The Sports Business Journal released its highly anticipated “High Tech, High Stakes” issue this week, and there were a couple of very interesting pieces that caught the attention of MMAPayout.com.
In one of his articles, Eric Fischer looked at the potential for motion tracking technology to gain further acceptance and prevalence in sports television.
Motion tracking in sports in and of itself is not a new thing. Various forms of motion tracking — which draws its heritage at least in part from missile-tracking technology — have existed for years, and one specific version of it in sports, the Pitch f/x system from Sportvision and MLB Advanced Media, is now in its fourth year of active deployment. But thanks to sharply heightened investment in the space among several media and technology outfits and ever-increasing computing power, the wealth of data derived from digital tracking of player and ball movement is now mushrooming exponentially.
Jon Snow also documented some of the advancements in chroma key or “green screen” technology that allow sports properties to manipulate the playing surface or surrounding environment with advertisements.
“Eventually you’ll be able to get hyper-local,” such as targeting individual demographics within a certain market, said Sam McCleery, senior vice president of sales and marketing for PVI Virtual Media Services.
The main barrier to growth of the technology in the United States is gaining acceptance among leagues, teams and fans. McCleery expects virtual advertising will continue to affect the international market more than the domestic market.
“It will grow earlier overseas,” he said. “Will it grow bigger? I don’t know. But you will be allowed to do it over there before you will be allowed to do it here.”
Note: The Sports Business Journal is a subscription service. If you’ve got any kind of interest in sports business, it’s definitely worth the money.
Payout Perspective:
The potential for both technologies to add value to MMA broadcasts is quite high.
The motion tracking technology, pending further advancement, could be used to help analyze the velocity and power behind strike attempts. It might also enable an organization to re-create 3D models of certain exchanges between fighters in order to give the audience a glimpse into what truly transpired. Imagine the possibilities for this technology as a teaching tool and means for MMA to better engage the audience.
In fact, FightersOnline.com – a start-up company currently evaluating the potential of an online-based matchmaking and auctioning system – has already obtained a patent for optical measurement technology that would allow it to determine the velocity and power behind strikes.
However, it’s necessary to provide a caution: the technology still has a ways to go before it’s technically and financially feasible for an organization to adopt and implement with any sort of added value to the broadcast.
The chroma key or “green screen” technology is also very intriguing, because it could be used to customize in-ring or in-cage sponsorships ads. It would allow an organization like the UFC to provide greater value for its partners and sponsors by providing targeted advertisements through geographical segmentation. For example, someone watching Paul Daley vs. Mike Swick in the UK would see a different cage mat logo than someone watching the same fight in the US.
That’s a powerful marketing capability.
Furthermore, the idea that an MMA organization can segment its advertising audiences based upon geography could also be leveraged to aid the broadband content business model. It would allow for multiple versions of branded content, in which the UFC or another organization could sell advertising rights to online events on a regional or national basis.
Hadn’t heard it called chroma key before:
In addition the virtual ads would allow the surface of the octagon/cage to be uniform and less prone to slippage (Cote-Silva, Liddell-Couture II, etc) which I think should be the primary consideration.
Not only could they do targeted marketing like you pointed out, but the ads could be replaced/changed on rebroadcast. This would open up a new revenue source and we as viewers wouldn’t have to see the logos from SAW I, RAMBO when they are several years old.
The two companies I am familiar with are Princeton Video Imaging (INVU) and Sportvision. I sent emails to both companies asking about the cost of their product and heard back from PVI: the cost was several K, which is probably more of initial outlay than the current system, but the long-term and total profitability should be higher with a new virtual system.
I sent several emails to the UFC (to the attention of the new head of marketing), Dana White, etc asking if the had heard/thought about virtual ads. As far as I know, nobody read the emails.