CBS Sports' First-Ever Big Ten Football Championship Game Will Feature a Live Drone Inside Lucas Oil Stadium The broadcaster's studio show will be onsite for two hours of pregame coverage By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Friday, December 6, 2024 - 1:12 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
In a college-football season filled with firsts, here's another: CBS will air the Big Ten Championship Game.
CBS Sports is out in force at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for a marquee battle between Penn State and conference newcomer Oregon with an onsite pregame studio show opening the festivities at 6:00 p.m. ET (College Football Kickoff at 6 p.m., College Football Today at 7 p.m.) prior to the game at 8 p.m.
In a storied history of covering college football at the highest level, CBS Sports has seen almost everything, but this will mark its first time broadcasting the Big Ten Football Championship Game. CBS takes the Big Ten mantle from FOX Sports, which had produced this game since its inception in 2011.
There's certainly a heightened level of excitement knowing that, in our first full season of the Big Ten, the pinnacle of the season is this game and Indianapolis, says Jason Cohen, SVP, remote technical operations, CBS Sports. This became the focal point of everything we did from the start of the season.
CBS Sports, of course, built a college-football legacy over the past two decades, delivering the SEC Championship Game to viewers from 2002 to '23. Now its operations team is bringing many of its high-end production elements - and then some - to the Big Ten scene.
Most notably, the broadcaster will be making some tech history at this game, deploying a live drone indoors on a football game for the first time. Longtime drone partner Kaze Aerial Production will fly a custom-modified DJI drone throughout the interior of Lucas Oil Stadium during the broadcast, having received clearances from the Big Ten, the stadium itself, and local authorities.
It was clear to viewers of the Big Ten package this season that CBS prioritized use of the live drone to bring a special look to many of the iconic stadiums across the conference. It was a noted effort to bring a fresh perspective as a new rightsholder for the league, and, although Saturday's game is being played inside a dome at Lucas Oil Stadium, the broadcaster wanted to carry drone use through to the end.
That beautiful sweeping shot from the exterior of the stadium has been brought to life at a lot of big football games this season, notes Cohen. The drone technology has become our signature stamp, and we didn't want to forego having a drone. We've worked very hard and closely with our partners to be able to fly the drone inside the stadium and give those incredible sweeping shots that only drones can do, but from inside the building. We'll have a packed house with all the electric atmosphere and all the pageantry, and we can showcase all of that with the drone live for the first time ever inside a stadium for a football game. We're really, really excited about it.
Welcome to Bloomington, Indiana. Welcome to the Big Ten on CBS!
It's @UMichFootball taking on undefeated No. 8 @IndianaFootball on @CBS and @paramountplus! pic.twitter.com/flf6lCQkGZ
- CBS Sports College Football (@CBSSportsCFB) November 9, 2024
This isn't the first time CBS Sports has flown a live drone indoors during an event inside a football stadium. It did so earlier this year at the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ, but Cohen notes that this is the first time inside for a football game.
This is a landmark certainly for CBS, he says. This is hopefully going to be a launching pad for us and maybe other networks to be able to do the same in other sports. This is a big deal, doing it inside the building.
The live drone will be just one piece of tech at the disposal of legendary producer/director tandem Craig Silver and Steve Milton, who will be at the front bench for Saturday night's game. Working out of F&F Productions GTX-20 A, B, and C units (which have traveled with the CBS crew to each afternoon Big Ten game this season), Milton will call from a bountiful list of camera options: Skycam, jibs on each sideline, cart cameras on each sideline, a 4K camera at each high end zone, a fixed-wing aerial in the sky outside the stadium, goal-line and line-to-gain pylon cameras from Cosm, robos in the stadium tunnels and catwalks, 14 super-slo-mos. Also onsite is the Falcon 360, an immersive 360-degree camera offering panoramic views, which has been deployed all season by the Big Ten game crew and also over the summer at the PGA Championship in Louisville, KY.
Between all the game tech enhancements, the live studio show, and a juicy matchup on the field, Saturday night's production promises to be a fitting exclamation point on what has been a significant transitional year for CBS Sports and its college-football team.
I think the message in the offseason, says Cohen, was to not just take what we have done in college football and carbon-copy it for the Big Ten but to take how we approach all of our properties and all of our big shows and figure out what we can do to make this particular package feel special. We wanted to make it feel like it's a CBS Sports property.
We already had in our minds a very high-quality show that we were very proud of for many years at the SEC, he continues. We started from a place of strength. Then we certainly put tremendous emphasis in going into the Big Ten season with making sure that we added technology, we added cameras, we added everything that we could to increase and build on what we've been doing for years and making the Big Ten feel big, which is what I think people in the conference and
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
10/06/2026
DAZN-owned digital-media company launches three fan-first series leaning into cr...
10/06/2026
Clear-Com has announced the appointment of Jason Dino as Southwest Regional Sales Manager USA, covering Southern California and the Southwest region. Dino joins...
10/06/2026
An 11% decrease in number of global broadcast deals reflects the organization...
10/06/2026
The Women Without Boundaries Awards recognize women whose work is advancing the future of media, broadcast, AV, workplace technology, digital experience, and re...
10/06/2026
Today is match day minus two for FIFA and HBS. On Thursday, there will be two ma...
10/06/2026
SES is supporting broadcast distribution of the world's biggest football tou...
10/06/2026
NDI has announced that BirdDog has become the first hardware manufacturer to achieve full NDI 6.3 compatibility across its complete lineup of cameras, encoders,...
10/06/2026
Vince Caputo and Scott Carter, winners of the 2026 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Post Produced Audio have been announced as presenters for the 2026 SVG Advanced A...
10/06/2026
FOX One today unveiled a slate of new product features and enhancements designed to elevate the viewing experience for fans on the official streaming platform o...
10/06/2026
Primary production partners Dome Productions and Raycom Sports once again played...
10/06/2026
The Women in Sports Filmmaking Experienceship is an immersive professional devel...
10/06/2026
The league has expanded its HSAN architecture for the NBA Finals to manage more ...
10/06/2026
The inaugural MoonPay X Games League (XGL) Winter Draft will take place Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at Cosm Los Angeles from 7-9 p.m. PT. The event will strea...
10/06/2026
The University of Oklahoma (OU) Athletics Department and Learfield have announce...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has released TR-06-4 Part 8, a new specification for RIST Satellite-Hybrid: Out-of-Band Method. The specification creates a mecha...
10/06/2026
Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, supporting live medical proc...
10/06/2026
A still from The Doom Generation by Gregg Araki (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
By Lucy Spicer
Have you checked out our Sundance Film Festival 101 list yet...
10/06/2026
Get Hands-On with Interfaces & Mic Preamp Brands
If youre after a new interface or preamp, then GearExpo UK is the place to be! Well have a whole host of au...
10/06/2026
November 13-14 2026, The Midway, San Francisco
Following their recent rebranding, MONO Music Conference (formerly Music Expo) have officially announced thei...
10/06/2026
Debut instrument free for limited time
deFORM is the debut release from newly founded developer ebbandflow, and it's being offered as a free download fo...
10/06/2026
Alone Australia Season 4: Meet the Cast
10 June, 2026
Media releases
WATCH THE TRAILER
Smash-hit survival series Alone Australia drops its highly anticipa...
10/06/2026
DEADLY THEN, DEADLY NOW, DEADLY ALWAYS: SBS & NITV IGNITE NAIDOC WEEK 2026 WITH ...
10/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF advance laser-based drone defense with THORIS LCS Rohde & Schwarz is showcasing THORIS at ILA 2026: A sovereign, end to end counter...
10/06/2026
MAHLE and Rohde & Schwarz develop application for sensor testing of modern drive...
10/06/2026
Production and Development Funding supports the creation of compelling, commercially viable, artistic and culturally relevant South African screen content. Deve...
10/06/2026
Media buyers and sellers can now compare YouTube reach from computer, mobile, an...
10/06/2026
Accedo, Humans not Robots, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) have announced the launch of Ecoflow X. Formerly an IBC Accelerator project, ...
10/06/2026
Frequency, the engine powering the world's leading streaming television channels, today announced that James Smith has joined the company as General Manager...
10/06/2026
At the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for live medical procedures s...
10/06/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media, and entertainment managed services, today announced the launch of its Content Exchange platform powered by Or...
10/06/2026
Klvr will showcase how venues, integrators and production teams are rethinking disposable battery usage at InfoComm 2026 (Las Vegas, June 17-19, booth #N6311). ...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has further enhanced the Reliable Internet Streaming Transport (RIST) protocol by incorporating a new feature, RIST Satellite-Hyb...
10/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/06/2026
10 Jun 2026
VEON's Banglalink Brings Every World Cup 2026 Match to Football...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
How to watch every ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 match live on Sky Sports
Where is the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 availabl...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
P RLA brings first-ever Beautifully Clean Oral Care'...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
Sky reveals pulse-pounding first teaser trailer for upco...
10/06/2026
Wuppertal June 10, 2026
Riedel Artist at the Heart of the 14th World Live Neurovascular ConferenceAt the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Li...
10/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Showcases New Mobile Experience, Collections and Games Vision in APAC
Product
10 June 2026
GlobalSouth KoreaJapan
Link copied to c...
10/06/2026
Back to All News
Ready to Join? The Netflix Fan Club Arrives at Cannes Lions
Business
10 June 2026
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Download all assets
N...
10/06/2026
Chemists snap together complex 3D molecules from highly reactive radicals-without losing their shape Scripps Research team develops stereoretentive radical-radi...
09/06/2026
Kiswe announces an expanded long-term partnership with ONE Championship (ONE), t...
09/06/2026
SiriusXM will broadcast FOX Sports' English-language commentary for all 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 matches from June 11 through July 19, available to subscribe...
09/06/2026
EVS has announced it is changing its corporate name from EVS Broadcast Equipment to EVS, reflecting the company's expanded portfolio beyond broadcast equipm...
09/06/2026
Fox Corporation and the NFL have announced a multi-year agreement to bring NFL c...
CBS Sports' First-Ever Big Ten Football Championship Game Will Feature a Live Drone Inside Lucas Oil Stadium The broadcaster's studio show will be onsite for two hours of pregame coverage By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
