Adding Information to Complement a Football Broadcast : Exploring the possibilities of improving the viewer experience of a broadcasted football game with the use of additional information through motion tracking

Abstract: This thesis aims to explore the possibilities of improving the viewer experience of a broadcasted football game with the use of additional information, applied to the footage with the use of motion tracking. This work was conducted in collaboration with SVT Design. which is the inhouse department of the Swedish television network (SVT) tasked with designing, developing and creating graphical solutions. One of the systems developed by SVT Design is the character generator Caspar CG. Which is an open source CG system used worldwide for broadcasting productions. In the spring of 2018, SVT Design presented the idea of incorporating a motion tracking feature within Caspar CG. This would be a feature which could be used during broadcasted sporting events to provide the viewers with additional information regarding the ongoing event. With the use of motion tracking, the additional information could be presented in a dynamic manner in the sense that the information would follow the motion of the tracked object. This thesis aimed to answer the following three research questions; What type of information could be displayed? When and how could this information be displayed? and lastly, how could the addition of information change the viewer’s experience of the football game? The conclusions aimed to provide SVT Design with a set of guidelines and requirements regarding the design and implementation of the additional information in a manner that would promote a positive viewer experience. The methodology applied for this thesis was a qualitative methodology utilizing research activities such as semi-structured interviews featuring three staff members of SVTs department of sport productions. The observation of two broadcasted football games. Along with two focus groups in which the participants were presented with a prototype developed in Adobe After Effects. Consisting of footage from the 2010 FIFA world cup along with additional information that was applied with the use of motion tracking. Through the analysis of the collected data, several recurring keywords and notions were identified and translated into requirements. The requirements, which was structured around the three research questions. Is for example that the information needs to be player specific and to provide an insight of the potential outcome of the game. Another example of a requirement being that the information is to be displayed when there is a break in action during the game. The result from this thesis indicated that if the specified requirements were met. The additional information applied during the broadcast could provide an improvement of the viewer’s experience of watching the broadcasted football game.