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 ...
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...
04/06/2026
Sony Electronics is introducing the SRG-AS10, a 4K 60p-compatible PTZ auto-frami...
04/06/2026
This recent grad from Spring, TX, led creative-video output for the Aggies' men's basketball team last season and has been producing video and creating ...
04/06/2026
For the first time at a women's golf major, every player in the field will r...
04/06/2026
Three Panasonic PT-RQ45 40,000-lumen 3-Chip DLP projectors made their first live...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin and Akamai have announced a collaboration with NRJ Group, a French mult...
04/06/2026
Telestream will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7952), demonstrating media work...
04/06/2026
Sony has announced the development of RIALTO 65, a 65mm format image sensor block for the VENICE 2 digital cinema camera, targeting release in the first half of...
04/06/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N8025, June ...
04/06/2026
Bell Media's TSN and RDS are the exclusive Canadian broadcasters of FIFA Wor...
04/06/2026
The Challenge: Receiving Heavy Media Files From Road Games Quickly and ReliablyT...
04/06/2026
MASV, a managed file transfer platform used in broadcast and live sports product...
04/06/2026
NESN has announced the appointment of Fahad Haider as Vice President of Operations and Engineering. Haider returns to NESN, where he previously served as Vice P...
04/06/2026
David J. Halberstam, who spent almost 50 years in sports as a broadcaster and an executive, died June 2 after a years-long battle with brain cancer.
Over his l...
04/06/2026
Although collegiate production programs are tasked with delivering high-quality ...
04/06/2026
California studio, two production trucks, global distribution system are combine...
04/06/2026
New global program empowers and supports storytellers through scriptwriting course and access to industry experts
TikTok and Sundance Institute today announce...
04/06/2026
Steinberg DAWs now boast in-depth Tonalic integration
Celemony's innovative virtual session musician plug-in has just received an update that brings ARA...
04/06/2026
Get Hands-On With Over 20 Mic Brands
GearExpo UK is fast approaching, and if you've been looking for a chance to check out some new mics, then you'r...
04/06/2026
Combos feature new Amplifier Intelligence engine
Positive Grid's latest release sees the company introduce two new combo amplifiers that promise to offe...
04/06/2026
Is Your Job Making You Work this June?
4 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS Launches the World Cup Watchers' Rights Association to Stand Up For Australians&...
04/06/2026
Statement regarding unauthorised use of SBS logos on third party social content
4 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has become aware of social media posts in c...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming infrastructure, and Akamai, the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business onli...
04/06/2026
American Underground (AU), the Startup Hub of the South and a community of mor...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
NVIDIA and Microsoft Reinvent Windows PCs for the Age of Personal AI
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
RTX Spark - a 1-Petaflop Superchip, the Full...
04/06/2026
Inside the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Grade
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Simone Grattarola discusses shaping the look in DaVinci Resolve...
04/06/2026
Cine Gear Expo Announces 2026 Awards of Excellence Recipients
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Ed Lachman ASC, Caleb Deschanel ASC, and M. David M...
04/06/2026
St. Vincents Live with Orchestra Tour to Feature Berklee Alum Ruby Plume Berklee alumni St. Vincent and Ruby Plume will appear on the same bill across seven d...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
All the Truth in My Lies Coming to Netflix on August 28
Entertainment
04 June 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Download the imag...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
Larry Tanz, VP of Content, EMEA, Delivers a Keynote Speech at ...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
Turn Your Living Room into a Stadium With the New FIFA World ...
04/06/2026
Keeping conversations real on LinkedIn Published on Jun 4, 2026 Categories: Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Communications
Share
LinkedIn
Facebook ...
04/06/2026
BackStory follows four Irish young people as they travel back to their parents' homelands
Modern Irish identity is enriched by cultures and influences from...
04/06/2026
June's forecast with GeForce NOW: 100% chance of gaming.
GeForce NOW is lining up new adventures for the month, from big-name blockbusters to quirky indies...
03/06/2026
SES and Viva, Mexico's ultra low-cost airline, have launched multi-orbit satellite inflight connectivity on Viva's Airbus aircraft. A total of 60 A320s ...
03/06/2026
The College Football Playoff, ESPN, and TNT Sports have announced kick times and...
03/06/2026
RED Digital Cinema will exhibit at Cine Gear Expo 2026 (Booth 33, June 5-6, Universal Studios Lot), hosting three panels and hands-on product demonstrations.
P...
03/06/2026
Roku has announced the Soccer Zone, a dedicated hub for FIFA World Cup 2026 content available across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argent...
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 
