NFL Radio

The Switch Pioneers Remote Radio Broadcasting Solution to Enhance Live Experience of NFL Games

While many professional sports leagues opted for a return to play inside sanitized “bubbles” during the global pandemic, the NFL decided to allow play in all 30 of its stadiums but still needed to find a way to overcome limits on visiting local broadcast teams within each
Local radio crews covering each team were unable to fully set up in venues for away games due to restrictions in onsite personnel – meaning radio coverage from the sidelines was limited, preventing the commentators from seeing all the live action and fully reporting on the game
Individual NFL teams turned to The Switch to find a solution that would enable their local radio teams to take in all the live football action as it unfolded, allowing them to report and provide insight into road games despite not being there in person

With connectivity at every major sports venue in the US, The Switch was able to develop a unique remote solution that created a rich viewing environment for each radio broadcast crew
Tapped its robust low-latency network to deliver ‘dirty’ live feeds of NFL games – plus some clean feeds to provide even more context – to the radio team in the city of each visiting team without interruption
NFL allowed The Switch to take feeds from the main participating networks – CBS, Fox, ESPN and NBC – and feed them back to the local radio rights holders so they could view all the live action as it happened
Ensured all radio commentators could absorb everything occurring on the field and call the game in real time

The Switch’s long-standing partnership with the NFL meant they were able to gain support from the league and were the chosen partner to deliver the project for 28 of 30 teams
The Switch engineering team was able to develop the unique solution in rapid time, with a deployment-ready solution being pitched within days of the problem being flagged
Able to work with every team on a case-by-case basis to solve any issues specific to each radio broadcaster or away-game site