (and in much of the early days of televised sports events) was daylight. That day in Brooklyn was a cloudy day, and the stadium, naturally, did not have any fixed lighting. In fact, when the sun descended below the stands of Ebbets Field, the telecast was forced to become a radio broadcast as the image on the screen became virtually impossible to see.
80 years of history!
Eight decades ago this Tuesday, NBC became the first to televise a pro football game.
It just so happens that the @Eagles were on that day, too. pic.twitter.com/W9pSR0hxZb
SNF on NBC (@SNFonNBC) October 20, 2019
There was no truck or even a producer or director of the game. In Waltz's account of the story, he basically served as both announcer and director for the show. I'd sit with my chin on the rail in the mezzanine, and the camera was over my shoulder, he told the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I did my own spotting, and, when the play moved up and down the field, on punts or kickoffs, I'd point to tell the cameraman what I'd be talking about.
According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, only about 500 people in New York City fortunate enough to own a television set were able to see the show on NBC's experimental station W2XBS. It is estimated that ]only 1,000 people watched that game on a TV.
Eighty Years Ago, NBC Produced the Very First Live NFL Telecast
22/10/2019
| LINK: | https://www.sportsvideo.org/2019/10/22/eighty-years-ago-nbc-produced-t... |
| See more stories from svg |
North America Stories
27/05/2020
Nielsen's Earth Week 2020: Staying Connected Through COVID-19
Nielsen associates came together globally to celebrate our planet for Earth Week once again this year to honor Earth Day. We dedicate a whole week to focus on g...
27/05/2020
Testimony of Curtis LeGeyt at Senate IP Subcommittee Briefing on Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Testimony of Curtis LeGeyt at Senate IP Subcommittee Briefing on Digital Millenn...
27/05/2020
Cisco Designed portfolio expands to focus on empowering small businesses for the New Normal
Technology to help businesses work from home securely and new hybrid work enviro...
27/05/2020
Government of Brazil and Cisco announce partnership to accelerate digitization
BRASILIA, Brazil May 27, 2020 Today, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Brazil's Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations, and Communications (MCTIC) signed a Me...
27/05/2020
El Financiero/Bloomberg TV uses TVU Anywhere for Remote Production during Covid-19
El Financiero/Bloomberg TV uses TVU Anywhere for Remote Production during Covid-...
27/05/2020
Create Great Live Video from Home with Broadcast Pix
Tyngsboro, Mass. - May 27, 2020 -- The ability to create remote live productions has become more important than ever as we all adjust to the new normal of worki...
27/05/2020
KitchenFish Counts on FOR-A Video Switcher for Reliable Coverage of Daily Lottery Broadcast
KitchenFish Counts on FOR-A Video Switcher for Reliable Coverage of Daily Lotter...
27/05/2020
B+C Awards 2020 Now Accepting Nominations
NEW YORK-Broadcasting Cable, a sister publication of TV Technology, is now accepting nominations for the B C 2020 Awards, the publication's annual honors fo...
27/05/2020
NextGen TV Marks Vegas Debut
LAS VEGAS-NextGen TV took a major step forward with the launch of ATSC 3.0 over-the-air commercial television service in Las Vegas from network affiliates owned...
27/05/2020
FCC, CISA Issue Guidelines for State Communication Networks
WASHINGTON-The FCC and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) sent a joint letter to governors that stressed the importance of providing th...
27/05/2020
Remote Collaboration Is Here to Stay
Brought on suddenly by the coronavirus pandemic, the new normal of remote workflows has been getting a lot of press lately-but the truth is that media enterpris...
27/05/2020
Hearst TV Promotes Greg Turner to Eastern Region Director of Engineering
NEW YORK-Hearst Television has promoted long-time engineering executive Greg Turner to eastern region director of engineering. Turner, who has been an engineeri...
27/05/2020
Dish, DirecTV Among Hardest Hit in Q1 Pay-TV Decline
LONDON-Despite reports that traditional TV viewership has increased during the coronavirus pandemic, the pay-TV market is still declining throughout most of the...
27/05/2020
Looking Glass Factory Ships 8K Holographic Display
BROOKLYN, NY - For enterprises that have been waiting decades for a large-format holographic solution that doesn't require the friction of VR or AR headsets...
27/05/2020
Optim 1.2 Adds Real-time, Interactive VR Collaboration to Unreal Engine
CHICO, CA - Visualization firm and software maker Theia Interactive has launched Optim 1.2, adding a host of new tools to Epic Games' Unreal Engine, includi...
27/05/2020
CG Creates a New Tone of Red
Raymond Red Reddington, along with other Blacklist cast, are turned into comic-book/graphic novel styled animated characters to finish the popular TV series sea...
27/05/2020
May 27, 2020
Ardem Patapoutian of Scripps Research honored with 2020 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience Patapoutian is recognized for his transformative discovery of proteins that ...
27/05/2020
DFL To Provide Real-Time Match Analysis Using Amazon Web Services
DFL to provide real-time match analysis using Amazon Web Services By Will Strauss, Editor Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - 10:34 Print This Story The technology pa...
27/05/2020
Sports TV Awards Showcase: Outstanding OTT Experience Award
Sports TV Awards Showcase: Outstanding OTT Experience award By Will Strauss, Editor Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - 09:42 Print This Story As Wednesday's Spor...
27/05/2020
SVG Europe Sports TV Awards 2020 Ceremony Set for May 27
SVG Europe Sports TV Awards 2020 ceremony set for 27 May Winners to be announced during as live' ceremony on YouTube this Wednesday By Will Strauss, Edito...
27/05/2020
Sky Deutschland Works With RCS for Enhanced Bundesliga Offering
Sky Deutschland works with RCS for enhanced Bundesliga offering By Fergal Ringrose, Editorial Director, Europe Thursday, May 21, 2020 - 16:53 Print This St...
27/05/2020
Bundesliga Restart: How Host Broadcaster Sportcast Captured the Live Action on Matchday 26
Bundesliga re-start: How host broadcaster Sportcast captured the live action on ...
27/05/2020
Legends Behind the Lens: Julius Barnathan
Legends Behind the Lens: Julius Barnathan The original behind-the-scenes revolutionary laid the foundation for Olympics and Election coverage at ABC By Brandon...
27/05/2020
EVS Takes Replay Ops to New Level with LSM-VIA; Opens Door to New Workflows
EVS Takes Replay Ops to New Level with LSM-VIA; Opens Door to New Workflows By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - 12:31 pm Print ...
27/05/2020
HBS Broadcast Academy Video Offers Insights, Tips for Directing in the Age of Coronavirus
HBS Broadcast Academy Video Offers Insights, Tips for Directing in the Age of Co...
27/05/2020
Grass Valley Technology Alliance Builds on Collaboration and Adds New Members
Grass Valley Technology Alliance Builds on Collaboration and Adds New Members MONTREAL, May 26, 2020 Grass Valley continues to support collaboration across ...
27/05/2020
Station Overcomes Record Flooding to Return to Chicago Airwaves
CHICAGO-Engineers and work crews for one Chicago-area TV station worked feverishly this week to restore operations after losing power due to a flood last weeken...
27/05/2020
AIMS Partners With VSF on Media Over IP Webcasts
BOTHELL, Wash.-The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) is partnering with the Video Services Forum (VSF) to offer the Summer Sessions - Media Over IP Educati...
27/05/2020
Intercoms Ready for the New Normal'
SEATTLE-Intercom makers design all sorts of technology to let them stretch their newscast communication systems to all sorts of far flung liveshot locations, bu...
27/05/2020
Grass Valley Technology Alliance Adds New Members
MONTREAL-Grass Valley's certification program, the Grass Valley Technology Alliance, has added five new member companies to its ranks: EcoDigital, Haivision...
27/05/2020
AT&T Reaches Post-STELAR Deal With Fox
DALLAS-AT&T has announced a new multi-year carriage agreement with Fox that will continue to provide the network's content to DirecTV subscribers after the ...
27/05/2020
WSA Touts White Space Applications Around the World
CHELMSFORD, Mass.-The White Space Alliance, a group advocating for the use of TV band white spaces for wireless applications, has said new use cases for the dev...
27/05/2020
Progress Appoints Jeremy Segal to the Role of Senior Vice President, Corporate Development
PDF Version <...
27/05/2020
Progress Announces Winners of the 2020 Sitefinity Website of the Year Awards
PDF Version <...
27/05/2020
Nielsen Wins Best TV Advertising Technology at 2020 AdExchanger Awards
Nielsen's Addressable TV Advertising Solution was recently selected as the winner of the Best TV Advertising Technology category at the 2020 AdExchanger Awa...
26/05/2020
Berklee and Women in Music Win Innovation Award for 2019 Report
Berklee and Women in Music (WIM) received an award for their report, Women in the U.S. Music Industry: Obstacles and Opportunities, at SIM S o Paulo in Brazi...
26/05/2020
Netflix announces Summertime season 2
announces the second season of SUMMERTIME the original Italian Netflix series produced by Cattleya After the success of the first season, Netflix confirms t...
26/05/2020
Cortex v5.3 New Features
Cortex v5.3 New Release Coming June 1 New features include One-To-Many Rendering Loudness Meter Dolby Atmos Dead Pixel Detection - Region of Interest ...
26/05/2020
Scripps Employees Impacted by Pandemic to Receive an Extra $2,000
CINCINNATI-The E.W. Scripps Company says it will give $1.6 million from the Scripps Family Impact Fund to employees impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and to ...
24/05/2020
AICP Unveils COVID-19 Workplace Guidelines and Considerations
AICP Unveils COVID-19 Workplace Guidelines and Considerations New York, NY May 4, 2020 Matt Miller, President and CEO of AICP, has announced that the produ...
24/05/2020
AICP Announces Updates to its COVID-19 Workplace Guidelines and Considerations
AICP Announces Updates to its COVID-19 Workplace Guidelines and Considerations NEW YORK - May 21, 2020 - Matt Miller, President and CEO of AICP, announced toda...
23/05/2020
BIA Lowers Local TV Ad Revenue Projection to $18.5B
CHANTILLY, Va.-The advertising revenue forecast for local TV stations does not look as sunny as it did at the start of 2020 from BIA's point of view, but ev...
23/05/2020
Ampere: Streaming Sole Growth Area Amid COVID-19's Wake
LONDON-Streaming services are the only entertainment sector likely to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic unscathed and bigger than before, according to a new ...
23/05/2020
RTW Issues Global Loudness Delivery Guide
COLOGNE, Germany-As new digital platforms have emerged in recent years in the broadcast industry-like Netflix, Apple, Amazon and others-RTW has updated its stan...
23/05/2020
Nielsen: Weekend Ratings Show Hunger for Live Sports
NEW YORK-For the past two months, professional sports worldwide have been shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, as some professional sports league...
23/05/2020
Bringing Editing Workflow into the Cloud
LONDON-Remote access to all video files to all the relevant (and authorized) personnel is a good thing. But do those benefits extend to editing in the cloud? ...
23/05/2020
Do absolutely anything with Apantac Gear for the openGear platform
Do absolutely anything with Apantac Gear for the openGear platformApantacs openGear Webinar - Do Absolutely Anything with Apantac Gear About ApantacApantac LLC...
23/05/2020
SNS 2020 Product Announcements
data-src=/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/18_The_Future_of_EVO___SNS_2020_Product_Announcements.jpg alt= width=960 height=540......
22/05/2020
THE FIRST DUTCH NETFLIX FEATURE FILM IN THE MAKING
THE FIRST DUTCH NETFLIX FEATURE FILM IN THE MAKING Directed by Shady El-Hamus Amsterdam, May 22, 2020 - Today Netflix and production company Fiction Valley a...
