Dfl Experiments With Vertical Video Broadcast

The German Football League (DFL) says it has successfully tested the world’s first football match to be broadcast in a vertical, 9:16 format.

A Bundesliga match between Wolfsburg and Werder Bremen was broadcast in the normal 16:9 format as well as in vertical video in response to changing media consumption habits thanks to the rise in streaming from mobile devices.

A special 9:16 feed was produced for the game with five additional cameras used in-stadium to facilitate the broadcast and a control room featuring monitors turned 90 degrees. The DFL says its broadcast standards were met and the game was also broadcast in UHD in the vertical format.

“We are very satisfied with the test,” said Andreas Heyden, EVP Digital Innovations of the DFL Group. “As always, we develop innovations by adopting the fan’s perspective. We see that vertical videos in social media on mobile devices are better received than ones in horizontal orientation.

“The successful test in Wolfsburg provides us with a good basis for further considerations as to how we can do even better justice to this usage behaviour in the future.”

While successful, the vertical footage from the Wolfsburg game is intended as a test which will undergo internal evaluation within the DFL.