On Saturday April 16, 2022, the United States Football League (USFL) had its first game between the New Jersey Generals and the Birmingham Stallions and in that game, Fox Sports debuted their state of the art broadcasting technology. Fox Sports is no stranger in Football broadcasting as they have had a long history of broadcasting NFL games, but now Fox Sports has more freedom in their broadcasting choices since Fox Sports owns the USFL, giving Fox Sports the power to implement whatever broadcasting technology they would like.

Some of the broadcasting technology that Fox Sports is implementing includes two skycams, camera drones, helmet cams, first-down-measuring system, and numerous personal microphones. Although most of this is not new technology, it is the first time we are seeing it all implemented in a professional football game at such a large scale. Previously Fox would have to gain the permission of the NFL to implement these decisions, but now they have the power to make the decision with no outside approval. Fox Sports’ USFL broadcasting decisions have proven to paid off since the overall feedback of the season opening broadcast was incredibly positive.

Fox Sports has twenty (20) patent assets in the Patent Forecast® Sports Analytics sector with most of their patent assets directed to broadcasting technology. Fox Sports will be working with the support of NBC to broadcast all the USFL games in the 2022 season. Currently, NBC only has one (1) patent asset in the Sports Analytics sector, and Patent Forecast® predicts that through working alongside Fox Sports to broadcast USFL games, NBC will produce more patent activity in the Sports Analytics sector. More specifically, NBC will most likely produce patent activity in sports broadcasting technology since that will be the main focus of the USFL.