Highlight Reels & Sports Broadcasting

A lot of game highlights are shown during sports broadcasts. Many people watch sports shows on television because of the highlights. A team of people behind the scenes is responsible for creating and putting the highlights on television. It can be a very high paced operation to create and get a highlight on the air in time.

Sports highlights are created by a team of people. Editors are responsible copying the video of each highlight with special computer software programs. They sometimes add special effects like music to make the highlights more appealing. Each highlight will be cropped to a certain amount of time.

Producers will write a script about what the highlight is showing. They write what the anchors will say on the television broadcast to the audience. Producers usually write many highlight scripts for each show. They rely on their editor to crop the highlight in time so they can see what they need to write about. The video and script are saved in the shows rundown when each are finished.

Directors put the highlights on television with a piece of equipment called a switcher. The switcher is a large board with dozens of buttons. They put each highlight on television in the order they where placed in the rundown. Each highlight will also probably have its own graphic at the end to display some type of statistical information like the game score.

The anchors read the scripts on a teleprompter that is mounted to the studio cameras. They're also able to watch the highlight on television to make sure they're not reading too fast. Usually the anchors have time to see the highlight before the show so they can prepare for what they're talking about.