my idea for the SAP button

[matadorpoeta]

for those who don't know, most modern televisions have a secondary audio channel known as SAP. i believe it stands for 'secondary audio programming'. you may have a button on your remote labeled as SAP or you may have to go into the menu to access it, but if your television was made in the last ten years it's in there somewhere.

very few programs take advantage of the SAP button. for the most part, it is only used for translations. for example, where i ilve, i can watch 'the simpsons' in english, or by hitting the SAP button, watch it in spanish. same goes for the local news on the english stations. hit the SAP button and the same broadcast is suddenly in spanish. i have not seen the SAP button used for any other purpose, so here is my idea:

when watching sporting events (especially soccer), i often turn down the volume because i find the commentators annoying. i'm watching the same thing they are, so i don't need to hear them telling me who's doing what. i would much rather hear the crowd chanting , the players yelling, etc...

so i propose that the SAP feature be used to broadcast the ambient sound of sports events. it would not cost the networks any money, many people like myself would enjoy it, and it would not effect the commercials.

 

[dusty]

It would cost them money because the commentators read advertisements during their commentary. Plus maybe it would be an implicit assertion that they are not even considering translating the program into Spanish (or descriptive programming for the blind, but that doesn't apply to sporting events). I thought that was the whole reason SAP was put into use.

 

[matadorpoeta]

i'm surprised that with all the sports fans here more people haven't chimed in on this. oh well... if it ever comes to fruition, you heard it here first.

 

[DMcG]

It would be nice, but I doubt it will ever happen. Mostly for the same reason that you rarely hear announcers that will just give the play-by-play or analysis without trying to draw attention to themselves. I think I read something else recently about the desire to have broadcasts with just the crowd noise so I'm not sure if you can take full credit for this.

And in college my friends and I would sometimes turn to the SAP channel during sporting events because the spanish language announcers were much less annoying than the american announcers. I think this primarily happened during Fox post-season baseball coverage.

 

[Bona Drag]

I thought I remembered reading somewhere that NBC, or somebody, actually tried this on NFL broadcasts like 20 years ago, and everybody hated it. Apparently, it's sort of creepy and disorienting, which makes sense. But I do know what you mean; ESPN's World Cup commentary, to name one example, was so dreadful that I boycotted them and watched on Univision (or Telemundo, or both - I can't remember). I am miles away from proficiency in Spanish, but it was still 100 times better.

 

[matadorpoeta]

Originally Posted by DMcG

I think I read something else recently about the desire to have broadcasts with just the crowd noise so I'm not sure if you can take full credit for this.
d'oh! was the idea to use the SAP channel?

Originally Posted by Bona Drag

I thought I remembered reading somewhere that NBC, or somebody, actually tried this on NFL broadcasts like 20 years ago, and everybody hated it.
i don't think the SAP channel was around 20 years ago. even if most people don't like it, it would be a good service to the 2 or 3 percent of us that would like it, and it wouldn't cost the networks any money.

if you don't like it, don't press the SAP button, right?