AI seems to be everywhere these days — even on the screen during live NFL games.
Amazon is kicking off another slate of Thursday Night Football games, part of a decade-long deal it inked with the NFL to exclusively stream live action every week during the NFL season.
A new feature coming to Amazon’s main TNF feed this year is called “Defensive Alerts.” It uses AI and predictive modeling technology that tracks the movement of defensive players before a play and tries to determine who is most likely to rush the quarterback. A red orb appears around the moving players to help viewers spot potential blitzers.
“It really gives the fans a bit of insight as to who could be rushing the quarterback and changes the way they view the game,” former NFL cornerback Richard Sherman, now an NFL analyst for Amazon, said in a press release.
The feature was tested in Amazon’s alternate TNF feeds last year and now it will be used in the main broadcast for each game this season, starting with the Miami vs. Buffalo matchup Thursday.
Amazon experiments with a bevy of analytics-focused features as part of an alternate broadcast called Prime Vision with Next Gen Stats that fans can access while watching via Amazon.com, Fire TV, or Prime Video app.
New features in the alternate feed this year include “Pressure Alert,” which highlights defensive players in position to disrupt a play, and “Coverage ID,” which uses live player tracking data to show defensive schemes before the ball is snapped.
There’s also “Defensive Vulnerability,” which identifies areas on the field where the offense should attempt to attack.
“When I watch a game, I like to see how the pre-snap motions force the defense to adjust,” Kirk Herbstreit, a longtime commentator and analyst on TNF, said in a statement. “The new Defensive Vulnerability feature will show exactly where the offense should exploit mismatches.”
Of course, not every fan may want to watch a game in the same way as commentators or former players. So it makes sense that Amazon appears to take a methodical approach to adding any fancy tech features to the main TNF stream.
Amazon this season will broadcast an NFL playoff game for the first time, streaming a Wild Card matchup later this year. It’s also streaming a game on Black Friday after doing the same last season. The company integrated e-commerce shopping features as part of the game feed last year, offering a potential glimpse at the future of advertising during live sports.
Amazon paid a reported $100 million for the TNF deal. It’s part of Amazon’s growing sports streaming catalog that will also include NBA games starting in 2025.
As more people cut the cord, sports leagues are increasingly engaging with tech companies as their existing deals with traditional cable providers expire. Those companies are hungry for valuable content such as live sports — one of the most-watched telecasts — to draw more subscribers to their respective platforms.
For Amazon, the streaming deals offer a way to boost Prime memberships, which are required to watch games. It also opens up more revenue opportunities via advertising, which has become one of Amazon’s most profitable businesses.
https://ift.tt/qPFpl7O September 10, 2024 at 02:30PM GeekWire
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