After last year’s games in Munich, NFL marks first professional game in Frankfurt
NFL Media is enjoying another fruitful trip overseas to the European continent in 2023, having produced two games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London and with two upcoming contests in Germany in November. For the league’s production arm, the games in the English capital set the broadcaster up nicely for its first foray in Frankfurt.
“London has been a great home for our two games,” says Dave Shaw, VP/head of media operations, NFL Media. (A third game in the NFL International Series, at London’s Wembley Stadium on Oct. 1, streamed on ESPN+.) “Now we’re excited to bring the first NFL games to Frankfurt exclusively on NFL Network and carried on NFL+.”
New Game, New City: Ops Team Preps Plan After Frankfurt Announcement
Looking to expand the game of football to more countries, the National Football League hosted a regular-season game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Munich on Nov. 13, 2022. The crew knew that the league would want to do something similar this year, but where wasn’t clear until the league announced the NFL International Series in the spring. Frankfurt’s experience with the now-defunct NFL Europe league had created a hotbed of fandom.
“Munich was remarkable with how many fans there were for the game, but Frankfurt has an avid NFL fanbase,” says Shaw. “Frankfurt really wanted us [to go] there. On the NFL Media side, we had to figure out when we were going to do our site surveys and how we were going to cover these games.”
From left: CBS Sports’ Michael Aagaard; NFL Media’s Adam Acone and Rhett VanBuskirk; EMG’s Kate Marron; NFL Media’s Dave Shaw; and BMTV’s Bill Morris at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London
At Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park, the infrastructure will be a lot different from last year’s. The 2022 game was played at Allianz Arena, home of Bundesliga juggernauts Bayern Munich and a building accustomed to hosting sports events but not NFL football.
“With a European football pitch being a different size than an NFL field,” says Shaw, “there were challenges when it came to camera and announce positions. [Allianz Arena] had to adjust for locker rooms and end zones, but we don’t have to do that in Frankfurt. We had to account for certain things for pylon cameras [in Frankfurt], and we had to do some scouting since an official NFL game had never been played there, but the sizing for our number of cameras is great.”
Stateside Studio Shows: Talent in L.A. Highlight Participating Cities
In the week prior as well as in programming beginning at 7 a.m. ET for 9:30 a.m. kickoffs, NFL Media showcases each host city. For the London games, sideline reporter Jamie Erdahl conducted hits in front of famous locations, such as Buckingham Palace. To learn the lay of the land in Germany and the spots to shed light on, the crew visited Frankfurt during this year. The content is driven by SVP/Head of Content Mark Quenzel and Executive Producer Charlie Yook.
“Whether it’s studio programming for games like the Super Bowl, the NFL Draft, and this international effort,” says Shaw, “we try to [feature the host city] everywhere we go. It has become a consistent theme, and we hope that fans are getting a taste of each location.”
On the studio side, the team is moving away from bringing its premier shows, Good Morning Football and GameDay Morning, to the European cities and is hosting the programs from its West Coast headquarters in Los Angeles.
“We’ll also have a sideline set with three cameras and jib and a sideline reporter for the first game in Frankfurt,” notes Shaw. “It takes a little bit of coordination and communication between our onsite team and the team in Los Angeles.”
The Premier League venue has hosted eight NFL games since opening in April 2019.
Instead of shipping a desk overseas, the team tapped Tran-Sport to create and customize the onsite studio desk used for the international games. The team handling onsite duties in Frankfurt is led by Senior Director, Media Operations, Adam Acone and Senior Tech Manager Rhett VanBuskirk. Back home, a handful of individuals are providing their expertise to the project: VP, Broadcast Engineering, Bruce Goldfeder and Director, Engineering, Lorey Andres linking the facility with the onsite compound; by VP, Studio Operations, Jessica Lee coordinating stateside studio; and VP, Media Operations, Tony Cole; Director, Media Operations, Mike Cunningham; and Director, Media Operations Distribution, Binnie Davis creating a complex transmission plan.
In addition to serving as the home of studio programming, the L.A. facility will provide disaster relief in the case of lost power or transmission from the venue in Germany. Operationally, if the truck compound loses power, the stateside studio will be combined with one camera covering the game and the commentary booth powered by an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).
Overseas Tech: EMG Mobile Units, 25 Cameras Top Onsite Arsenal
Live game coverage in Frankfurt will leverage a total of 25 cameras. Notable elements include a Spidercam aerial camera, nearside and farside cart cameras, and the international debut of two pieces of equipment: C360 pylon cameras with EMG connectivity and a C360 line-to-gain camera. The first-and-10-line is supplied by G3 Technology servers onsite; clock and score, by SMT.
“It’s one of the bigger shows that we produce,” says Shaw. “Our audio is another major area that we focus on. To me, it’s interesting that the fans in Europe sometimes cheer at [different] times than our U.S. fans during the same game. For instance, they’ll break out into ‘Sweet Caroline’. We’ll also bring in our effects mics to hear what’s going on at the line of scrimmage since the fans seem to be quieter before the snap comes.”
From a personnel perspective, NFL Media is tapping the expertise of CBS Sports for production operations and technological support. These plans were finalized with the help of CBS Sports EVP, Operations and Engineering, Patty Power; VP, Remote Technical Operations, Jason Cohen; VP, Sports Technology, Greg Coppa; and Tech Manager Michael Aagaard. In the compound are EMG mobile units and facilities. Technical supervision is being handled by BMTV CEO Bill Morris, who previously served as EMG COO. Onsite support is offered by EMG Tech Manager Kate Marron. Besides the U.S.-based crew, local technicians will be involved in each show.
“We’ll be hiring some local professionals for our crew in Frankfurt,” says Shaw. “We will also have the core group of people from EMG.”
Building Blocks: Crew Uses Previous Games as Blueprint for Broadcasts
With a break between the two games in London and the two in Frankfurt, Shaw and company are regrouping and reflecting on the London productions. It’s also a time for NFL Media to sit down with both CBS Sports and EMG to iron out any wrinkles before hitting the ground in Germany.
“CBS Sports and EMG are great partners,” says Shaw. “We’re working through [the changes] with both teams. There were no real bumps going [into these games], but there has been a lot of communication.”
Growing the Game in Germany: Constant Effort, NFL+ Provide Platform for Domestic Fans
The NFL is making its weekly set of games available on numerous platforms. Linear broadcasting is one way of consuming the action, but, over the past two seasons, NFL+ has been cultivated into a viable option for viewers who are cutting the cord or want to experience the league digitally. This season, the platform introduced NFL RedZone within its premium tier, and, through the app, fans can also enjoy these games played in Europe.
“We were fortunate to have started NFL+ last year as our direct-to-consumer platform and allow people to watch these games on this new outlet this year,” says Shaw. “It has been very successful as far as [our operations team] getting the video feeds to them and everything working and getting out there.”
Growing the game is the NFL’s ultimate goal, and, having made significant inroads in the UK and having lots of fans in Mexico, the league is setting its sights on Germany.
“I think the door is open not only in Germany but all over Europe and the world,” says Shaw. “The league has been talking to countries that are vying to have American football played there. There’s certainly an interest that we’re excited about.”
Next month, NFL Network will broadcast two games from Frankfurt, Germany: the Miami Dolphins vs. Kansas City Chiefs on Nov. 5 and the Indianapolis Colts vs. New England Patriots on Nov. 12., at 9:30 a.m.