For the first time, college football fans will witness what a referee sees on the gridiron. Through a partnership with GoPro, FOX Sports will provide viewers of the Big Ten Football Championship on Saturday the unique in-game footage from the perspective of the referees.
As part of the collaboration, GoPro and FOX worked in tandem to design a specific hat for referees to give fans a different vantage point as they watch the Wisconsin and Penn State broadcast.
“It’s in our FOX Sports DNA to constantly challenge our team to come up with new and interesting ways to enhance the viewing experience, bring fans closer to the action and make the story of sports even more compelling … this project with GoPro accomplishes all of that,” Michael Davies, FOX Sports Senior Vice President Technical & Field Operations, said in a statement.
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According to FOX, the GoPro clips will be shown on-air and shared socially across FOX Sports’ accounts and FOXSports.com. Additionally, the footage will be available on FOX Sports GO as a stand-alone stream, so viewers can continuously follow the action.
“GoPro changed the world by unlocking new perspectives of sports that put viewers into the middle of the action,” Todd Ballard, Vice President of Global Sports Entertainment Marketing at GoPro, said in a statement. “We’ve been looking forward to enabling the GoPro POV from the gridiron, and are excited to see how FOX Sports chooses to showcase these perspectives during the Big Ten Football Championship — both in the broadcast and on social media.”
FOX Sports has experimented with other types of non-traditional broadcasts and social integrations over the past couple of months, including a Facebook Live show during the World Series, a test with augmented reality and two college football games aired “live” in virtual reality, including the first live broadcast ever between Ohio State and Oklahoma in mid-September.