BleedGopher
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Interesting read, per Slater:
It said this season’s edition of its EA Sports Madden NFL Cast, a collaboration with NBC’s streaming platform Peacock and data firm Genius Sports, is moving to primetime on Thanksgiving, when the Baltimore Ravens host the Cincinnati Bengals. It also said the main coverage angle will come from a “hi-sky camera located behind the quarterback, the view most familiar to Madden gamers, rather than television’s traditional sideline camera location”.
This live stream will have its own commentary team, a combo of former players and broadcast veterans, while a former NFL quarterback will use graphic overlays to discuss and predict play options. So, while most of the family will be semi-comatose on the sofa, trying to digest half a turkey, the gamers will be watching and playing the game at the same time.
Some of them will have already tried this quite recently, as five MLS games from the current season have been simulcast through EA Sports FC’s “in-game TV portal”.
The fact that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — the ATM that has been subsidising boxing, football, golf, motorsport and tennis for the past few years — has just teamed up with private equity firm Silver Lake and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to buy EA for $55billion suggests they think there are a few people who like the idea of single platform to play video games and watch live sport.
It feels like people have been saying that virtual-reality headsets will be this year’s must-have Christmas present for 30 years. Santa has not delivered one yet.
“You’re probably in the wrong country,” says Hutton. “One in 10 households in the U.S. have a headset and they are very popular with gamers.”
Some of these headsets are made by Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and you can use them to watch NBA games from a virtual “courtside” seat.
Hutton admits this is still a niche market, but there is real growth in smart glasses and AR (augmented reality) specs, as “they give you added info without having to look at a second screen”.
“We don’t believe there will be any major platform shifts in the next decade that see mass adoption,” says Balch. “Even optimistic predictions on how VR and AR are being used in 10 years shouldn’t see a displacement of the continued growth of mobile and TV consumption.”
Like the other experts consulted here, Balch thinks the real innovation “will be in personalisation of broadcast feeds to more closely align with what audiences get on social media and better production of vertical video” (video shot in portrait mode, i.e., the way kids do it because that’s how TikTok, Insta Reels and YouTube Shorts want it).
But Balch also believes in something that cheers me up no end.
“We’re confident that live sports consumption will retain its value and position in the next decade,” he says. “Gen Z spends more time consuming sport than older groups, but much less watching TV or streaming. This will recalibrate, though. Data from the last decade and beyond has shown that younger audiences do grow into live consumption habits.”
Even Stagg, who predicts the spread of the IMAX-style venues, with table service, that have started to pop up in the U.S, thinks there is mileage in the old ways.
“Watching live sport is still a communal experience and, if you can’t be in the stadium, the next best place is with friends or family,” he says. “I suspect in 20 years’ time, when nobody is watching linear TV, the last thing we will all watch together on a flat screen, live, will be sport in the pub.”
www.nytimes.com
Go Gophers!!
It will look like gaming
Electronic Arts, the company behind some of the most popular video games of the last 40 years, announced something during the NBC broadcast of the recent Detroit Lions-Philadelphia Eagles slugfest that would have gone over the heads of half of the TV audience.It said this season’s edition of its EA Sports Madden NFL Cast, a collaboration with NBC’s streaming platform Peacock and data firm Genius Sports, is moving to primetime on Thanksgiving, when the Baltimore Ravens host the Cincinnati Bengals. It also said the main coverage angle will come from a “hi-sky camera located behind the quarterback, the view most familiar to Madden gamers, rather than television’s traditional sideline camera location”.
This live stream will have its own commentary team, a combo of former players and broadcast veterans, while a former NFL quarterback will use graphic overlays to discuss and predict play options. So, while most of the family will be semi-comatose on the sofa, trying to digest half a turkey, the gamers will be watching and playing the game at the same time.
Some of them will have already tried this quite recently, as five MLS games from the current season have been simulcast through EA Sports FC’s “in-game TV portal”.
The fact that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — the ATM that has been subsidising boxing, football, golf, motorsport and tennis for the past few years — has just teamed up with private equity firm Silver Lake and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to buy EA for $55billion suggests they think there are a few people who like the idea of single platform to play video games and watch live sport.
Smart glasses are the future
Whether these people will be wearing helmets or not might depend on where they live.It feels like people have been saying that virtual-reality headsets will be this year’s must-have Christmas present for 30 years. Santa has not delivered one yet.
“You’re probably in the wrong country,” says Hutton. “One in 10 households in the U.S. have a headset and they are very popular with gamers.”
Some of these headsets are made by Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and you can use them to watch NBA games from a virtual “courtside” seat.
Hutton admits this is still a niche market, but there is real growth in smart glasses and AR (augmented reality) specs, as “they give you added info without having to look at a second screen”.
… but the old ways won’t die completely
Two Circles’ view on these things is similar to mine.“We don’t believe there will be any major platform shifts in the next decade that see mass adoption,” says Balch. “Even optimistic predictions on how VR and AR are being used in 10 years shouldn’t see a displacement of the continued growth of mobile and TV consumption.”
Like the other experts consulted here, Balch thinks the real innovation “will be in personalisation of broadcast feeds to more closely align with what audiences get on social media and better production of vertical video” (video shot in portrait mode, i.e., the way kids do it because that’s how TikTok, Insta Reels and YouTube Shorts want it).
But Balch also believes in something that cheers me up no end.
“We’re confident that live sports consumption will retain its value and position in the next decade,” he says. “Gen Z spends more time consuming sport than older groups, but much less watching TV or streaming. This will recalibrate, though. Data from the last decade and beyond has shown that younger audiences do grow into live consumption habits.”
Even Stagg, who predicts the spread of the IMAX-style venues, with table service, that have started to pop up in the U.S, thinks there is mileage in the old ways.
“Watching live sport is still a communal experience and, if you can’t be in the stadium, the next best place is with friends or family,” he says. “I suspect in 20 years’ time, when nobody is watching linear TV, the last thing we will all watch together on a flat screen, live, will be sport in the pub.”
How we will be watching football in 2035
Six predictions for the how viewing football will change — from gaming-style presentation to smart glasses
www.nytimes.com
Go Gophers!!