John Ourand of The Sports Business Journal is predicting that more referees will wear cameras in the future and networks will offer those feeds during their game broadcasts. Ourand points out that the prediction isn’t exactly his own. It is culled from interviews with several league and network executives that predict the very same thing.
Ken Fang of Awful Announcing traced some of the history of wearable cameras used by sports officials. Most recently, the Big Ten Network experimented with the technology in the football game between Wisconsin and Minnesota in 2016. He praised the technology saying “the camera was quite clear and provided some amazing perspectives.” You can find a highlight package featuring footage shot on Ref Cam on YouTube.
Fox, the part owner of Big Ten Network, has often experimented with on-field cameras, including putting a camera on the catcher for the MLB Playoffs. The network also put a camera on a referee when the Eagles and Browns played a preseason game last month. The company also put cameras on referees for its broadcasts of The Big 3 basketball league.
Ourand doesn’t give a timeline of when he expects Ref Cam to become a regular part of NBA or NFL broadcasts. Fang says the goal is clear. “The whole idea is to attract younger viewers and networks are looking to companies like ActionStreamer, which has been developing small point of view cameras to mirror what video games provide.”
CBSSports.com already offers an option on it’s college football coverage to watch all 22 camera angles the network has at its disposal. ESPN3 and ESPN+ do something similar with their Control Room feature. It isn’t had to see a Ref Cam becoming another unique perspective offered to online viewers.
