Sept. 2, 2010 | (7) Comments

High definition nation has acted and Fox Sports has joined their team.

Fox this season is aiming to present all of its National Football League game telecasts in the 16-by-9 screen aspect ratio for high definition format, instead of the 4-by-3 ratio for standard definition format, which has been the norm.

Those viewers with the widescreen HD will be able to see more of the field, especially horizontally, hence getting a better look at a developing play. Those viewers who don't have HD will get the wide look, but in compressed letterbox form - black strips along the top and bottom on the screens.

Fox has presented its three preseason NFL telecasts in wide format and has let viewers know what is in store for them with the HD format. Fox Sports has been using the wide format for its weekly Saturday baseball games for the past eight weeks.

"The majority of our ratings, 60-plus percent, will come from HD viewership," said Eric Shanks , the president and executive producer of Fox Sports. "It's time to actually to start producing for the majority, which has invested in HDTV. Up until now, we have still been producing for old television sets. People with HD haven't gotten the full effect of us producing in a full 16-by-9. So we decided to make the switch."

According to the research director for WITI-TV (Channel 6), the Fox affiliate in Milwaukee, Eric Steele , about 55% of television households in the Milwaukee market have HD sets, according to The Nielsen Company.

For an HD viewer of a football game, the expanded horizontal view (and slightly expanded vertical) allows you to see more of the field and more players at pre-snap than you could see in standard def format.

"The play-by-play framing now really definitely sets you up for being prepared for what's going to happen in the play," Shanks said. "With this 16-by-9 framing, you are able to keep receivers top and bottom of the screen, see the fullback on the left side of screen. And for the most part, get all of the secondary. If you don't get all of the secondary, you definitely are getting the second level of the defense. You just haven't been able to see that before."

Fans of the Green Bay Packers will see the difference on Sept. 12 when the Packers play at Philadelphia at 3:15 p.m. on Fox, a game most of the country will get.

According to Shanks, some cable companies on the standard def side don't have their equipment set correctly to provide the wide format in letterbox. In those cases, the viewer gets a chopped frame where, for example, all of the score box cannot be seen.

"We are still coordinating with the NFL exactly how it is to be presented starting Week 1, how much we are to protect for 4-by-3 in case the cable companies don't actually get their stuff ready for Week 1," Shanks said.

The vice chairman and executive producer of Fox Sports, Ed Goren , said the decision by the network to convert all of its NFL telecasts to the wide format was not made in haste.

"It's not as if we just started this discussion a month ago," Goren said. "This discussion took place literally two years ago easily. We just didn't feel at that point it was the right time (to convert). The numbers were flipped. The numbers weren't right. There were 60% non-HD a couple of years ago and 40% HD. But every year that number is moving toward HD, and dramatically so. So this is the future and the future is now."

Dibble dabble

The Washington Nationals decided to fire Rob Dibble, the analyst for Nationals telecasts on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, for remarks he made about Nationals rookie pitcher Stephen Strasburg .

Dibble had a year left on the three-year deal, but the club and MASN decided to dump the former pitcher because of remarks he made on his satellite radio show following a Nationals game on Aug. 21.

Dibble criticized the toughness of Strasburg, who complained of pain in his right elbow during a game against Philadelphia. The pitcher subsequently was diagnosed with a torn ligament in his elbow that will require surgery and sideline him up to 18 months.

Dibble said Thursday on his Sirius XM Radio show that "I now realize that my comments were inappropriate and disrespectful."

Late night on Versus

Joe Beninati will handle the play-by-play of the Wisconsin at Nevada-Las Vegas college football game Saturday night on Versus. Former Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch and former Colorado State and NFL quarterback Kelly Stouffer will be the game analysts. Lindsay Soto will be the sideline reporter.

Call (414) 223-5531 or send e-mail to bwolfley@journalsentinel.com