The NFL continues to look for ways to capture the attention of its younger audience. Whether it is players being slimed or a game from Andy's bedroom of Toy Story fame, each season there seems to be a new innovation to bring some of our beloved characters into the NFL universe. This year, Sony’s Beyond Sports is collaborating with ESPN, the NFL, Disney, and The Simpsons to produce The Simpsons Funday Football, a real-time animated alternate presentation of a Monday Night Football game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. The Simpsons Funday Football alternate viewing presentation will stream on Disney+ and ESPN+ and on mobile with NFL+.
A combination of data processing and real-time visualization technology from Beyond Sports will insert well-known characters from “The Simpsons” into the game action while the Bengals and Cowboys play in real time. This will be the second-ever NFL alternate presentation Beyond Sports has collaborated with the NFL and ESPN on, the first being “NFL Toy Story Funday Football,” featuring the 2023 Atlanta Falcons vs. Jacksonville Jaguars game in London, set in Andy’s Room in the Toy Story Universe. That altcast was ESPN’s first fully animated NFL telecast, delivering the biggest live event to-date on Disney+ (based on peak concurrency).
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The Simpsons Funday Football altcast will demonstrate the potential of Beyond Sports’ real-time visualization engine to build a broadcast that engages new and existing viewers, including multi-generational audiences, in an exciting and entertaining way. Fans can expect to see Homer and Bart on the sidelines, Marge and Lisa interviewing players during the game, Maggie operating the SkyCam, plus additional interactive elements including animated virtual commentators. Beyond Sports’ virtual commentator technology further enhances audience engagement by inserting the actual announcers calling the game into the animated production. The technology uses a virtual reality headset to capture the real commentators' upper body movements and facial expressions and create 3D animations.
“Sports leagues, broadcasters, and content producers must continually develop innovative options for reaching and retaining newer audiences that are accustomed to enjoying content experiences customized to their tastes,” said Sander J. Schouten, managing director and co-founder at Beyond Sports. “We are focused on meeting the expectations of each demographic by being visible on the platforms they are using and speaking in the way they want to be spoken to when it comes to their viewing habits.”
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The December telecast will use tracking data supplied by Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations and the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, enabling Beyond Sports to create a viewing experience that complements the live game through an innovative blend of traditional sports broadcasting and fully animated storytelling.
Beyond Sports' technology processes and converts NFL’s Next Gen Stats and Hawk-Eye tracking data into 3D recreations. The platform has had a transformative impact on the sports production world for several years, supporting high-profile projects for 25 of the major sports leagues worldwide.
