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
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
01/12/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
01/12/2025
Artemis II is NASA's first crewed flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The crew, from left: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Vic...
01/12/2025
IRVINE, Calif. Wooden Camera has introduced its new Accessory Collection for the Canon EOS C50. The new lineup includes a low-profile, gimbal-ready cage, expand...
01/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for its Dec. 18 Open Commission Meeting that will include a vote on a report an...
01/12/2025
In most years, a graph of annual local TV ad spending is about as predictable as an electrocardiogram of a reasonably healthy patient in a doctor's office. ...
01/12/2025
Many industries have seen big-ticket hardware turn into software. Switchers, though, demand a combination of real-time performance and sheer bandwidth that has ...
01/12/2025
GENEVA Shanghai will host the next quadrennial Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-27) and World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-27), Oct. 11-Nov. 12, 2027. This...
01/12/2025
NEW YORK Just in time for Giving Tuesday tomorrow (Dec. 2), the Broadcasters Foundation of America is seeking out donations to help television and radio industr...
01/12/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Net Insight CEO Crister Fritzson has informed the company's board that he will retire from the video transport and media cloud technology ...
01/12/2025
The prequel to the global hit Sky Original mob crime saga, Gomorrah' is a s...
01/12/2025
Featuring Florence Welch, Red Hot Chilli Peppers' Flea, designer Bella Freud...
01/12/2025
Back to All News
A Down to Earth, All Too Relatable Hero: Cashero' Teaser ...
01/12/2025
In the rush to deliver content to every screen, many broadcasters overlook one of the most crucial steps in the workflow: format and frame rate conversion. Get ...
01/12/2025
Fox Corporation Chief Financial Officer Steve Tomsic to Participate in Upcoming ...
01/12/2025
Arvato Systems' Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Receives BSI C5 Certification (T...
01/12/2025
Summary This short video gives you an summary of the changes in under two minutes.
--...
01/12/2025
As the festive season approaches, RT Supporting the Arts is proud to showcase a...
01/12/2025
Researchers worldwide rely on open-source technologies as the foundation of their work. To equip the community with the latest advancements in digital and physi...
01/12/2025
Festive specials of Christmas in Kilmainham presented by Marty Whelan, High Road Low Road, Callan Kicks the Year and Keys to My Life
Ring in the New Year with ...
01/12/2025
Architect and television presenter Hugh Wallace, best known to RT audiences as a long-serving judge on Home of the Year, has died at the age of 68.
In a state...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
26/11/2025
A cinematic snow sculpture at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Randall Michelson...
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 
