SONY AND NFL LAUNCH NEW TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIP; Included is Hawk-Eye Innovations to Potentially Replace Line to Gain Crews

The NFL and Sony announced a partnership naming Sony as an official technology partner of the NFL, as well as the new official choice for headphones of the NFL.

Sony and the NFL will collaborate with coaches, players, teams and leadership across the organization to transform the future of football. This includes an expansion of Sony’s sports technology through Hawk-Eye Innovations to support officiating and the development of on-field and sideline technologies, including a new coach’s sideline headset that will debut in the 2025 season.

The NFL and Sony will work closely to develop this new headset supporting coach-to-coach communication on the field, powered by Verizon Business’ Managed Private Wireless Solution running on Verizon’s reliable 5G network.

Sony’s Hawk-Eye tracking services will be used to further enhance the accuracy of game-critical items like line-to-gain measurement. Sony’s Beyond Sports and its expertise in real-time visualization will help engage the next generation of NFL fans.

The new partnership is the latest example of Sony’s deep integration throughout NFL games, ranging from sideline photography and broadcast cameras and production to technology that supports officiating, enhancements for in-stadium fan experiences and more.

Sony’s extensive technology solutions capture some of the most memorable moments of the NFL, bringing fans the excitement and unpredictability of the game with world-class precision. Within the game itself, Hawk-Eye’s technology has supported the NFL Officiating Department to review and make critical rulings on plays. For the coming seasons, Hawk-Eye and the NFL will collaborate in the development of a next-generation officiating technology leveraging Hawk-Eye’s state-of-art line-to-gain optical tracking technology to review and make critical ruling on plays, helping to achieve the highest level of game integrity.

The technology and data captured by Hawk-Eye paired with player tracking data from the NFL’s Next Gen Stats powered by AWS and Sony’s Beyond Sports’ visualization technology will create new avenues for real-time content creation like ESPN, Disney and the NFL’s Emmy-award winning “Toy Story Funday Football” alternate game presentation during the 2023 season, which brought a younger and more global audience to the game as the biggest live event to date on Disney+.

Since 2020, Sony has been the exclusive imaging products and support provider for The Associated Press, a trusted global news organization and the definitive source for NFL imagery. Sony’s imaging ecosystem has been AP’s exclusive camera choice for all NFL coverage, producing many incredible images of the league’s most defining moments over the course of the last four years.

Sony cameras have also been used by NFL broadcast partners including CBS Sports, ESPN, FOX Sports and NBC Sports for decades, including coverage of the League’s biggest games and the Super Bowl.

Sony products and technologies are used extensively in many NFL stadiums across the country, with opportunities to expand further as teams and organizations continue to evolve their in-game experiences for fans. Additionally, the new NFL Network studios in Inglewood, California have recently shifted many of their key operations and cameras over to Sony technology.

With this new partnership, the NFL and Sony will continue to work together to create new opportunities within football through the power of technology. They remain committed to evolving the game to maximize engagement and enjoyment for fans, coaches and players alike.