While NFL regular-season viewership was down across the board this season, Fox does not "expect any spillover" for its broadcast of Super Bowl LI next month, according to Jason Lynch of ADWEEK. Fox Sports President & COO Eric Shanks said, "The Super Bowl has become a little bit bulletproof." He added that the game is "more reliant on the star power and matchups rather than the quality of the gameplay itself." Shanks said Super Bowl ratings are "hard to predict." Shanks: "The Super Bowl is now dependent on the playoffs: certain teams and how long it's been since they've been there, that really dictates whether we're at the upper end of the Super Bowl range or the bottom end of the range of modern Super Bowl ratings." Lynch wrote, "No matter what the final ratings are, well over 100 million viewers will tune in" (ADWEEK.com, 1/11). Appearing on Bill Simmons' eponymous podcast on The Ringer, Fox' Joe Buck said he thinks the net would prefer a Cowboys-Patriots Super Bowl over a Cowboys-Steelers game (DALLASNEWS.com, 1/11).
BELLS & WHISTLES: BROADCASTING & CABLE's Michael Malone reported Fox will "unveil some tech bells and whistles at Super Bowl LI, including Be the Player, which offers the real-time perspective of the players." Shanks said the tech allows the viewer to get “inside the helmet of any player on the field.” Shanks said that while there is "no device in the helmets, an array of cameras around the field is 'stitched together,'" allowing the net to "'fly into someone’s helmet' and offer that player’s perspective." Intel is a partner on the initiative. Shanks said that they have been "testing Be the Player for three months but have not featured it on air." Fox' broadcast will "feature at least one 8K camera and four 4K cameras out of the 100 total." There also "will be 24 pylon cams in the end zone and 93 microphones strategically arranged" (BROADCASTINGCABLE.com, 1/11). The AP's Jimmy Golen writes the "spin around and zoom 'freeD' system has been used at other sporting events" -- including the NBA, MLB All-Star Games and the Olympics -- but Be the Player will be the "first that goes the last step and shows things from the athlete's perspective." To make the Be the Player video possible, Intel has "installed 38 separate 5K resolution cameras in a perimeter inside NRG Stadium," creating what Intel Sports Group GM/Strategy & Marketing Jeff Hopper "calls 'a volumetric capture of everything that's going on on the field.'" The cameras are "connected by five miles of fiber optic cables to a special control room, where a half-dozen Intel producers, working with one from the Fox Sports broadcast, can pick out and package the replays that will be used in the broadcast" (AP, 1/12).
