CYNOPSISSPORTS
06.06.16 Good morning. It’s Monday June 6, 2016, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.
After announcing last week that it had locked in 34 patents for its production technology with another 70-plus applications pending, FOX Sports Lab is now leveraging its innovations to evolve coverage of the US Open, set to tee off on June 13 from Oakmont. Included in its production coverage this year will be its Red Light, Green Light tech showcasing graphic overlays that demonstrate topography of the greens, quality of the shots and “green light all the way” play amongst golfers as well as the use of VR, hole mics in all 18 holes, RF rangefinders to be used from the fairways, fly-over video with graphics and more.
Cynopsis Sports spoke with Michael Davies, SVP of Field and Technical Operations and Zac Fields, SVP of Graphic Technology & Integration at FOX Sports to chat about its tech specs, the problems with patents, the US Open and the importance of VR.
Davies on patents: I’ve learned one thing about patents, if you spend $4000, you can really roll those things through very quickly. We’ve been working on the Gopher Cam patent for over eight years, and it was finally just issued a few months ago and of course, it has not only helped us with NASCAR, but also allows us to try things with other sports such as golf. It’s been tweaked a little bit as we’ve evolved. We then spent $4000 expediting the Red Light, Green Light patent, and six months later it was ours.
On the philosophy toward tech: Technology has been in FOX’s DNA since the glowing puck and those types of things when the network was first born. When we looked at it, a few years ago when the FOX Lab concept came out, we realized that we had a lot of technology hanging out there and it made sense to put an umbrella over it. The pipeline isn’t a big organized lab like ESPN used to do, instead it is a lot more nimble and based upon a best of breed of technology partners that we get together with to create these things.
Fields on upgrades at the US Open: We are really focused on building on some of the successful things we had last year. One of the things we really believe is how important the ball tracing is. We equate it to the yellow line marking first downs in football and once viewers have seen that, it is something that they expect. So we are doing a lot of that and adding the functionality of putting yardage markers out there with all those cameras. We’ve really improved that this year. In the fairways, we had two rangefinders last year, but we have created a more nimble version this time around, working with our partners at Protracer, and this time we will have three so we won’t be limited on the number of holes where we can present this perspective.
Davies on lessons learned in VR: We are putting an awful lot of work on VR, and we are excited to bring it back to the US Open. We’ve learned that in order to make live, VR coverage interesting because people aren’t going to be wearing these headsets for long periods of time there are three things we need to deliver. First in quality, it has to look good in broadcast color space, 60 frames per second things like that. The second thing is the importance of short-form and VOD. We are bringing a producer in to handle the virtual reality segments that we are doing. Finally, you need something for the viewer to do. You need interactivity. For the US Open, we’ll be adding some interactivity with options that include allowing viewers to switch from hole to hole, pushing interactive elements out the door, etc.
Hear more from Davies when he joins our VR panel at the
Cynopsis Sports Business Summit on June 22, which features a fantastic lineup that also includes Oculus, NextVR, the PGA TOUR and LiveLike. Time is running out so get your tickets today!
The death of Muhammad Ali saw an outpouring of tributes across the sports media spectrum. His passing prompted tears among many pundits who described his lasting impact on boxing, sports and entertainment.
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The Warriors’ win over the Cavaliers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals marked the most-watched and highest-rated Game 1 ever for ABC, drawing a record 19,197,000 viewers to the network, according to Nielsen. The corresponding 11.1 rating also set a new high, surpassing last year’s previous high of 10.6. In addition to the television audience on ABC, the matchup ranked as the most-watched NBA game ever on WatchESPN with an average minute audience of 347,000, more than double from last year’s Game 1.
Meanwhile, the opening match in the 2016 Copa America Centenario on Friday night saw an average of 1.536 million viewers tune in to FS1 to see the US loss to Colombia. That ranks as the second most-watched men’s soccer match in the network’s history, Those numbers equate a 48% boost over the average for the US group stage matches in last summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup and a 245% rise over the average to date of US Men’s National Team friendlies on FS1.
The Big 12 Conference unanimously voted Friday to bring back its conference championship game beginning in 2017. Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said a championship game could net the league an additional $27-28 million in revenue a year, according to ESPN.
The NHL locked in a deal with Eurosport to deliver games to audience sin Russia via a new three-year deal. The deal launches next season, which will see live games on Eurosport for the first time, as well as broadcasts on their live streaming platform.
USA Soccer saw a judge rule that women’s national team members cannot go on strike over a contract dispute. Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman found that the players, represented by the Women’s National Team Players Association, remained bound by a collective bargaining agreement that includes a no-strike clause and extended via a memorandum of understanding signed by both parties in 2013.
NBA TV offers primetime special – Allen Iverson: The Answer during its 2016 Finals coverage tonight at 8p. During the hour-long special, Steve Smith interviews Iverson about the journey from Hampton, Va., to Georgetown University, his selection as the first overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, regrets about leaving Philadelphia, and his impact on pop culture.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. joins the FOX NASCAR television booth as a guest driver analyst for FS1’s live coverage of the NASCAR Xfinity Series from Michigan International Speedway on Saturday at 1:30p. Earnhardt Jr. joins play-by-play announcer Adam Alexander and analyst Michael Waltrip to offer analysis for the entire race.
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.The NFL locked in a sponsor for its return to Mexico this year, inking a deal with Grupo Financiero Banorte. NFL Mexico and the company unveiled the game logo for the first-ever Monday Night Football game that will be played outside the US on Nov. 21, pitting the Texans/Raiders. "The passion and excitement of NFL fans in Mexico is evident, as we have seen great interest for the NFL’s return to Mexico. Grupo Financiero Banorte is proud to be part of this excitement and to partner with the NFL to offer Banorte clients presale access to tickets for this marquee event at Estadio Azteca," said Jose Antonio Calatayud, CMO of Grupo Financiero Banorte, per NFL.com.
Visa is giving its first payment wearable ring backed by a Visa account to all Team Visa athletes in Rio, which consists of 45 Olympic hopefuls from around the world. The ring is NFC-enabled, allowing Team Visa athletes to make purchases by simply tapping their ring at any NFC-capable payment terminal. “Visa’s first payment ring puts smart payment technology right on the hands of our athletes for convenient and easy payments,” said Jim McCarthy, EVP of Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at Visa Inc.
Learfield acquired SME, a New York City-based agency specializing in building brands. The company will continue to operate under the SME name and brand, and all current employees will remain with the firm. SME recently completed a refresh of the Learfield brand, including a new identity package and logo design.
New Era Cap and Topps are partnering on a very exclusive card that will feature New Era’s nine MLB Ambassadors, including Bryce Harper, Buster Posey, Jacob deGrom, Andrew McCutchen, Josh Donaldson, Dellin Betances, Joc Pederson, Kyle Schwarber and Marcus Stroman. Fans will receive one pack including four limited-edition cards when purchasing any New Era MLB cap. The companies will also be offering swatches of player-worn MLB Authentic Collection 59FIFTY caps in relic cards randomly inserted into the card packs, along with player autograph cards.
Univision Deportes announced a partnership with Lexus to deliver, for the first time ever in the US, in-depth, comprehensive soccer analyses. The sponsorship includes a dedicated Copa America Centenario section on UnivisionDeportes.com which will host Lexus Power Rankings of all teams and players in the tournament and additional content including comprehensive performance and trend analysis by “Zona Tecnica.”
ESL saw double-digit gains across all viewership metrics for the third season of the ESL CS:GO Pro League, ranking as the product’s most successful cycle to date. The tournament series saw a 40% spike globally in season viewership, reaching more than 61 million online sessions with over 1.2 million unique viewers tuning in for the final day of the tournament alone. Throughout the season finals in London, content shared through Facebook drew a total of 5.3 million views while a combined total of over 39 million impressions were recorded on ESL-owned social media.
Twitch named Daigo “The Beast” Umehara as its first-ever Global Brand Ambassador, with Umehara making the announcement on Friday during his live stream. “I want to engage with my fans and the players all over the world,” Daigo said in a statement. “Twitch has long been a supporter of the FGC, and I could not find any better platform to engage with the players at the global level.”
The Capcom Fighters Twitter account unveiled new rules for acceptable sponsor activation, which now prohibits “the display of any products marketed toward adults,” including alcohol, e-cigarettes, and other tobacco products. The company explained that, “We want to provide an inviting atmosphere for players of all ages and want our competitive ruleset to reflect that.”
Penguins/Sharks on NBC at 8p.
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ON THIS DAY in 1946: The NBA is founded.
In The Know: Muhammad Ali won his Olympic gold medal in what city? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)
Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: Which country has the most Copa America championships? Answer: Uruguay. Kudos: Lewis Blaustein-GreenSportsBlogger/NY; David Stern-BARD Entertainment/NY; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station; Judie Henninger-Valentine Productions/Santa Monica; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/Burbank.
Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | Sports @VegasandVine
06.06.16
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