sportscasting

From tennis to basketball, from cricket to baseball, from badminton to football — Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used in almost every branch of sports broadcasting. It is becoming an integral part of sportscasting, increasingly impacting the way sports is covered.

Petter Ole Jakobsen, Co-Founder & Chief Innovation Officer at Vizrt (short form for Visualization in Real-Time), a provider of innovative storytelling tools for media content creators in broadcast, affirmed, “AI affects everything from the level of audience engagement, and how games are covered, to the way the sports are played and analysed.”

He maintained, “In addition to revolutionising sports for the players and sports managers, AI can also revolutionise live broadcasting and impact the way the audience experiences sports. In fact, if a broadcaster is not using AI to make the most of the media content and data gathered by him, his sports coverage may struggle to keep up with competitors in the years to come.”

Already, AI solutions are allowing automated match reports, robotic cameras and edited video highlights. The challenge for public service broadcasters is to navigate all the different AI applications and apply them in a way that serves the audience more efficiently and effectively, offering them a richer experience. There is no shortage of conversations, research, insight and cases surfacing about the benefits of integrating AI and machine learning (ML) — it is clear to see why they have not only grown to be a hot topic of discussion, but have also been widely adopted and integrated into workflows. For sports broadcasters, AI and ML are a window to the future of fan experience; for suppliers, providing easy access to these powerful tools will become essential.

“AI and ML provide increased live and intuitive data, stats, and predictions for production teams,” said Mark Egan, Faculty Member at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The increase in data creates more opportunities for broadcasters to utilise the information within intelligent automation — translating into better quality visual content for audiences.”

Jakobsen added, “AI is also set to change the way broadcasters monetise sporting events. Based on the events on the field, AI systems can be used for automatically choosing the right camera angle to display on the viewers’ screens. It can automatically provide subtitles for live events in different languages based on the viewer’s location and language preferences. AI systems can also be used to identify the right opportunities to present ads based on crowd excitement levels in sporting arenas, enabling broadcasters to effectively utilise monetisation opportunities through ad sales.”

The content delivered to fans must be relevant, targeted, and add value — the more relevant and targeted the content is, the more engaging the experience to the viewer.

During the recent pandemic, broadcasters adopted AI and augmented reality technology to enhance the viewing experience of sports when fans were not allowed in the stadiums. Canned audience audio and virtual fans were also used alongside realtime visual data and stats on the feed throughout the pandemic. Take the Spanish football league, LaLiga, for example. The football league implemented artificial stadium audio into broadcasts to engage fans when their only option was to tune in from home. The AI layered audio recreates a familiar environment for remote viewers to feel as though the teams are not simply playing to an empty — or reduced capacity — stadium, bringing the traditional game atmosphere to life. From visualisation to assisted coaching, AI and ML are changing the world of sports as we know it.