La Liga has made live match broadcasts better with AR enhancements

With the Covid-19 pandemic having changed how we watch sports live, La Liga has brought on a host of new on-screen augmented reality (AR) features that work to enhance the live broadcast experience of the matches over the 2020-2021 season.

Thanks to the AR software, La Liga’s broadcast partners are now able to utilise in-game graphics, tracking data and predictive analytics while they broadcast these matches on their channels.

The in-game graphics include information like team possession, corners, tactics, number of fouls, attacking areas, penalties and more.

La Liga’s head of content and programming Roger Brosel explained that the adoption of AR has lead to an increase in engagement across video content on the league’s official social media channels and also adds a ne dimension to the overall coverage of the matches.

Brosel added that since the beginning of this season, there have been more clips with additional graphics and sometimes it also contained data that can’t actually be seen while watching a match broadcast.

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While they do think live matches and video content on social media are complementary, at times they do compete with each other, Brosel said adding that they use social media to back up live production.

He have the example of a clip on Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois who is currently one of the best players because of the number of goals he has stopped. Brosel explained that with the data they were able to analyse his performance and the consumption of that material continued through the week. The whole idea is to add a new layer of data that us useful for conversation and thus consumption continues as well.

These nifty AR upgrades are a part of La Liga’s multi-million euro digital transformation that also includes the use of drones for select league matches including El Clasico. These additions come after Mediapro, La Liga’s broadcast production partner, got special permission from the Spanish government to use drones.

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Brosel pointed out that they have used helicopters for some matches, but drones will allow them to fly lower and closer to the stadium allowing for more attractive visuals.