ESPN’s multi-faceted coverage of Monday night’s college football national championship game will feature cameras affixed to four officials’ hats, the first-down marker, and the line-to-gain pylons as well as a digital TechCast feed to highlight all of the innovative angles.
As Alabama and Clemson meet in the College Football Playoff for the fourth straight year—including three title games—ESPN is again using its MegaCast to distribute a variety of feeds and perspectives. This year’s edition offers an unprecedented 17 unique presentations.
Of particular note are the cameras embedded in novel vantage points, including the orange pylons and, like last year, standing markers that signal where a team needs to reach for a first down. ESPN will utilize both a sky cam and a high sky cam, with the latter tethered to wires several feet higher than the other above the field of play.
The various feeds span both linear and digital broadcasts, with technology and advanced data central themes in several. The ESPN Goal Line linear channel and ESPN3 stream will both carry the DataCenter that will illustrate the game with analytics, real time drive charts, and win probability graphics. The streaming TechCast will present a dozen different camera angles at once so that fans can see more of the innovative technology at play. The ESPNU Command Center broadcast essentially will be a blend of the DataCenter and TechCast options.
SportTechie Takeaway
ESPN continues to invest in its blanket coverage on the only signature event of the U.S. sports calendar that the network broadcasts. Its range of linear channels—ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ESPN Classic, Goal Line, and the SEC Network—as well as its robust streaming capabilities (powered by Disney-Owned BAMTech) put the network in the rare position to attempt such an ambitious slate of coverage. Viewers should win by having so many choices, even if 17 presentations may seem a bit daunting. And one can only wonder how other marquee games could be enriched by other networks with a similar strategy.