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October 21

Super Bowl and American television

How did the Super Bowl come to be such a huge phenomenon? It's repeatedly been the most viewed thing on American television year after year, with businesses paying extreme amounts to get ad spots during the event. When did this trend begin, and why? Lizardcreator (talk) 04:18, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Even before the name "Super Bowl" was adopted, it was very popular. The main reason is that American football was developed to appeal to television networks. Overall, the game hasn't changed significantly. Minor changes are made to appeal to television broadcasts such as having one team wear white and another team wear a color. Then, even on old tiny, grainy, black and white televisions, you could see the players on the field. The field is dark green with bright white stripes so you can see them. The ball is large enough to be seen. There are reserved camera locations all around the field that has increased to include cameras that fly over the field and cameras in the pylons. Much of that is to make the viewing experience better. Some of it is based on psychological testing. They could show the width of the field on the screen and you could see the pass from throw to catch. They don't. They zoom in on the quarterback. He throws the pass. You can't see where it is going. Oh my! What will happen!?!? It pans and you see the receiver. That moment of panning makes it more exciting to the viewer. Beyond the viewership, the NFL has customized the game to please television stations. There are plenty of commercial breaks. If you see a game in person, you will see that it stops often while it waits for the broadcast to come back from commercials. In the end, viewers are excited to see the games and television stations are eager to broadcast the games. Since Super Bowl I (which was not called a Super Bowl), it was an extremely popular televised event. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 18:44, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It wasn't all that popular at first. The first two years were simply the AFL-NFL championship, in which the Packers owned their AFL opponents, and there were lots of empty seats in the stadiums. After the merger, the event became a lot more hyped-up. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:10, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I believe that the question and answer are related to television popularity, not stadium popularity. According to various lists of viewership ratings, about 50 million people watched the first Super Bowl. That was 1967. According to various lists of television ownership, about 75 million people in the United States watched a television in 1967. So, as far as television popularity goes, it was very popular. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 12:21, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It's the championship game of the professional level of the most popular sport in the country. I don't see why any further explanation would be needed. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 12:58, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It probably wasn't the most popular at the time the Superbowl started. That would most likely have been baseball. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:59, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, but football wasn't far behind. And the real world drama of the AFL/NFL rivalry would have been a large factor. Combined with the more limited viewing options of the day, this gave a huge initial push. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 10:56, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

We have many books about baseball and football. A common thread across them is that television changed interest in the sports. Baseball is perfect for radio. Football is perfect for television. As television took over radio as the dominant form of entertainment, football exceeded baseball in popularity. I remember one book on television and sports tha tnoted the problem hockey has is that it is poor for both radio and television. Attempts to slow it down for radio or make it visible for television have not worked, so it remains a less popular sport. I feel that is only partially accurate, but I do agree that between baseball and football, the popularity of football coincided with the popularity of television. Of course, it only makes sense if you rememebr that in the 1960s and even the 1970s, high definition television did not exist and a 25 inch screen was considered more than big enough. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 11:22, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Name of a special effect

Now that image processing is so often digital, there is a special effect that I often see in TV commercials and occasionally in instant replays in sports. The effect takes a part of the image representing either an object or person, or some onscreen text, and emphasizes it by briefly making it larger. Rather than selecting a whole rectangle from the image and enlarging everything inside it, the effect I'm talking about modifies only the selected object or characters, leaving the background unchanged.

What I'm curious about is the name of this effect. --142.112.141.16 (talk) 07:20, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It took a lot of effort to get anything useful. All I can do is put on a path. There are two effects going on. The first is masking. In a video or image, you can mask an object, such as a person. Masking means that the outline of the object and the image inside that outline are selected. In a still image, it is just a sort of free-form selection. In a video, it is a selection that changes frame to frame. Once masked, you have after effects. The after effects are alterations to a completed video. This would be an after effect because you have the completed video and you are making a change to it. The change would be to enlarge the masked object. As for a name for the total effect of masking and enlarging, I found nothing because every search wants to take me to the history of replays, how replays affect games, how to enlarge images in photoshop, how to add special effects to photoshop, etc... 68.187.174.155 (talk) 18:32, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Using this search I find tutorials for resizing an object in a video but no special name for the effect. --Lambiam 08:10, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I would call it one kind of a punch out - though I think it's difficult to have such technical names defined in video because the only specific effects that count for free are fading out/in as well as phasing out. --Askedonty (talk) 20:06, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"Punch-out" sounds like the sort of name I was expecting. Thanks. --142.112.141.16 (talk) 07:35, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]