In modern football, the quality of the product is dependent on how well it can be presented on the screens.
It’s especially applicable for those who watch matches on their television or streaming platforms.
Over the years, football broadcasters have worked hard to give the fans sitting at home an ideal watching experience that makes them feel immersed in the action.
This has been helped by the severe improvement in broadcasting quality thanks to the advancement of the watching product.
The current world has moved into the 1080p or 4K era where fans can watch their matches in crystal clear picture quality.
Right now, only the Premier League and Bundesliga don’t use 4K cameras. The games for La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 are recorded with state-of-the-art cameras.
Amazon has made radical changes after buying the rights to broadcast 80% of Ligue 1 matches from last season onwards. This includes recording the matches at the highest-possible quality to provide a quality experience for the fans.
They, along with France-based Host Broadcast Services, have made it possible for Ligue 1 to become the latest European league to bring in top-quality changes.
The Premier League, despite its ‘best in the world’ status – still hasn’t reverted to this and is falling behind.
They’re also missing out on the chance to give a more cinematic or visceral feel to their games by not using 4K cameras.
In a recent game involving Paris Saint-Germain and Olympic Lyonnais, a certain moment depicted how much the current technology is benefitting the footballing product.
During the game, a Lionel Messi free-kick was recorded at a unique angle – which almost mimics the angle shown in the FIFA games when a player assumes the set-piece.
As Messi goes on to hit the free kick, the camera stands in one motion to perfectly capture his attempt to go over the wall and hit the bar – before being bundled home by a teammate.
Normally, this is not how such occurrences are captured.
Most broadcasters like to capture these close free-kicks from a much wider angle that is similar to the tele-angle the matches are shown in.
But it’s quite clear that Amazon is trying out new things when it comes to presenting football products and it hasn’t rubbed fans the wrong way either.
Supporters are impressed with his change in style, as it not only looks like a shot straight out of a FIFA game but almost makes you feel as if you are standing beside Messi himself as he takes the free-kick.
It seems to have won over the fans who like to play FIFA and adore this free-kick stance, as they reacted to this on Twitter.