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Costa Mesa, CA (Nov 10, 2008) - He can cannot try to hide it. CNN's John King is an ubergeek. His cool, efficient use of touch screen technology during the presidential election was unmatched. Where others on CNN and competing networks struggled trying to make it work, King made it look simple. With the election over, what does he do with this highly technical skill?

The answer is quite simple, as both CNN and NBA TV fall under the Turner media umbrella. Tomorrow night, King will appear on the NBA TV studio show to help host Ahmad Rashad master the skills needed to make the technology work for NBA coverage.


But as we saw last week, more technology does not necessarilly make broadcasts better. NBC Sports has added so much whiz-bang technology to Sunday Night Football broadcasts, one has to wonder of it really adds any production value. Does it really draw new fans or does it turn exisiting fans off. Do broadcasters use technology because it is useful or because they can?

"We are not doing it just for the sake of doing it," said Turner spokesperson Tara August in a phone interview today. "We are doing it to help viewers get a better sense of location when we show information or bring in live reports related to a specific game location. John King is going to come on the show and show Ahmad how to do it well."

The technology will allow a Craig Sager report to be pulled up with the touch screen, branded TouchPass by NBA TV.


It will be interesting to see how this turns out for Turner and NBA TV. Let's just hope they don't try to bring Sager on the show as a hologram. If they do, we will know they have jumped the shark.

Photographs extracted from NBA TV promotional video. Used with permission.