Scudamore Wants Technology Ahead of 39th Game

Richard Scudamore, canada sale Premier League chief executive believes overseas audience would be captivated with innovative broadcast technology rather than introducing a 39th game.

The Premier League have teamed up with Sony and Electronic Arts to find out new methods to improve the viewing experience. The League has previously explored controversial plans to take regular season games abroad, see but Scudamore has declared an end to that idea.

“There’s been a step-change from standard definition to high definition in terms of how people consume football, order ” he said. “3D is coming along and there have been all these new devices coming on to the scene. There will soon be a technological development that will allow people across the world to have a much richer type of experience in terms of watching and consuming football. Our efforts and energies are concentrated in that area, rather than they are in the old-fashioned and passé idea of flying around the world playing a 39th game. We’ll find a technological solution.”

The concept of “immersion” style technology may only be a few years from being publicly available, still Scudamore is keen to ensure the Premier League remains at the vanguard of innovation. “There’s immersion technology being developed right now where you can sit down with headphones and a screen in front of you, and reproduce the feeling of being in a stadium,” he added. “If you turn your head one way you’re looking at the left-hand goal and the other way you’re looking at the right-hand goal. You’ll be able to decide where you want to be: you could be on a Saturday at 3pm, English time, in Hong Kong deciding whether you want to be on the Kop end at Anfield or the Holte End at Aston Villa. There’ll be a drop down menu and you’ll be able to choose where you want to be and watch the game. It’ll be like an Avatar type of thing available in your own home. It might sound pie in the sky, but it’s not.”