Super Bowl LI in Houston delivered a historic overtime thriller that many people missed because of the blowout 28-3 lead the Atlanta Falcons established early in the third quarter. But those who stuck it out watched the New England Patriots complete the greatest comeback victory (34-28) in Super Bowl history to earn its fifth world championship in 15 years.
Fox Sports partnered with LiveLike to take the highlights from the epic game and deliver them across virtual reality platforms using a virtual stadium suite. Michael Davies, senior vice president of field and technical operations at Fox Sports, told [a]listdaily that fans can choose from six different angles (two cart cams, two goal cams, two goal posts with one high/wide and one low slash).
Users can choose their vantage point from six 4K cameras spread across Houston’s NRG Stadium, including on-field perspectives that put viewer’s right on top of the action. The package of VR content includes the 20 most exciting Super Bowl highlights showcasing the four most important plays per quarter and a timeline for fans to choose amongst the game’s top plays.
“Also, we have been posting different 360 content from the week for people to enjoy while not working on highlights for the game,” Davies said.
Andre Lorenceau, CEO of LiveLike, told [a]listdaily that on top of the Big Game itself, users can view pre-game and post-game content via both 360-degree video and normal videos. “Our interfaces also still have plenty of information about the game so users can look up their favorite players and team stats,” said Lorenceau.
The Super Bowl VR experience was designed as a live complement to the actual game with new content uploaded after each quarter and epic plays being uploaded just a few moments after they happened on the field.
“We built a new push notification system so that whenever a key highlight becomes available, users will receive a notification letting them know that there is new content available,” Lorenceau said before the game. “We also built a new system to jump to a specific highlight, which we absolutely plan on reusing in the future, even in full games. This is particularly interesting since it’s immediately the best way to re-live any moment from the game, complete with the crowd going wild.”
Davies said Fox opted not to work with broadcasters for this content because for the highlights, the video and the natural sound are what is important. Fox Sports has been experimenting with VR content around football and other sports for a couple years now.
“We have found that certain camera positions work better than others,” Davies said. “The cameras that ride along with the cart are the great angles for football as they follow the action. The other thing we are doing with LiveLike is that this is the first time where all cameras will be encoded at Ultra High Definition (4K).”
The reality today is that many people will be checking out this VR content post-game, especially given the unexpected fourth quarter comeback. This first-ever Super Bowl VR experience does not feature any sponsors within the content or inside the virtual suites, but the suite was split between Falcons and Patriots content.
“In general, VR and 360-video is an amazing opportunity for advertisers,” Davies said. “Especially in the LiveLike environment. It is possible to incorporate branding and activations all over the experience in a variety of different ways.”
With more brands exploring 360 content, one potential future is 360-degree content developed in tandem with Super Bowl or other commercials, including making-of content that could take viewers onto the sets of those spots. With companies spending a record $5 million per 30-second ad during the Super Bowl, the cost of capturing some of that content in 360 is very small.
“Anyone who downloads the Fox Sports VR app can view this content without any need for an account, password, or otherwise,” Lorenceau said. “It is completely open.”
According to Neilsen, Fox’s Super Bowl LI drew a 48.8 household rating and a 72 share, which represents about 70 percent of the country. That’s slightly lower than CBS’ Super Bowl 50, which pulled in a 49.0 rating and a 73 share.
