Broadcasting Monday Night Football to Chinese Audience
To most of Chinese I know, American football is difficult and distant. At Shanghai Scrap, Adam Minter interviews Zhang Nan, Monday Night Football’s play-by-play man in China, who tries his best to engage more Chinese into the sport.
Sure, the NFL has a small audience in China (roughly 20,000 viewers watch the weekly simulcast), but Zhang – as the play-by-play man – has a key role in helping the NFL expand it. And in doing so, it’s partly his responsibility to figure out a way to translate this most American of sports to a Chinese audience that has almost no knowledge or experience with it. The challenge is technical, cultural, and linguistic, and on Wednesday afternoon I spoke to Zhang (to the right of his broadcast partner, Guo Aibing, in the photo below) about how he handles the responsibilities.
For a million reasons, I do not see American football catching on in China. Basketball, yes, that has happened. Baseball, possible. Golf, yes. Football, very very unlikely.
Indeed, looks like it could take years for an average Chinese basketball or soccer fan to even want to learn the rules of football. But let’s be optimistic.