NBC Sports’ new real-time player tracking allows viewers to focus on their favorite athletes

NBC Sports has introduced a new AI-powered player tracking system that will allow mobile viewers to zoom in and focus on their favorite athletes. It’s the first time viztrick AiDi technologydeveloped by Japan’s Nippon Television Network, will be used by another broadcaster. NBC Sports plans to implement this feature for live event coverage starting this year. according to Nikki Asia.

The viztrick AiDi system uses facial recognition to identify and track the movements of individual players and features a simplified interface that only requires operators to tap the athlete they want to follow on the screen. In Japan, it has been used by Nippon TV to add overlays with a player’s name and statistics, but NBC Sports plans to use it to deliver custom content on mobile devices in a vertical format.

Fans will be able to watch the original horizontal broadcast version of a game or event in the NBC Sports app, or they can choose to focus on a popular player through viztrick AiDi technology that can “automatically extract footage of athletes in real-time and crop it from the horizontal broadcast to portrait orientation for mobile viewing.” It is not known what events or broadcast programs will offer this feature this year, but NBC Sports will cover the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina.