PVI Virtual Media Services, the company best-known for providing the virtual first-down line graphic for CBS’ National Football League coverage, is helping Major League Baseball to deliver targeted ads during its overseas broadcasts of this year’s World Series.
Major League Baseball International -- which is broadcasting the games to 229 countries and territories in some 13 languages -- will use one production truck outfitted with PVI’s virtual-overlay technology to integrate different virtual advertisements for four separate international feeds.
Multiple international outputs of virtual ads behind home plate will be operated by a single person through a fully automated system, replacing the need for multiple systems and numerous on-site trucks and reducing the possibility of inserting the wrong virtual ad in an international feed.
PVI will deploy the system during international broadcasts of the World Series to Canada, Japan, Latin America and Mexico. Previously, PVI provided virtual-advertising integration during telecasts of the MLB All-Star Game in July and the 2006 World Baseball Classic.
The MLBI application this week is another example of how PVI has simplified the use of its virtual-overlay technology. For CBS’ NFL coverage, for example, it figured out a way to insert the virtual first-down line “downstream,” back at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York, eliminating the need for a dedicated production truck at each venue. It is now extending that production scheme to other sports, such as college football, which greatly reduces the costs required to do virtual overlays and advertising placements.
“Major League Baseball International is excited to debut PVI’s new virtual technology via the MLBI world feed of the 2007 World Series,” said Paul Archey, senior vice president of international business operations for MLB, in a statement. “Our relationship with PVI has continually established new frontiers in sports broadcasting, accommodating surging demand from our valued partners and providing an entertaining viewing experience for fans around the world.”
