NFL Network’s MediaCruiser will make its broadcast debut at tonight’s Texans-Bengals game. Unveiled last month, the MediaCruiser is a mobile broadcast set inspired by the Dumont Telecruiser of the '40s. The MediaCruiser, similar in size to an Airstream trailer, opens into a fully operational broadcasting set. NFL Media Senior VP/Marketing Julie Haddon said creating the MediaCruiser had been in discussion for at least a couple years, but the process of “bringing it to life” began last year. She said the MediaCruiser will serve as an additional on-site set along with NFL Network’s on-field set during pre- and postgame coverage for “TNF.”
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The MediaCruiser will travel from each weekly “TNF” location to the next, and fans can follow along and try to find it using a map found on the league’s website. Fans who see the MediaCruiser on the road are encouraged to tweet a picture of it with #TNFSweepstakes for the chance to win prizes. The MediaCruiser will eventually get its own Twitter handle. Haddon said that is part of giving it a “voice and a life of its own since it is a piece of the NFL on the road.” She sees fans wanting to know the location of the MediaCruiser much in the way people look for popular food trucks. Haddon: “There’s something for engaging with fans, there’s something for it engaging with sponsors potentially, to be used for all sorts of needs. We’ve already had a couple people interested in it for different areas of other business with the NFL.”
The MediaCruiser will not be one-dimensional. Spectators during a media event last month watched a preseason game on the MediaCruiser’s TV monitors, and then after the game, Haddon said it “became a dance party with lights and sound.” She said of the party atmosphere, “That’s part of what we’re going for with 'Thursday Night Football.' One thing we learned last season, the weekend starts Thursday for a lot of people, our target audience who we’re going after, millennials and core avid fans alike, we’re really trying to harness the excitement of the weekend starting Thursday and bring in something that would speak to that audience.”
