Fox Sports plans to deliver a largely straightforward, no-frills digital stream of Super Bowl LI through its Fox Sports Go platform, marking the sixth year the game has been available digitally. A digital, non-authenticated simulcast of the linear TV feed of the game will supplemented by a pregame “Field Pass” production from 5:00-6:00pm ET that will provide a feed of on-field pregame preparations. The stream also will be distributed through a variety of connected TV platforms, including Apple TV, Chromecast and Roku, similar to what CBS Sports Digital did last year. Network execs are predicting another set of traffic records to surpass the average minute audience of 1.4 million and total unique audience of 3.96 million posted last year, but not provide specific projections. “It’ll be bigger once again. There’s obviously been a steady pattern of growth over the history of delivering this event digitally,” said Fox Sports Senior VP/TV Everywhere & Special Projects Clark Pierce. "We’ve got a range in mind, and we’re confident we’ll hit it.” Similar to CBS Sports’ production last year, Fox Sports will have a near-total simulcast between ads aired on the linear TV feed and those shown digitally, with local ad units representing a key exception. Pierce said, “The big thing for us is that Fox Sports Go is now so much more of a mature product now. When we last had the Super Bowl, the app had just come out.”
