Sir Gary Oldman: “There’s an anxiety going into any project.”

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He has played Harry Potter's godfather Sirius Black, egomaniac screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, a dreadlocked pimp and a flatulent grease-stained white knight. Whatever the part Sir Gary Oldman’s performances are indelible and acclaimed, often lifting up an otherwise mediocre film. Yet, “deeply self-critical”, the actor admits to huge self-doubt.

“John Lennon once said he would burn most of the songs and start again. I can understand that,” Oldman told an audience at the Edinburgh TV Festival where he was collecting the festival’s Global Icon Award.

“There’s an anxiety I have going into any project. Working with new directors and new actors I always [wonder] ‘Will I be any good? Will I pull it off ? I have this low frequency of anxiety whenever I start a new job.

“Fear is good but you can’t let it cripple you. A bit of butterflies in your belly and with experience you get them to fly in formation.”

Reflecting on a how “a young boy from South East London” had made it to this stage, Oldman said, “Hard work and commitment, yes, and more than its fair share of luck. Countless directors and producers who took chances on me, and fellow actors who influenced me and thousands of crew members are on every frame I have appeared in.”

Of his entré into acting in 1979 he said, “I wanted to work - bottom line.” His heroes were film stars with working class roots - Alan Bates, Tom Courteny, Albert Finney, Richard Burton and most especially Malcolm McDowell.

“When I looked to America I saw De Niro and Pacino, Gene Hackman, George C Scott, Paul Newman and especially Robert Redford. These were people you revered and the movies they made were something incredible. All I could think about back then was maybe I’ll get a gig in rep.”

In the early eighties, Oldman appeared at the Royal Court Theatre in London and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

“I know that the rep[ertory] system is not as prevalent as it used to be but you can still go to theatre – or the Fringe – and make a fool of yourself,” he said. “In those early experiences you find what you are capable of. I still apply things I learned from [theatre mentors] now from those early days.”

Oldman’s screen career is defined by a whole-hearted commitment to the role. Whether it’s the mania of a drug addicted Federal agent in Leon: The Professional (1994); the weight lost to play Sid Vicious in Sid & Nancy (1986); his feral interpretation of the Count in Francis Coppola’s Dracula (1996) or the psychotic hooligan in Alan Clarke’s BBC movie The Firm (1989).

Before his screen debut (in Film 4 produced naval drama Remembrance in 1982) Oldman was in the cast of the play Privates on Parade.

“I had a scene where I wore nothing but boots and a jungle hat,” he said. He wanted his skin to show the tan lines that a soldier on duty in the Pacific might have had. Despite being teased about it by the rest of the troupe he persevered with hours in makeup before each performance.

“I wanted to make it as believable as I could. I’ve always had that attention to detail. A commitment to it.

“You must go to bed thinking about it, wake up thinking about it and spend all day thinking about it. If you don’t have that you must want it more than your life.”

On Darkest Hour, the 2017 film for which Oldman won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Churchill, he described enduring 20 hour shoot days.

“The earliest call I had was 1.10 AM to come in and put make-up on. My head was shaved and I had 4.5 hours in make-up,  a 12 hour day, then 45 minutes to take make-up off. Nor can you look at your phone – you have to stare into the mirror. And the make-up people got less sleep than me. I loved every minute of it but you’ve got to be committed.”

On Mank he recalled director David Fincher ordering over 100 takes of a single scene.

“There’s a scene where I have speech walking around the table. We did that 30 times, then we shot all the reactions of the people around the table. I would work with David again even though some days were like that.”

If an actor’s only goal is to be a famous actor, Oldman added, then he despaired.

Having agreed to a project Oldman trusts in his instinct to unlock the character. “I was shooting a film in Brooklyn and I heard a kid walk by the trailer, rapping. I thought – that’s Drexl (the dreadlocked villain he was next to play in True Romance, 1993). So I grabbed him, got him to read my lines into a tape recorder so I could go away and listen to his cadence.”

With Slow Horses’ dishevelled spook chief Jackson Lamb it was costume. “I felt that the physical silhouette should be somewhat iconic but I didn’t know what. Then at the costume fitting I was trying things on all sorts of things but only when I put the mac on did it feel right. It’s also my nod to Columbo.” 

He had the New York Irish accent for his gangster character in State of Grace (1990) nailed down but it still felt insubstantial and “very surface” until he tried on a leather jacket. “I had long hair, I swept it back and I knew then that this was Flannery.

Oldman claims the process remains a mystery “but you have to have the intuition to notice it and catch it,” he said. “It could be an accent or music or something on TV. My wife often scolds me for staring at people but I’m filing their behaviour away. Yesterday I took a picture of a guy at the station, discreetly. He will go in my file….” 

With the sixth season of Slow Horses about to release on Apple TV, the actor explained why the original role ticked all the boxes.

“I wanted to be part of longform TV since watching I, Claudius and Brideshead Revisited. I wanted something in the spy world because I loved doing Tinker Tailor [Soldier Spy]. I did not want to wear a wig or dress in armour or rubber (which he did for The Fifth Element]. I wanted to come in and do 20 minutes of make-up and speak in an accent not far from my own.”

Tongue in cheek, Oldman says he tasked Douglas Urbanski, his long time production partner, to find something that checked that list.

“Lamb might have been written for Tim Spall [Slow Horses author Mick Herron describes Lamb as ‘Timothy Spall gone to seed’] but it fell from the sky. I was ready for the challenge of something I haven't done before.”

Even with Urbanski on board as producer and with all the talent that Apple TV could muster there was no guarantee Slow Horses would make it past the first season.

“The biggest issue in season one was finding the right tone. What we were trying for was the Coen Brothers. When you watch [a Coens movie] you know what film you are in for instantly. They balance comedy and danger and that is what we were trying to get – not making it overtly comic but a drama peppered with humour.”

 It’s surprising to learn that improvisation is allowed on set.

“We start out a scene and find that it needs adjustment and we work it out in the moment,” he explained. “I might think of a quip Lamb would say and we’d a little exchange with Saskia [Reeves] or Jack [Lowden]. This is what is unique about the show in my experience. There is no privilege of authorship so you can contribute ideas and you are heard. People don’t put up a wall and dismiss you which is the case a lot of the time.”

He thinks Lamb resonates with the audience because he can do things – like smoke, drink, and eat fast food with no exercise which no other character is doing on TV.

“He is likely an alcoholic and he has no filter. He is direct. He is not arsed with social norms. That’s the fun of playing him and I think why people enjoy watching him.

“It’s a great part on the page but he doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Jackson Lamb is a team effort and we all bring our innate humanity to it. There’s a lot of mechanics that go into it and a lot of creative collaboration.”

He added that for the six years of the show’s run he has had none of the fear that usually dogs his mind.

“Occasionally you work with an arsehole you never want to work with again but on Slow Horses I even look forward to seeing the producers,” he added.

Gap between live sport and gaming nears primetime

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The ability to stream alternative animated and video game versions of a live sports event have taken a step closer with tests involving EA Sports, broadcaster Sky and German premier soccer league Bundesliga.

The Bundesliga is exploring ways of flowing match data directly into gaming engines, where fans can replay a goal as freely as they would inside EA Sports FC and where there are serious discussions about streaming alternative broadcasts of the match itself.

“Once match data is transported from the physical world into the digital world everything becomes possible,” said Hendrik Weber, Director of Sports Technology & Innovation at the Bundesliga in a showcase of innovation at the home of Bundesliga team Borussia Dortmund last week. “Now, with 3D data, low latency, and gaming engines powered by AI, we can create things we simply couldn’t before.”

The league’s data system is routinely captures between 21 and 30 skeletal points per player at 50 frames per second, generating roughly 200 million data points per match. It is based on TRACAB’s optical tracking infrastructure, now installed league‑wide, which uses 12 synchronized 4K cameras to deliver volumetric positional data with the accuracy required for advanced media applications. Hawk-eye officiating data that determines offside decisions is also incorporated.

Weber explained, “It’s the same pipeline we use in all 36 stadiums every weekend. Now we can run it through EAFC and instantly generate a virtual version of the match.”

EA Sports acquired TRACAB in 2025, bringing data capture and gaming technology under one roof. The acquisition has accelerated experimentation, allowing EA and the Bundesliga to test new workflows that merge live match data with gaming‑engine rendering.

Oskar Norrman, Senior Director of Business Development at TRACAB and EA Sports emphasised that the demo in Dortmund was “a special version of the game” in which the EA engine is fed with the same 3D tracking data generated for broadcast.

This is an extension of a 2023 trial made by Sky Sports with the English Premier League of a Game Mode camera angle which simulated the perspective found in EA Sports FC.

For the Bundesliga the tie-up with EA Sport is not purely about potential revenue stream but extending the league’s brand to the game’s 300 million players globally. Some two billion virtual matches featuring Bundesliga clubs are played every season.

“You can use the highlight tool inside the EA SPORTS FC environment to create a fully immersive replay,” Norrman said. “You can control the camera, move through the scene, and select the exact angle you want. If I want to look at a goal from Der Klassiker [any Bayern Vs Dortmund match] I can simply use the joystick to find the perfect perspective.”

Users can also recreate the moment from scratch, choosing either custom angles or standard broadcast views. “This opens up huge possibilities for creators, broadcasters, and ultimately consumers,” Norrman said. “Our goal is to make a tool so easy to use that if you can play the game, you can create your own content.”

Bundesliga execs agreed that this level of interactivity is now in play. “We’re not far from a use case where a kid watches a live match, pauses it, switches to the gaming engine, rewinds 20 minutes, and replays the scenario themselves,” Weber said. “Maybe they even insert their own avatar. That level of personalisation is coming.”

Sky Deutschland, which since June is part of Germany’s RTL Group, is reportedly exploring ‘alt’ broadcasts of live events for distribution on its digital channels.

Sky’s SVP of Sports Production, Alessandro Reitano believes gaming‑style experiences will soon play a major role. “Some fans grew up with EA Sports and want the same dynamics they play with: static angles, point‑of‑view shots, hypermotion, graphics, stats,” he said. “We can’t translate that into a traditional broadcast—but with these tools, we can.”

He sees potential for recreating stadium atmospheres for remote fans. “Yes, 100 percent,” he said. “This is my personal North Star. Some fans want analysis. Some want gamification. Some want the feeling of being in the stands. The more toolboxes you have, the better you can serve your audience.”

Playmobil soccer activation

The same data was also being converted on-the-fly into an animated version of the Supercup for toy brand Playmobil. British AR specialist Trickshot was behind this trial. It has built its own games engine - a blend of Unreal and Unity - to turn the raw match data into Playmobil figures.

Founder Simon Thompson explained, “We take the 3D data captured by the cameras around the stadium and feed it into our game engine. That allows us to generate completely different camera angles and perspectives you could never achieve in a traditional broadcast. The delay in rendering is just 1.5 seconds.”

Last year, Trickshot partnered with Manchester City and Etihad Airways for a video series united augmented highlights and match footage in a virtual world. The series featured Omar Marmoush’s Premier League Goal of the Season and İlkay Gündoğan’s overhead kick with cityscapes of Abu Dhabi, Hanoi, Hong Kong and Krabi and generated over 80 million views on social.

“There’s huge potential here,” Thompson says. “Imagine a completely different broadcast designed for a different age group. With this approach, you can do fun, creative things—changing hair colours, turning Harry Kane into a golden Ballon d’Or figure, transforming players into stylized characters. You can stream on Twitch and have Twitch commentators gamify the action. All of that becomes possible when you work through the game engine.”

Dominik Scholler, SVP Management & Innovation at Bundesliga Media, sees the convergence as part of a broader shift. “3D data lets us understand exactly where a player is, how their body is positioned, whether they’re using their left or right foot, and how they move dynamically,” he said. “It’s all about enrichment. We’re not creating something entirely new; we’re adding meaningful layers on top of the core match.”

Reitano emphasises that football’s cultural sensitivity requires careful integration. “The how is the complex part,” he said. “Using 3D data in the best possible way—without disrupting the core 90‑minute football experience—is the challenge. Football has a very sensitive audience. Some fans simply aren’t interested in graphics or data. You can’t overwhelm viewers or change the feel of the match.”

At the same time, he sees significant potential for new formats aimed at younger audiences. “When you dive deeper into 3D data, you realise you can overlay real players with other bodies—something we’ve already seen tested in the U.S. This is about attracting new demographics. Linear TV is plateauing, and younger audiences consume sports differently.”

 

YouTube praises UK creativity; pushes back on “forced prominence”

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YouTube’s European and Middle East Chief Pedro Pina emphasised the strength and resilience of UK creativity.

Giving the Edinburgh TV Festival’s main keynote, the MacTaggart Lecture, Pina said, said the UK was entering another Golden Age of Television. “How ironic that during a time when so many say British TV is dying, we have seen some of the best British TV shows of all time. Shows which create cultural conversations on a scale most online creators can only dream of.”

He pointed to the “amazing British TV the so-called ‘streaming revolution’ has already given us” like Baby Reindeer, Rivals, Chernobyl, Slow Horses, Line of Duty and Derry Girls.

“Let’s not sugar-coat it, he warned. “Things will have to change because the playing field TV once dominated has changed. The steady revenue streams and booming budgets that were built upon the central position TV once held cannot be relied upon.

“TV jobs are changing and new skills are now necessary. But if the fear is that the proliferation of creators and platforms will destroy British TV as such, then the history of this medium proves the very opposite is true.”

Pina described a “goldmine” of home-grown creator talent. More than 17,000 UK YouTube channels have over 100,000 subscribers. More than 2,000 have audiences in the millions. Most strikingly, over 80% of UK content is viewed outside the UK. He also claimed that YouTube supports more than 45,000 full-time equivalent UK jobs, contributing over GBP2.2 billion to the British economy.

“In other words, Britain’s global reputation as a creative powerhouse is alive and kicking. So, if the TV industry can adapt once again to changing audience habits and to today’s media landscape, a new Golden Age is the UK’s for the taking.”

However, he fired a warning shot to UK public service broadcasters and the UK government that YouTube would resist attempts by them to “force prominence” in the platform’s algorithms to PSB content over other creators.

“YouTube is a democracy of cultural production,” he said. “Anyone can find an audience. Forced prominence would impair the public interest, by unfairly shifting focus from independent creators and production companies, and by recommending that all our viewers watch the same things, disregarding personal taste.

If this becomes law, many UK-based creators and production companies will see their

livelihoods threatened. UK viewers will have to wade through content they may not want, which in itself could undermine the trust that UK public service broadcasters have built up.”

Creative AI: A Strategic Opportunity for the UK

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The UK is positioned to lead in creative AI and legal frameworks, according to senior figures from across the UK’s television and creative industries at the Edinburgh TV Festival.

“We can’t win the AI arms race. We are too late,” said Particle 6 founder and CEO Aline Van der Velden. “The Chinese with models like SeeDance 2.0. are unbeatable. But we can win the creative space. The UK is in a unique position to lead in AI creativity.”

The strongest argument for UK leadership came from Jonny McCausland, Head of Creative Innovation at Hat Trick Productions, who said the UK could become a global hub for creative AI — particularly in animation.

“I’ve always been frustrated that the UK doesn’t have a much bigger position in the global field of animation. It’s very US‑dominated.” The reason, he argued, is cost: “It’s too expensive and too time‑consuming for UK broadcasters.”

Hat Trick’s work focuses on using AI to streamline the “middle process” of animation production without replacing illustrators, animators or performers. “We’re not changing the creative input,” McCausland said. “It still has to be really good animation. It can’t look like AI.”

Instead, AI can accelerate workflows and reduce costs enough to make UK‑originated animation more viable. “If we can get this good enough, fast enough, at a sensible cost, we can finance differently. Control creative. Control distribution. Go digital‑first and really start to build a brand.”

This shift could allow UK companies to bypass traditional commissioning routes. “The really exciting thing AI unlocks is not needing to go to a commissioner,” he said. “After a year, you could go to the BBC and say: ‘We’ve got a million followers for this. Now let’s talk about the TV show.’”

Provenance, attribution and the UK Advantage

McCausland also emphasised the UK’s potential leadership in AI provenance and attribution, pointing to emerging standards such as C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity).

“C2PA allows us to go to illustrators, writers, performers, use their data to train small AI models, and then track every use of that content on a blockchain‑like ledger,” he said. “You can attach automated remuneration and automated provenance.”

This could ensure creators are paid fairly when their work contributes to AI‑generated content. “If an illustrator’s work trains a model that generates content, and that content is sold, the illustrator gets paid — automatically.”

McCausland argued that the UK is already ahead in this area. “A lot of this work is being done in the UK,” he said. “There’s a huge amount we can do to position the UK as a leader in the creative and legal side.”

For example, the Costar National Lab has published a proposal for a new AI copyright framework for UK creative industries.

AI moves upstream

Banijay UK CEO and Executive Chair Patrick Holland, opened the session by framing AI as a technology already embedded in the industry. “Every major technology in television eventually becomes invisible. If we use it, it disappears into the creative process.”

He pointed to the rise of VFX, green screen, digital cameras and virtual production as examples of tools that were once novel but are now standard. “If you went to a drama set 30 years ago, there would have been no green screen and now we take it as read that VFX will be a major part of any high‑end TV production.”

The real question, Holland argued, was not: Is AI coming to take over television? but How are we going to use it?

Human‑Driven Creativity, AI‑Enabled Workflows

Particle 6 is the creator of AI actor Tilly Norwood, which sparked outrage in Hollywood, particularly among the Screen Actors Guild. A feature film starring Norwood is now in development. “It will take at least 12 months to make, with writers, directors, set designers, costume designers working with AI and skilling everyone up,” Van der Velden said.

Her company is already working with writers, performers and directors who want to experiment with AI, she said.

“If you’re a great writer, AI enhances you,” she said. “It’s about upskilling and retooling people so they’re ready to use AI.”

Peter Archer, Director of the BBC’s Generative AI Programme, outlined the corporation’s position: “All our creative output — TV, audio, journalism — needs to be driven by humans.”

However, he said AI is already transforming workflows, especially in reformatting content across modalities. “Long‑form TV into short‑form rapidly. Podcasts into short‑form. Live audio into text pages. Articles into audio.”

Audience attitudes have shifted dramatically, Archer said. “A year ago everyone was super scared. Now, they see AI as another technology, like VFX.”

Theo Jones, Creative Director for AI at VFX facility Framestore, said AI is finally enabling persuading studios to invest more heavily in pre‑production.

“We’ve been trying to persuade studios for a long time that we should be creative partners from the very beginning,” he said. “If you can spend that money in pre‑production, you can make better choices.”

AI‑driven previz and tech‑viz now allow productions to visualise scenes early, even without actors or full design teams. “It allows you to visualise what something might look like — to a worked‑up state early on,” Jones said. “That means better choices, reduced expense on the shoot, and reduced expense in post.”

He said studios are beginning to echo Framestore’s long‑standing message. “AI has landed in a way that means that message is finally being heard.”

Jones also warned that commissioners are increasingly approaching tech companies directly — often with poor results. “They’re talking past each other,” he said. “Why go to a tech company for something that is a creative process?”

AI-powered automated cameras introduced into live host feed for Supercup

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As part of its drive to generate more content with the same or fewer resources, the Bundesliga conducted a live test of a fully automated pan-tilt-zoom camera system incorporated into the live host feed of the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup.

The live integration has been deployed on other football leagues and others sports before but this is a first for the Bundesliga and also for its broadcast partner Sky.

“We’ve done several tests, including a fully automated tactical feed last week in Hannover for a Bundesliga 2 match,” explained Dave Greene, Sales Director at Dutch AI specialist Studio Automated.

“We’ve already deployed automated PTZ in ice hockey, handball and football in other leagues. This the first time we’re integrating a technical live AI feed into the Bundesliga match experience together with Sky.”

One camera was in operation at Boroussia Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park positioned on the main camera gantry. This was mounted on a HotHead 3 remote head from Egripment Camera Support, part of the Broadcast Solutions Group (BSG).

“On‑site it’s plug‑and‑play,” Greene said. “The camera can be reached remotely, so in a centralised production someone can simply access the system over the internet and start or stop the AI through our API. You can connect multiple cameras. The remote head behaves like a fluid head on a tripod, fully integrated into the OB van infrastructure.”

With Greene was Egripmont CTO Martin Dresbach. He described the HotHead 3 as a fully digital, IP‑based remote head with an API that Studio Automate uses for control. “It can carry heavy packages up to 60 kilos, so large lenses up to 122x are no problem. We provide the hardware; the magic happens in the Studio Automate software.”

Jens Fischer, senior business development manager for Global VAR and Sports Solutions at BSG explained that Studio Automated supports 15 professional sports out of the box.

“It has trained an AI to control cameras exactly as you’d expect in professional sports Naturally, for the Supercup it is using the AI model for football. It’s a multi‑camera model that supports standard football positions: Camera 1, Camera 2, the 16‑metre tactical camera, left and right offside, and the high‑behind‑goal angle. Today we’re running the AI model for the tactical feed.”

The team were keen to emphasise that the AI is not simply ball or object tracking. It has been trained to understand the game.

“The AI doesn’t play ‘catch the ball’ like you might expect,” Fischer said. “It actually understands football. We didn’t hard‑code rules—the AI learned them on its own.”

A corner‑kick example explains this well. Traditional automated systems track the ball and keep it in the centre of the frame. That produces bad pictures, according to Fischer, “half the audience on one side, the ball buried in the corner.

“A real camera operator would frame the corner flag on the left and bring the ball into the shot,” he added. “The AI learned that behaviour independently.”

The AI is also smart enough to understand why a person in black on the touchline never enters the pitch, or why there suddenly appear to be 23 players—because substitutions have happened. “It understands the logic of football and frames the game the way a human operator would.”

Dresbach stressed that the AI doesn’t manipulate the video. “It receives the low‑latency feed and instructs the remote head how to move. Production companies take the direct feed, match it with other cameras, and shade it in real time.

“It’s important to understand that the AI has been trained on football movements and anticipates play. If you track only the ball, you’re always too late—and you frame incorrectly, especially on corners. The system detects the integrity of the game, not just a single object.”

Asked how accurate the system was Greene replied, “We work with top‑tier football leagues that demand extremely high uptime. Football has unique situations, but through iterative updates we can teach the AI how to respond.”

The system control can either be on‑premise (which it was at the Supercup) or at a remote production centre. “The AI analyses the live feed coming from the camera lens and sends instructions to pan, tilt and zoom, Dresbach said. “The remote head then executes those movements, giving you the natural look and feel of a football match.”

While a tactical feed was demonstrated here, the Studio Automated-BSG combination can offer solutions for Camera 1, left and right offside, and high‑behind‑goal positions.

“It gives production companies flexibility to blend manual and automated production,” Greene said. “If you have a traditional production and want to add more cameras cost‑effectively, we provide a way to do that.”

Pressed as to whether this inevitably leads to fewer camera-ops down the line, Greene said:

 “Things are changing on the operator side. In five years we may have fewer camera operators, or simply more flexibility. Recently at a EuroLeague playoff—a very downscaled production—they used one AI tactical camera because the budget allowed adding one more camera. In future, automated 16‑metre cameras could let productions stay within budget while increasing coverage. It’s not about replacing people; it’s about doing more with the same budget.”

Supervising this and a whole array of other tech trials was Alexander Günther, Managing Director of Sportcast. The wholly-owned subsidiary of the DFL produces the host signal for all Bundesliga and BL2 matches – some 700 events a year. 

“This is part of our methodological approach: idea, concept, POCs, iterative development, and finally delivery. And today—it’s delivery,” he said.

The AI-powered feed will be evaluated but likely rolled out as standard for every Tuesday 20:30 match this season.

At the Supercup, Sportcast were hosting the match not only for the Bundesliga match but also Sky and other domestic and international partners. The AI tactical feed was in addition to the ‘platinum setup’ of 28 cameras which it reserves for the bigger games such as Der Klassiker.

While Sony and GV systems cameras are in dominant use across the season this may change as Sportcast evaluates ARRI live cameras.

“We tested ARRI cameras at Sports Innovation two years ago, and yes, we’ll continue testing them. They offer different shading, different perspectives, and a more cinematic look, which is increasingly in demand for documentaries.”

Volumetric capture was also being tested with twenty cameras arrayed around the pitch perimeter. “It’s non‑live for now, mainly for highlight editing, but it looks very good,” Günther said.

Even Meta glasses were being used for the first time in an early exploration of the potential angles and fresh point of view a live stream from wearers (in the tunnel for example) might bring.

Günther echoed the thoughts of Bundesliga CEO in highlighting the macro challenge that he now faces which is balancing the shared experience of soccer with personalisation.

“Historically there was one world feed. Now we’re exploring how to provide both a world feed and individualised streams.

“Centralised production helps enormously. It allows us to bring all feeds into one hub and distribute them to different editorial teams. Automation and AI will change this further—fewer camera operators and more potential for personalised feeds. The next big innovation will be integrating 3D data and audio into a completely new production layer.

“Our primary responsibility however is to provide the correct source. Audio, video, and data has to be accurate and captured live from the field of play. Fans need to trust that what they see is real.”

Bundesliga places AI at centre of its media strategy

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Introducing the Bundesliga’s latest showcase of technology innovation Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) CEO  Steffen Merkel put the emphasis firmly on AI.

“AI is not just another tech trend for us,” Merkel said. “It is becoming a fundamental capability that runs through the entire organisation, just as it does in many other industries—including sports and football.”

The event, held in Dortmund over the weekend ahead of the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup, featured presentations, a tour of Boroussia Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park and VIP boxes stuffed full of new toys.

“I’m a firm believer in trying things early and learning from every experiment,” said Merkel, who oversees the league’s media and digital strategy. “Sometimes a prototype becomes a product; sometimes it doesn’t. But there is always added value in the process.”

More than 43 million people in Germany—almost half the population—follow the Bundesliga, spanning all demographics, each consuming content differently. Internationally, the diversity is even greater.

“This makes it clear why technology is essential to scale, localise, and personalise content for fans everywhere,” he said.

With around 400 employees across the organisation and roughly 250 dedicated to content production, the Bundesliga faces a scale challenge familiar to many rights holders. “When it comes to our international fan base and localisation, it’s impossible to do that manually. So AI is a huge opportunity for us to close the gap.”

The raw material feeding AI are 200 million data points collected for each match. Event data, positional tracking and 3D tracking feed innovations such as Bundesliga Match Facts powered by AWS, semi‑automated offside detection and automated event recognition. “Match data has become ever more intertwined with the media product,” he added, describing a future where real‑time insights shape fan engagement, media production, and increasingly the sport on the pitch (through AI assisted coaching and scouting for example).

From a study into AI commissioned by the league two commercial trends stood out. “The ones with the highest probability are personalised content and content scaling,” explained Professor Sascha Schmidt, Chair and Director of the Center for Sport and Management (CSM) at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management. Experts expect “a seamless integration of individually curated content in real time” to be standard by 2030, alongside the ability to “double the amount of Bundesliga content produced with the same resources.”

AI officiating support generated the strongest divide. “There was no clear consensus,” Schmidt said, with desirability scores sharply split.

The study also found that clubs recognise AI’s potential but feel “only moderately prepared” to capture its full value due to limited resources, talent and know‑how.

“Our task as a league is to unlock these potentials and help clubs do the same,” Merkel added. “Some clubs are already well equipped; others—especially in Bundesliga 2—benefit from us acting as an early‑stage accelerator.”

Bundesliga tests localised world feeds

The Bundesliga has taken a significant step toward reshaping how global football audiences experience live matches, unveiling early results from a proof‑of‑concept (POC) exploring localised world feeds. The initiative, led by Tabea Wagner, Senior Manager Live Product at Bundesliga Media, aims to deliver tailored match broadcasts for international markets without compromising the integrity of the league’s central production.

“As a rights holder, it’s our responsibility to deliver a top‑notch media product—especially for fans who aren’t privileged to sit in the stadium,” Wagner said. “We want to be the most fan-centric league – but if a Bundesliga match is not shown because there is no local commentary we cannot create any engagment.“

Today, the Bundesliga distributes one English world feed to dozens of markets with different languages, cultures and viewing habits. While broadcasters often add local commentary, resource constraints mean localisation is inconsistent.

“Our concept is straightforward,” Wagner explained. “We want to create many experiences based on the same feed. To do that, we add new layers—graphics localisation, commentary localisation, and eventually content localisation.”

Four factors convinced the league that the timing was right: rising fan demand for personalised experiences; rapid advances in AI translation and cloud workflows; an industry shift from satellite to streaming distribution; and growing momentum among other rights holders pursuing similar strategies. The Bundesliga’s partnership with AWS provides the technical backbone.

The POC focused on graphics localisation and audio localisation. Bundesliga Media worked with workflow‑orchestration startup Logic, running on AWS infrastructure, to coordinate the process.

Graphics localisation was tested using two methods and four service partners

·        Template‑driven HTML5 graphics, translated in advance and triggered by metadata managed by Vizrt.

·        Computer‑vision models that detect, translate and replicate graphics in parallel streams managed by mobii.

Audio localisation also followed two paths:

·        AI translation of the existing English commentary into multiple languages provided by Camb.AI

·        AI‑generated commentary based on match data, including 3D tracking, from Valka.AI.

Providers were asked to localise graphics into Arabic and German, translate commentary into Spanish and German, and generate new English commentary.

What worked—and what didn’t

“From a technical perspective, it is working,” Wagner said. But challenges remain.

Latency is a major obstacle for live environments. Graphics localisation proved more complex than expected—not in quality, but in how it fits into existing infrastructure. And language localisation is “not yet market‑ready.”

“Latency must go down,” Wagner said. “Commentary needs more emotionality and authenticity. And grammar errors must be eliminated. If the commentary isn’t as good as a human, we won’t put it into production.”

What’s next?

The league will continue monitoring service‑provider development and gather feedback from media partners to build a clear roadmap. Wagner emphasised that the future may not require more content—just more relevant experiences based on the same content.

“Localisation is a possible path,” she said. “It’s too early for conclusions, but it’s worth exploring—and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

At the Super Cup, another layer of sign‑language localisation was trialled in partnership with Synapse.

The more difficult question is whether personalisation should extend to the live match feed itself. Merkel acknowledges the tension.

“Given all the content and visualisation possibilities, the question becomes: do you want every fan to have their own individual experience, or do you still want a shared, joint experience? That’s the trade‑off. On one side, you have deep personalisation; on the other, the common experience that defines football culture.”

He describes this as one of the central debates in football’s AI future. “This is part of the journey toward AI. Finding the right balance between individualisation and togetherness.”