Peacock is Introducing Enhancements to it Broadcasts That Will Allow You to Adjust the Audio, Including Muting the Announcers

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A few years back my brother Jack (God rest his soul) somehow got his hands on a DVD copy of the Patriots on Monday Night Football back in 1976. The quality of the recording was about what you'd expect. Pixelated. Grainy. It was hard to make out the uniform numbers. But it was still a fascinating look at NFL game presentation back in the day. 

And for me, the major takeaway from watching it was that there haven't really been all that many improvements in how games are broadcast. Lots of changes, to be sure. But few actual improvements. We get a ton more information thrown at us now that we didn't before. But it occurred to me most of it is white noise and adds very little to the experience. 

In fact, I narrowed the list of actual improvements to this:

1. The score and the game clock on the screen at all times.

2. The yellow line marking the 1st down.

3. Hi def. Obviously. The 16:9 aspect ratio as opposed to the old analog 4:3 was a total game changer. 

I'll give honorable mention to the scores of other games in progress on the crawl at the bottom of the screen. But even that, I only need once in a while. The rest of the whistles and bells that they add every season, I can live without. I'd prefer they scrap all the analytics and throwing it to the sideline reporter and just bring back the time-honored tradition of gratuitous cutaway shots of cheerleaders. That's the America I grew up in, and by golly, it was good enough for us.

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And yet, Peacock just announced a great leap forward that is so impressive, so called for, it's almost the answer to the prayers of generations of Americans who have squandered their lives watching sportsball on television:

Sports Business Journal - Peacock is the first sports streamer to integrate new Dolby products to enhance the sights and sounds of the games as the NBCUniversal property broadcasts NBA, MLB, NFL Sunday Night Football and the FIFA men’s World Cup in 2026 and beyond. 

The announcement, made this evening at CES in Las Vegas, means Peacock will use Dolby’s Vision and Atmos products, with the intention of upgrading to Vision 2 and AC-4 when they launch later this year. Fans are expected to experience more vivid and balanced colors, immersive sound and clearer dialogue, even when there’s loud background or ambient noise. …

[David Bohunek, NBCUniversal SVP of Global Video Engineering]  shared a story from Peacock’s first exclusive NFL game when, at halftime, executives from NBCUniversal and the league both called to share thoughts on the audio — one wanted the commentary a bit louder, the other wanted the crowd noise to be turned up for the sense of emotion. 

“With AC-4 and the personalization of the audio, we can let the customers do what they prefer with a very simple control in our own UI,” Bohunek said, “and maybe let them turn off commentary completely if that’s what they want.”

Emphasis mine. 

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I never thought I'd live to see this day. It's profoundly beautiful. What a magical time to be alive. Humankind using science, reason, and engineering to make our existence on this planet better for all living things. 

Not since Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to mortals has the human race been so transformed. Imagine it. The power to increase the crowd noise if you want and not only lower the commentary, but actually mute the inane drivel altogether.

With respect to all the other sports listed, there's no a man, woman or child hearing this news who didn't immediately think of Sunday Night Football and Cris Collinsworth. And a world where you get to watch the crystal clear picture and hear the immersive audio of SNF on streaming, without his tedious yip yap.

Here's a guy …

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Gone. All gone.  Paradise on Earth is within our grasp, with just the click of a button. Thank you to all the tech geniuses who have finally come up with a way to not only make football viewing better, but may have just perfected it.