The inaugural Athletes Unlimited softball season will start August 30th, and softball fans will be able to watch all 30 games live on ESPN and CBS Sports. Athletes Unlimited will partner with both ESPN and CBS Sports.
CBS Sports and ESPN
CBS Sports Network is the lead broadcast television partner and will televise seven games in the U.S and Canada. ESPN will offer 23 games combined between television and digital channels. ESPN will distribute games throughout Spanish-speaking Latin America and in Canada via its partner TSN. New broadcast technologies, it will break down every aspect of play and incorporate player and fan content.
Via press release, Jon Patricof said, “We are thrilled to be working with CBS and ESPN. It was extremely important to us to offer our games to a broad audience and not require an additional paid subscription. These deals will allow our games to reach as wide of an audience as possible of both existing fans of softball as well as general sports fans. These partnerships will provide sports fans with the opportunity to watch every second of competition featuring the best softball players on the planet this summer,” said Jon Patricof, Co-Founder and CEO of Athletes Unlimited. “We look forward to highlighting our players through compelling storytelling and incorporating new technologies that will cover every
angle of play and integrate content from both players and our fans.”
Production
The production will blend unique player access with new broadcast technologies to provide
viewers in-depth insight into players, game scoring, and real-time player rankings. The league plans
to highlight these innovative elements as part of each broadcast:
- The Piero System, which is an award-winning sports analysis tool created by Ross Video. Piero
uses image recognition or encoded camera heads to overlay tactical graphics on sports content.
Piero brings new angles to every game, on the screen with visually engaging and informative
effects that will include individual player scoring; - Inception social media integration will enable social media content to be produced into on-air
graphics presentation; - Super Slow-Motion camera will be used to break down plays, pitcher’s ball release, ball
rotation, bat contact and key moments; - All-Access Player Audio will deliver the sounds of the game from mics on players and umpires.
CBS Sports and ESPN televising the softball games will be great for the ladies. It is an opportunity for fans to see some of the best women’s softball players compete against each other. Also, its a chance for young fans to learn more about softball.
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