It's opening weekend in college hoops and ESPN will launch new college basketball graphics and music today.
I like the graphics, opting for more color and less bright white is a good move, but wonder if some of the info in the bug might be too small like the TBS MLB playoff bug.
For us little guys at the ESPN3 level I'm not a big fan of some of the workflow changes/additions that students will need to figure out, after I do, including "build your own open" for each game, but we'll see.
I hope 25 ACC games this weekend will help shake the bugs out before our first home game next week.
As for the new music, I hate it and more importantly so do the students with the young ears being targeted by this change. The mothership may have missed on this one. I'm eager to hear it with visuals to see if it works better.
As a side note to the start of college basketball, and the economic realities in play, ESPN is planning to hub produce show elements (like graphics and replays) for more games out of Bristol, Charlotte, and Wide World of Sports facility at Disney World. It's nothing new, NBC does plenty of this with Olympics coverage out of Stamford, but it's another way to save some money. They can't fire everyone.