ABC To Employ “Instant Replay” in Baseball Telecasts

Apr. 7, 1965 - ABC-TV will make use of the so-called isolated camera for “instant replays” when it begins televising major league baseball Apr. 17. The technique was widely used last year in T.V. coverage of professional football.

ABC said today that its baseball programs also would utilize slow motion and stop-action techniques. In these sequences, tape recordings of crucial plays are played back to permit a more studious view of the action.

Station WPIX, which will televise all home and many road games of the Yankees, said it also would use stop-motion technique for the first time this season.

This will be ABC’s first year in televising baseball under a $5.7 million contract with 18 major league teams — all except the Yankees and Phillies. The network will present games on 25 Saturday afternoons and on July 4 and Labor Day.

Each Saturday, ABC will televise three games to three different regions. The first to be presented in New York over ABC’s Channel 7 will be a game in Fenway Park between the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles. The commentators will be Chris Schenkel and Jackie Robinson.

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