Michael Gatti

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For my second interaction with a professional I chose Michael Gatti, the supervising producer at Comcast SportsNet. I first came in contact with Mr. Gatti because he was the person who interviewed me when I went to apply for a summer internship at Comcast. Which I recently just found out I got as Mr. Gatti called me yesterday to give me this interview and tell me I got the spot. Mr. Gatti has a lot of responsibility at Comcast, he oversees the work of the producers, assistant producers right on down the line and also helps schedule the staff. He is responsible for making sure the sponsorships run properly and coordinate graphic elements for their shows with the art department. He got into the business by interning at local radio stations and also received an internship at Comcast while in college. He was also involved in the university's television station.
Mr. Gatti used hard work to build his way up the ladder at Comcast, he was hired by Comcast SportsNet as a production assistant a few months after he graduated from college. About a year and a half later he was promoted to associate producer and then eventually moved into the video producer role at CSN. The video producer helps prepare an individual to become a show producer. He eventually became a news and pre/postgame show producer before going into his current role as supervising producer.
What he likes about his job is coming up with ideas and seeing them through and the rush of a breaking news story along with helping Comcast SportsNet becoming the news gathering leading in Philadelphia sports industry. What he said he doesn't like doesn't even count as a dislike about what he does, he just dislikes when Comcast is beaten on a story by competing companies/stations.
As for new technologies in the industry, Mr. Gatti said how consumers want the most up-date information when it happens and the web is the place to get it. Comcast is also looking into getting an app for the iPhone, which I thought was very interesting. The reason for this, according to Mr. Gatti, is a majority of the population use their mobile devices to collect news.
The advice he has for students is to meet as many people in the business as you can, get as much experience as you can and make the most of your opportunities because you never know who your making an impression on. As for how import experience is, he had this to say, "In this field, experience is essential, you need to have a solid background just to be considered for a position in this extremely competitive field."
Something he has said that I have heard from other people in the business is not to get discouraged if you don't succeed right away and you have to be willing to relocate to get started. Overall Mr. Gatti was very personable and I look forward to the experience of working under him and

The Future of Radio/Television-2

For the second blog post for the future of television is the 3-D TV. This technology is absolutely amazing and will make the television companies a ton of money, or so they are hoping. Cablevision will be airing the first live sporting event next Wednesday night for a hockey game on MSG. This is a very interesting move that they chose hockey to start this 3-D programming with because it is not one of the more popular sports to watch on TV. Cablevision is obviously being very cautious and wanting to test it out in smaller markets before going to Disney and ESPN, both of whom are interested in airing programs in 3-D. The catch for the consumers is you have to buy a 3-D television, which I just saw a commercial for one for the first time yesterday. These televisions, as you can imagine, are not cheap and in economic times like these you have to wonder who would want to spend that extra money when a normal HD television looks great. This could revolutionize the industry because normally people think of 3-D as a treat, something you do on vacation or see in a movie theater. This can really help the movies that look better in 3-D if people are willing to buy these special televisions. However, the question that comes to my mind is can you watch normal programming and is the quality of the picture the same as a normal HD television. How complicated is it to switch to 3-d mode? These are questions that will slowly be answered as the television starts being sold and consumers start complaining, because that is what consumers do. This also takes away from watching programs on the computer like we talked about in class, no computers are compatible for 3-D pictures so the programs who makes 3-D shows or movies would really enjoy that part of it. You have to watch it on TV. In my mind the channel that would benefit from this the most would be the channels like Discovery and Animal Planet and things that have to do with nature, that would be a mind-blowing experience to watch in 3-D. I am just interested to see how sporting events will look in 3-D and if people will be able to watch TV with those annoying plastic glasses. Speaking of which some video consoles who are looking into 3-D are trying to find ways to make it 3-D without the glasses. That would be a major feat for the entire industry, lets hope they come up with that because I got laser-eye surgery so I would never have to wear glasses again.

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