Have you ever seen NFL RedZone? Here’s how they describe it:
Scott Hanson kicks off your Sunday with 7 hours of live football, featuring up to 8 games at once within the octobox. NFL RedZone brings you every touchdown from every game, every Sunday afternoon during the regular season
I watch a football game now and then. I mostly enjoy college football and rooting for the Wisconsin Badgers of my hometown. But I’m not a fantasy football guy. I have zero emotions or money tied up in football. I don’t own a jersey. I barely know any player or coach names.
RedZone is not for me, but I happen to be watching it as I’m on a friends trip up in Seattle to see a Seahawks game that we got tickets from from a charity auction. One fella is extremely into football and additionally fantasy football. That’s the (wildly popular) game in which you draft your own team with players from around the league and your score is based on their performance, more or less. It means that you’re likely interested in many of the games going on at any given time, because it directly affects your score.
How do you keep up with many games at once? Friggin RedZone. It’s perhaps the most information-dense television I’ve ever seen. It’s commercial-break free, and is just constantly switching between different games while information about what is happening is just flying at you.
I found it a bit overwhelming, like my brain couldn’t handle all the relentless details. You don’t know when to go to the bathroom. I’ve heard though, that once you get used to it (and, presumably, care to know all these details) that it’s hard to watch Sunday NFL football without it. I think I can understand that. As a micro example, now that I’m used to listening to podcasts at somewhere in the 1.2 to 1.5× speed range, I find it hard to go back to 1×, as it feels sluggish and my brain wants more to digest quicker.
It makes me wonder what other versions of RedZone could be? That is, very high information density media. Perhaps that’s what a celebrity gossip magazine is. Or a regular web development roundup newsletter.
I have a friend who is really into fantasy baseball. Like he buys this big prospects book as soon as it comes out and reads every page to get insights into players. He needed someone else to join a league after someone dropped out so I said “sure I’ll try it” Fantasy baseball is like a second career. There are games every few days and you gotta rotate players because pitchers don’t play every game. I thought it was like March Madness where you pick a bracket and then hope for the best. I gave up quickly.
But to pick my team I just picked all the players that have accents in their name and my friend said that’s actually not a bad strategy.