I didn’t watch much of the MLB postseason this year, but when I began to watch game one of the National League Championship Series on Fox a few weeks back, I noticed that instead of starting the broadcast with their regular MLB on Fox theme music, they used their traditional NFL theme music.
Being a buff for all things pertaining to broadcasting presentations, I noticed this immediately. At the time, I thought that maybe that Fox had hired a few younger people to run the production booth and they made a simple mistake. When the same was happening throughout the NLCS and eventually the World Series, I really started to wonder what was up.
After looking further into this, I came across a story from AOL’s FanHouse in which the new president of Fox Sports is opting to use the network’s NFL theme song for all sports broadcasts going forward.
During my search for this, I was relieved to find that I was not the only geek wondering about this.
Traditionally, all networks have had individual theme music for each sport. The idea of adopting a universal theme for all sports is new, and to be honest, I don’t see anything wrong with it. The Fox NFL theme music is pretty bad ass. My only gripe is that their original theme music for the MLB is pretty good as well.
While I hate the idea of them no longer using it during baseball, I have to admit that when I heard the NFL on FOX theme to open the World Series broadcast, it did provide that special feeling that Fox Sports is aiming for in adapting the NFL theme to all sports broadcasts – which is exactly what they were going for.
I do wonder if I’ll feel the same way come Spring during a regular afternoon or evening rank-and-file early season baseball game. I can’t help think that over-exposure of this theme may potentially water down the intended effect.
