Innovation in sports media

This award recognises new ways media connects audiences with sport. A strong emphasis is on unique approaches that can attract new audiences to sport, engage audiences and encourage people to become more active in sport. This may include a combination of interactive graphics, use of social media, multimedia, audio, animation and live interaction, crowd-sourcing and models of distribution.

2021 Winner

Social Media Innovation, UEFA EURO 2020, Optus Sport

A hyper-engaged fanbase is at the core of Optus Sport's Football content.

To connect with these fans, Optus Sport uses high-volume publishing of fit-for-purpose content designed to generate conversation and shareability across numerous platforms. During UEFA EURO 2020, Optus collaborated with TikTok to produce a live mobile-first daily show. This led to more than 100,000 new followers to the Optus Sport TikTok account and attracted more than 40 million video views across four-weeks.

YouTube “Watch-Alongs” were developed as a second screen live experience allowing direct engagement while Facebook Fan Battles powered our on-screen graphics to display real-time results. Instagram Live allowed Optus Sport to create authentic audience connections via real-time communication.

Finalists

Making the Call, Emma Race, Lucy Race

The participation rates of women and girls in sport are rising rapidly.

Australian women’s national teams are excelling on the world stage and garnering incredible audiences. Yet sports media is still dominated by male voices. Making The Call, opens in a new tab was created to equip women with sports broadcasting aspirations with the skills, knowledge, mentors and networks to make meaningful steps forward in their career. It has already run programs for 36 women from more than ten sports.

Since completing the course graduates have gone on to call play-by-play, been boundary riders, provided special comments, hosted TV sports shows, written for major newspapers, and been ground announcers for major sporting events such as the AFLW Grand Final.

Fox Cricket Saves the Day (And Series), Australia v India 4th Test, Fox Sports

The average viewer watching the 2020-21 fourth Test between Australia and India wouldn't realise how close the series came to being cancelled amid the nationwide COVID outbreak.

It was the adaptable and hard-working Fox Cricket production crew of 97 people who kept the series alive – despite unparalleled challenges with the technical logistics. To meet ICC requirements, Fox Cricket placed eight staff inside the Cricket Australia bubble to operate Ball Tracking, while Snicko and Hotspot were run from Sydney and Brisbane respectively.

The game and cameras were based at the Gabba, produced via the hub control rooms in Sydney and the graphics were added to the coverage in Melbourne. Commentators were based in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Mumbai, India.

Live VR Aerial Analysis, Stan Sport/Channel Nine

Bringing the viewer into the gameday experience was a central part of Stan Sport’s rugby coverage in 2021.

Live Augmented Reality Aerial Analysis brought fans were taken even closer to the action while the use of Spidercam at the stadium or a jib in the studio, helped create a viewpoint that allowed the natural environment to become the graphic's background. Viewers could then see a visual spread of statistic with accurate augmented reality markers that appear on the field.

Superimposing a virtual screen alongside the virtual markers added another layer of depth.