Boosted by rising regular-season viewership, each plans a full onsite production
With regular-season ratings up significantly this year, both FOX Sports and TNT Sports enter their MLB Postseason campaigns on a high note. Beginning on Saturday, FOX, whose average viewership across its FOX and FS1 networks rose 9%, will handle the ALDS; TNT Sports, whose audience grew a whopping 29% across TBS and truTV, will take the NLDS.
In hopes of riding that momentum into the regular season, both broadcasters are upping the production ante for their MLB Postseason coverage with additional cameras and full onsite productions for all games.
FOX Sports Starts MLB Postseason on Both Sides of the Border
For FOX, it was an especially eventful regular season that featured an unforgettable HR Swing Off to conclude the MLB All-Star Game in July and a trip to Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway for the MLB Speedway Classic in August.
“We had a stellar regular season,” says Brad Cheney, VP, field operations and engineering, FOX Sports. “All those moments combined made it truly special, and the team is geared up and ready for the postseason.”
On Saturday, FOX starts out in Toronto, where the Blue Jays host the New York Yankees, and Seattle, with the Detroit Tigers visiting the Mariners. A mix of Game Creek Video and NEP Group mobile units will be used for the ALDS: GCV Moonshine in Seattle, GCV Webby in The Bronx, GCV Yogi in Detroit, and NEP ND1 in Toronto.
“All this distance,” notes Cheney, “has made for some interesting scheduling and travel: the Canadian Border crossing was closed to commercial vehicles for over 24 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday.”
With 20 cameras — including four super-slo-mos, an RF handheld, bullpen cams, batting-cage cams, and an UmpCam with Pitchcast AR overlay — viewers won’t miss a second of the ALDS action.
“We couldn’t do it without the team behind the scenes, led by [Director, Field Operations] Francisco Contreras and [Tech Manager] Tom Lynch,” says Cheney. “We’re also thankful to our amazing vendors in supporting us throughout the regular season.”
These vendors include Game Creek Video, Mobile TV Group, NEP, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Camera, CES Power, Sunbelt Power, RF Wireless, and TGI Sports.
Besides Contreras and Lynch, key members of FOX Sports’ MLB crew include Anil Leatherwala, Nick Utley, Nicole Perrin, Judy Lawless, Patricia Fischer, Pam Chvotkin, Sid Drexler, Taihe Miller, Brady Polansky, Lou D’Ermillo, Chad McKelvey, Phil Abrahams, Wilson Tennermann, Michael Carnow, Bill Pinkel, Michael Ng, Erik Guyton, Jennifer Freund, Monika Chislo, Samantha D’Amico, Itzel Rocha, Greg Pfeifer, Rob Rees, Rod Conti, Zac Fields, and Michael Davies.
MLB playoff games on FOX and FS1 will be available to be streamed live on FOXSports.com, the FOX Sports App and FOX One.
TNT Sports Hits the Road After Spending Regular Season at Techwood
After producing its MLB regular-season Tuesday slate primarily from its Techwood facility in Atlanta as part of its Multi-Feed Production (MFP) model, TNT Sports will return to full production teams in onsite trucks for the postseason.
“As is normal for us since we started [remote productions for MLB] ,” says TNT Sports VP, Technology and Operations, Chris Brown, “we sent everyone out to the trucks for the last few weeks of the regular season to bring the team together and give them a chance to get into a rhythm of working in the trucks again. It was a very successful season, and we’ve definitely gotten good at [MFPs]. It has been amazing to see how quickly it has grown, but, at the same time, I know everyone is excited to be back in the trucks together for [MLB Postseason].”
NEP Supershooter 24 and Supershooter 54 will be with TNT through both the NLDS and NLCS; Supershooter 12 and Supershooter 8 are in place for the NLDS only. In addition, TNT Sports is taking its studio show on the road for the NLCS this year, rolling out NEP Supershooter 5 and Denali Silver to handle it.
As for cameras, TNT Sports’ NLDS productions will consist of 17 hard cameras, two handhelds (including one RF), and six to nine robos (depending on the ballpark). The replay room will have 11 EVS XT-VIA servers at their disposal. AR graphics provided by Pixotope will play a major role in the broadcasts (along with virtual ads from Brand Brigade and the MLB Statcast data-driven graphics).
“We’re especially excited about the AR work that our graphics team has done under the leadership of [WBD Director, Production Operations, XR and Virtual] Kendra Russell and with the support of Pixotope,” says Brown. “They’ve done a lot of testing during the regular season that has allowed us to be perfectly positioned to roll this out in the postseason. Without divulging too much before it debuts, I can say it’s going to be a huge content enhancement to the overall production, and it’s going to look amazing.”
For the NLCS, TNT Sports will roll out six additional super-slo-mos as part of its 20-camera complement. UmpCam and BaseCam systems will also factor into TNT Sports’ coverage. On the audio side, the production team is hoping to mike players for interviews during warmups and to capture audio clips during the game.
TNT Sports exclusive coverage of the 2025 NLDS and NLCS will be simulcast on TBS, truTV and HBO Max, with coverage of both best-of-five NLDS series beginning Saturday, Oct. 4.