Abstract
In 2017, NFL viewers complained when NBC Sports used the “Madden” camera for live play-by-play coverage of two Thursday Night Football games. Their comments indicated that they had a difficult time estimating yardage from the new perspective. Those games were just two recent examples of viewers complaining about changes in the visual presentation of live sports broadcasts—a phenomenon that has been happening with the Madden camera for more than a decade. The sports broadcasters’ inability to adjust its production technique for live football coverage, despite repeated attempts, provides important insights about the nature of mass communication. As sports broadcasters continue to look for new production techniques in a constantly evolving media landscape, these findings could help guide their production practices. Using game footage from four NFL broadcasts, the present study tested for differences in yardage estimations made from the traditional game camera (i.e., a stationary camera perpendicular to the field) and the Madden camera (i.e., a moving camera on wires positioned over the field). Participants (N = 473) were randomly assigned to watch 11 plays from either the traditional game camera angle or the Madden camera angle. No significant differences were found in estimates of yardage gains based on camera angle. Thehigh variance in the findings suggests that distance estimations are complex visual processes that may require specialized training to improve accuracy.
Highlights
In late 2017, NBC Sports produced two NFL Thursday Night Football (TNF) games using its four-point aerial camera system as the live play-by-play camera (Figure 1; Cooper, 2017), going against the tradition of using one of the three cameras positioned perpendicular to the field for that purpose
The initial feedback on social media and from sports journalists (Malyon, 2017; Ruiz, 2017) was positive, motivating the network to make a production change and use this camera—known as the “Madden” camera (Malyon, 2017) because the angle was first introduced in the Madden NFL video game—for the entirety of two TNF X’gSaAmNeDs
When NBC Sports decided to use the Madden camera for live football games, some viewers took to social media to complain about how difficult it was to determine the yardage gained on each play
Summary
In late 2017, NBC Sports produced two NFL Thursday Night Football (TNF) games using its four-point aerial camera system as the live play-by-play camera (Figure 1; Cooper, 2017), going against the tradition of using one of the three cameras positioned perpendicular to the field for that purpose. NBC executive producer Fred Gaudelli, one of those behind the decision to use the Madden camera, acknowledged that estimating how far the ball went was difficult for viewers (Deitsch, 2018). When asked how the network determines if new technologies are a meaningful part of its broadcast, longtime FOX Sports director Artie Kempner stated that they use a “how and wow” approach to evaluating technological changes. He admitted his network does not have a specific way of determining if changes have a positive impact on the production. There is a pressing need for empirical research to help guide future sports production practices. This type of research can lead to mass communication theory development, as these types of production phenomena raise questions about the underlying theoretical causes
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