When Heidi Watney was selected as the reporter for Boston Red Sox baseball on the NESN, it marked the culmination of a long and arduous process to make it to the big leagues. Reflecting back on the fortuitous break, Watney believes she was unqualified for the role, but she quickly proved the network made the right choice. As soon as she was hired, Watney was assigned a stack of books about the history of the team to study – and she had just five days to do it leading up to her first road trip.
For Watney, a Fresno native, her new job necessitated she move to the East Coast for the first time in her professional career. She was learning the role on the fly since she had never been a genuine sideline reporter, and displayed a dedication to the craft from the very beginning.
“You become a part of the family and you know everything about them,” Watney said. “It was such a wonderful experience. I got to travel on charter flights and stay in these amazing hotels. [As] someone who was born and raised in California my entire life before taking the job at NESN, the whole country was just eye-opening to me and just so much fun and so fascinating.”
From a young age, Watney gravitated to professional sports, often partaking in athletics as a student. Her father, Mike, was the golf coach at Fresno State, and she often attended tournaments and other school events. The football games in particular were invigorating and heightened Watney’s expectations of how college football matchups at the University of San Diego would feel. Unfortunately, she noticed a more apathetic and less engaged crowd, starkly contrasting with her nascent zeal towards competition.
The observation served as an impetus of discovering the extent of her enamorment with sports. Various friends and acquaintances suggested Watney pursue a career in sports media, leading her to consider the best path to penetrate in the industry.
During her formative years in the industry as an intern and professional, Watney learned how to brush off circumstances rather than taking everything personally, and also faced misogyny. Reflecting back on those occurrences, she recognizes the insecurities and internal discomfort that likely caused people to act out, and is glad to see the normalization of women in sports media.
“You learn how to handle and adapt, and I think that’s sage advice for life – adapt and survive – and just learn how to kind of handle things,” Watney said.
When it came time to collect her undergraduate diploma in communication studies, Watney was in the process of searching for her first television job. As is common practice, she had compiled demo reels of her reporting work and sent them to stations around the United States. She was willing to relocate to realize the best opportunity for her to maximize her potential and make inroads in the trade, inexorable in finding a way to succeed.
The competitive industry and fluctuating job market rendered the job search difficult, and it ultimately presented Watney with two choices. She could either move to Amarillo, Texas and work as a weekend sports anchor with a starting annual salary of $17,500; or return to her home in Fresno and aim to find a means of employment at one of the networks. Watney had met with various executives in Fresno, all of whom told her she lacked the necessary experience to work in the market. In the end, and with no guarantee of finding employment, she opted to remain in California, and her persistence and malleability expeditiously paid dividends.
“One of the news directors called me back about a month later and said, ‘Hey, I know you want sports, but we’re starting a morning show,’” Watney recollected. “‘If you’ll do traffic and occasionally weather… then we’ll hire you to do our show.’ The pay was slightly better – not much – but it was my hometown so I could live with my parents as I was making peanuts and starting out in this business.”
Watney was grateful to KMPH FOX 26 for allowing her to pursue sports stories while working as a morning traffic reporter, and she promptly began to make a name for herself in the market. The morning show allowed her to appear on television unscripted for 10 to 15 minutes daily, enabling her to perfect her craft through improvisation and repetition. By her third year, she was named the station’s weekend sports anchor and eventually was named a weekday sports reporter. Additionally, she hosted radio programming on 1430 ESPN Fresno.
After some time passed, the news director of the station suggested to Watney that she should pursue a career in news because of her delivery, knowledge, writing acumen and ability to read off a teleprompter. Additionally, he said she would go further working in news than in sports, but Watney knew sports was what she was most passionate about, and she was not willing to give up on her dream.
“I said, ‘Yeah, I’m not on TV just because I want to be on TV,’” Watney remembered explaining. “‘I love sports [and] telling sports stories. I love covering the excitement and the action of sports [and] love how sports uplifts people. News is bad – I don’t want to talk about people dying,’ so I appreciated his encouragement but I stuck with sports.”
Leaving her hometown of Fresno, Calif. to take the reporting and hosting job with NESN was a seminal moment in Watney’s career. Doing so placed her on an all-sports network for the first time. She learned about the Red Sox amid their quest to remain a perennial contender after winning two championships in a four-year span after an 86-year winless drought.
“I’m not a player on the team; I’m covering the team,” Watney said. “But I was there every single day of the [2011] season and the [three] previous seasons. I felt the crushing blow when I saw the Rays beat the Yankees and knock the Red Sox out of the postseason, basically.”
One of her most memorable moments while working for a regional sports network came in interviewing Jon Lester on the field following his no-hitter. She vividly remembers the disquiet associated with having her voice amplified in front of thousands of fans.
“I had an interview seminar one time – ‘Is this the best? The most?’ Those ‘-st’ kinds of questions are what’s going to elicit a thoughtful response,” Watney said. “Everyone watches games – I watch games – but I also really watch the broadcasters and I watch the questions they ask and I see what gets good responses.”
The survival of regional sports networks has been an ongoing topic of discussion over the last several years in the sports media business. Diamond Sports Group, owner of the Bally Sports-branded regional sports networks, recently declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Sinclair Broadcast Group executive chairman David Smith met with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and forewarned that the company would begin to selectively reject contracts if the league did not grant it the valuable direct-to-consumer rights. The rights would help enhance Bally Sports’ DTC offering, but it was a proposition the league immediately shot down, leading to a hearing in bankruptcy court.
After contentious and bitter testimony, the bankruptcy judge ruled that Diamond Sports Group must pay the full value of television rights contracts it previously brokered with teams or renounce the media rights. Moreover, the league reaffirmed how it is prepared to take over regional broadcasts for any of the teams affected, demonstrating as such when Diamond Sports Group chose not to make its right payment to the San Diego Padres. The league positioning itself to make use of the reacquired local media rights while paying afflicted franchises at least 75% of the contract value eliminates blackouts and presents queries about the future of local networks broadcasting professional sports teams altogether. After all, many executives within the industry and consumers alike believe the regional sports network model will not withstand the dynamic, modern media landscape, meaning it is incumbent on sports leagues and networks to pioneer a new age of broadcasting.
“I think that MLB can help start streaming some of the regional stuff so that fans can still have the connections to their team broadcasters, but get it all on streaming content and that’s how these networks are going to survive,” Watney said. “If you’re not getting on the streaming bandwagon, you’re going to kind of go by the wayside.”
It is precisely why Major League Baseball struck a deal with Apple in an effort to bring its product to over-the-top streaming platforms. In addition to Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+, the league agreed to allow Peacock to exclusively present Sunday morning games on MLB Sunday Leadoff. Both deals give the league a sum of nearly $1.8 billion in annual revenue, and it is supplemented by national revenue from Warner Bros. Discovery, ESPN and FOX Corporation.
Watney signed on with Apple TV+ before the launch of its weekly Friday Night Baseball doubleheader package last season as one of two sideline reporters. Yet she had been removed from working at a regional sports network for the better part of a decade, let alone serving as a regular reporter. Instead, Watney transitioned to become a studio host with MLB Network in 2013.
One of Watney’s primary roles with MLB Network was working as the host of the nightly baseball highlight show, Quick Pitch, where she took viewers around the league to get caught up on the previous day’s action. The show presented a blend of information and entertainment, having hosts communicate with the audience in front of a graphic, acting in scripted routines and recurring bits.
She had always wanted the chance to cover the league at a broader level, and ensured that she would continue working regardless whether or not the Red Sox qualified for the postseason. Furthermore, it provided Watney with more chances for respite coming from a 24/7 job during the baseball season.
“I feel like MLB Network was doing games at Fenway once a week – if not every couple of weeks,” Watney said. “I loved my time at NESN, but I didn’t have a day off from the start of spring training to the end of the postseason. I used to joke that I never went on a date because I was just working all the time.”
Streaming outlets likely represent the future of sports media, and Watney is thrilled to be a hallmark on the timeline of broadcast progression. Not only is her work exclusive to the subscription-based platform, but it also encapsulates a new identity for broadcast reporters and their level of involvement in a typical broadcast.
“By being a streaming platform, Apple TV is helping MLB move into the future,” Watney said. “Some of the younger people already had Apple TV+, so it’s really not anything [new] for them. I think even for older generations that aren’t used to streaming… MLB needs to be on any and all streaming platforms if they want to reach youth – and not to mention social media channels too.”
The challenge the job has presented, specifically during the 2023 regular season, has been condensing the in-game reports and insights and effectively discovering pockets conducive for her input. Making the necessary adjustments was necessitated by rule changes instituted by the league to hasten pace of play and boost offensive output.
“At any point with the pitch clock and with the increased threat of stolen bases, there’s going to be more action in the game, so we have to be more concise with our stories,” Watney said. “We have to pick our spots where we can work something where we tell a story versus covering the action because our job is to broadcast the game. My role in that is to add some color and flavor into the game.”
Two days before the weekly broadcast, Apple TV+ holds a production meeting about the approach to take in covering the game. A researcher sends the broadcast team the necessary information, which everyone reviews and selects the most important storylines. Once they travel to the ballpark, the team meets with team managers to obtain information either on background or off the record entirely, but helpful to be aware of in guiding the specific coverage.
“We’re not necessarily just talking to the diehards,” Watney said. “We’re hoping to reach a larger audience [and] expanding the game of baseball; growing the game of baseball; moving into the streaming world [and] doing more things that people can consume on their phones.”
Apple TV+ airs its MLB Big Inning whiparound show on weeknights and produces additional forums of baseball content through daily recaps, pregame shows and a weekly compilation of standout moments. There are times during the studio programs when elongated versions of Watney’s interviews are aired, and she has been part of conversations about releasing them as standalone pieces of content within the user interface or on social media channels.
“The saddest part about my week is when they’re like, ‘You only have two minutes for your interview,’” Watney said. “I’m like, ‘Why? But I’m talking to Mike Trout; he’s way more interesting than two minutes.’”
Baby Bambino @JuanSoto25_ adjusting to his new team and thriving with the @Padres! #FridayNightBaseball @AppleTV + pic.twitter.com/Xm8aVFx8ck
— Heidi Watney (@HeidiWatney) May 28, 2023
Baseball is inherently a team sport where the accomplishments of an individual are arbitrary in the grand scheme of things. In the end, it is the collective play of a unit that determines wins and losses, and personal accolades are not often discussed unless they occur in conjunction with a win. Watney is one of two sideline reporters on Apple TV+’s regular broadcast rotation – the other being Tricia Whitaker, who also works on Bally Sports South’s regional broadcast of the Tampa Bay Rays – and it is the duo’s responsibility to supply compelling storylines on the weekly doubleheader slate and she believes celebrating individuality is what her job requires.
“One of the things that has made baseball so flat in the greater scheme of the sports world that thrives on superstars like LeBron James and Tom Brady and Tim Tebow; these big names – people rally around that,” Watney said. “There’s nothing wrong with celebrating Shohei Ohtani or Mike Trout. That doesn’t take away from his team; that actually brings more eyeballs to the Angels to see what’s going on there.”
Watney’s pursuit of a career in sports media was not entirely clear to her until she was encouraged by people she could trust. The internship she held in San Diego gave her unparalleled exposure and an outlet to discover what areas of the industry she was most interested in, and it is an experience she holds in high regard. As the industry continues to condense operations and streamline processes to cultivate an efficient modus operandi, Watney emphasized the importance of pre-professional experience and displaying an earnest avidity for the work itself.
“Sports happen when everyone’s sitting at home eating their Thanksgiving dinner,” Watney said. “Someone’s out there doing those game broadcasts, so be prepared to work, but it’s also the most rewarding career.”
Derek Futterman is a contributing editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on X @derekfutterman.
