SVG Europe
As the first big game of the season, the Supercup presents the Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) with an annual chance to showcase the media products it has recently developed. And this year’s curtain raiser between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and VfB Stuttgart at the BayArena on Saturday 17 August was no exception.
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“Innovation is really important for us,” explained Dominik Scholler in charge of DFL’s international product portfolio, ahead of the match. “We try to be ahead of the curve by trying new things very early. We look at disruptive tech, which has the potential to really revolutionise how you experience media products, such as immersive reality. At the same time, incremental innovations are very important for us because these help to constantly improve our media product.
“Because none of us can really predict the future it’s very important to monitor each innovation to understand which ones we move forward with.”
The DFL doesn’t just take learnings from internal experimentation but watches developments in other leagues, other sports and other entertainment properties too.
“We try to understand what the best examples are that we can see in the general entertainment industry,” said Scholler. “We ask for feedback from fans and media partners and adapt our media product.”
On the incremental side being trialled at the Supercup are new camera feeds following the team out of their team bus on arrival at the stadium and then, a little later, following them into the sanctum of the locker room. In addition, both teams provided a player in the starting lineup for an interview just after the bus arrives. One interview was conducted by pay-TV rights holder Sky Deutschland and the other by free-to-air broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1.
“Everything is in effort to get viewers closer to the pitch and the atmosphere,” said Scholler.
In the same vein ‘super, super flash interviews’ were arranged for immediately after the final whistle with players and managers on the pitch, something familiar from the Champions League but new to the Bundesliga. There was also a new half-time interview with one of each teams’ assistant coaches to get a feel for what was being discussed in the locker room.
There will be further such trials this season with the aim of adding them into regular Bundesliga matchday coverage from 2025-26.
RefCam video trials
Also trialled at the Supercup was live video streamed from a tiny Riedel-designed RefCam worn by the official over his ear (pointing forwards). Footage included pitch inspections and team handshakes prior to the game.
Football’s law making body IFAB currenttly does not permit any live footage to be used from refcams, though DFL execs as well as representatives of Riedel hinted that this could change.
“We are trying to push them and I personally think it’s probably only a question of time,” said Scholler. “When it is allowed we want to be in the position that we can activate it.”
RefCam was devised as a joint venture named In-YS (In Your Shoes), in which Riedel collaborated with referees Patrick Kessel and Nicolas Winter. The system comprises a head-mounted camera weighing just 6g integrated with a transmission system that can stream live or recorded footage. Its battery can last about 90 minutes. The system features a mute and shutdown function for the mic to ensure privacy for the referee using the system.
The RefCam debuted as a trial in a match at the beginning of the year between Eintracht Frankfurt and VfL Wolfsburg using just the record-only version. One aim is to bring greater transparency to officiating and give fans a greater understanding of the challenges of being a referee.
DFL Digital Sports also produces its own Netflix-style documentaries, including one last season built around the Bundesliga 1 relegation battle, and makes it available as part of the rights package. It’s something that is only possible with the close cooperation of the clubs.
“We basically knocked on the doors of the clubs that were in the lower part of the table and asked if we could accompany the teams and head coaches in the closing half of the season. That’s something you can’t script but turned out to be super exciting [culminating in the play-off between Fortuna Düsseldorf and Bochum].”
One of the reasons the DFL team chose this story to concentrate on, rather than Bayer Leverkusen’s historic run to the title, was to give fans in US markets an understanding of what relegation means to teams.
“That was exactly the story we wanted to tell and we will definitely go on and produce more content like that in the future,” he added.
In-car live match streaming
In the camp of emerging immersive applications was a live stream to displays in a BMW car. The DFL views the sale of rights for in-car experiences as a new type of media inventory.
“We see a trend within the automotive industry to develop in-car entertainment systems and therefore they need the best content,” said Roman Schade, the DFL’s head of audio visual rights in the DACH region. “We think that Bundesliga is really valuable in this regard.”
In 2023 the DFL began a project with BMW to broadcast select Bundesliga matches live and on demand into BMWs equipped with its in-car entertainment system. It was the first professional sports league anywhere to make such a move.
“The idea is to have dedicated content for dedicated driving situations,” he said. “So if the customer is waiting at the traffic lights and a goal has been scored, they can click a button and replay the 15 seconds of the goal. They can watch recorded highlights while waiting for the engine to charge. Those in the back seat or passenger seat can watch the game live anytime.”
The BWM 7 Series car showcasing the live streamed Supercup action in the OB compound at BayArena retails at around €180,000 but the TV system itself (built around an Amazon Firestick) is available in most BMW models including its cheaper range. Indeed, the pilot programme featuring live in-car Bundesliga matches (along with apps like YouTube) is said to be already included in over 400,000 vehicles.
“It’s a global use case, not only a German case available in premium cars, and also on a broader range of cars for Bundesliga fans around the world,” said Schade. “We’re looking to triple that 400,000 number by the end of the year.”
The full package includes immersive surround sound, vibrating seat movements (similar to a 4D cinema experience) and even lighting effects that might activate in the colours of your team when they score.
“You could even have the car emit scent so that it smells like the pitch,” said Schade. “I know that sounds gimmicky but it also has a purpose in giving the fan an immersive experience.”
The signal itself is transmitted over cell networks to a SIM card built into the BMW’s in-car entertainment system. The deal with BMW is non-exclusive and the DFL is looking for other automotive manufacturers to hop aboard.
Scholler sees it as a logical evolution of classic radio transmission where fans consumed football by listening live while travelling.
“We believe that there is a new model where people can consume football as a video product in the car where they couldn’t do so before. Rapid developments in autonomous driving will free drivers up on the autobahn [for viewing the live stream],” he concluded.
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