As the undisputed No. 1 show in primetime TV and arguably the largest live-sports production in the entire industry, NBC’s Sunday Night Football team is no stranger big-time shows. However, even for NBC Sports Group, this NFL season – SNF’s landmark 20th – is going to be an exceptional one.
“It’s going to be a special season,” Coordinating Producer Rob Hyland said ahead of tonight’s Cowboys-Eagles NFL Kickoff Game in Philadelphia. “Twenty-Two games after [tonight’s] kickoff, thousands of miles and 157 days later, we will end our season in Santa Clara, CA, with Super Bowl LX. It’s NBC’s 21st Super Bowl. And I am so excited [to be] kicking this thing off.”
Building Towards Santa Clara: Regular Season Serves as Tech Testing Ground
NEP’s ND2 (A, B, C, and D units) are on hand in Philadelphia and will once again serve as the home for SNF throughout the season. NEP’s Supershooter 3 is also in Philly tonight to serve a special on-site edition of Football Night in America from the Linc. For the remainder of the regular season, NBC will continue to run a hybrid REMI/on-site production model – as it has for several years – with some in-game operating positions located in Stamford. Additionally, edit support and Football Night in America will continue to be Stamford based throughout the year.
Hyland and Director Drew Esocoff – entering is 26th consecutive season directing an NFL primetime game – will be back at the front bench. Behind the scenes, the ultra-complex SNF operation is led by Ken Goss, Craig Bernstein, Vinny Rao, Keith Kice, John Roche, and Andrew Lawing, while VP of Studio Operations Tom Popple oversees the FNIA operation back at NBC’s studios in Stamford, CT.
“It’s a privilege to lead such a talented engineering and operations team that makes it all possible.” says Goss. “Our team takes tremendous pride in the success of Sunday Night Football and we look forward to what promises to be an exciting 20th season. When we have the privilege to cap it off with a Super Bowl it makes it even more special.”
Since NBC Sports produces a near Super Bowl sized show each week for SNF, the production and operations teams will leverage this season’s 22-game slate to prepare for its Super Bowl LX broadcast from Levi’s Stadium in February.
“No major changes heading into this Super Bowl year, but we plan and build for that final game as we move through the season,” Craig Bernstein says of NBC’s march toward Super Bowl LX. “As in years past, we’ll use the regular season to test and demo new products and technologies in preparation for February 8.”
Living Up to Its Reputation: Sunday Night Football Production as Big as Ever
Few if any weekly live-sports productions can boast the sheer scale of SNF and that won’t change this season. NBC’s 50-plus camera complement each Sunday night will once again include a drone; SkyCam; a 4x-SSMO 4K camera; goal-line and line-to-gain pylon systems; and a variety of RF wireless and robotic provided by NEP Specialty Capture and NEP Rentals. In addition, nearly all game-coverage cameras can run in high-frame rate, and well over of its CCU cameras will operate in 2x to 6x super-slo-mo – including slashes, high end-zones, pylons, etc.
“We are also working with COSM and EMG for our RF line-to-gain pylons this season, says Kice. “There isn’t a large change to start the season, but we will work on some new technologies leading up to Super Bowl.”
NBC’s coverage also stands to benefit from the 12 additional Sony 4K cameras added to each stadium, which have been placed alongside boundaries and end lines by the league to provide additional angles for review. Although Esocoff believes these camera will benefit other “C games” that don’t have the same level of facilities as SNF, he admits that any TV tool that can give us a defining look of a critical play is the most important thing we can ask for.
“We can add all the bells and whistles we want, and a lot of it is testing stuff out that you will see as we head towards Super Bowl LX,” he continues. “But, in my opinion, and I think Rob and most of the group would agree, our job is to have defining looks at critical plays, and if it helps in that regard, that’s awesome.”
As the season wears on, Kice says NBC will also be testing and developing several AR and virtual graphics solutions in anticipation of the Playoffs and Super Bowl.
On the audio side, Peacock will be streaming weekly regular season SNF games in Dolby Atmos immersive audio on supported devices – a first for any NFL streamer. According to Kice, NBC also continues to explore more ways to capture game audio – whether its field level mics or micing up players and coaches.
An Epic Run in February: A Super Bowl, Winter Olympics, and NBA All-Star Game
While the ops team is hyper focused on Philly tonight and Ravens-Bills in Buffalo on Sunday, NBC Sports is nonetheless keeping one eye on the present and one eye on the future in Santa Clara.
Of course, NBC’s operations and production teams won’t just be dealing with Super Bowl production come February. Super Bowl LX will be just one piece of a historic 17-day run that will also see NBC broadcast the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and its first NBA All-Star Game since 2002.
“We work to make sure that every game and season get the respect and attention they deserve,” says Goss. “It is an extremely busy time of year for NBC Sports, when you consider NFL, the launch of the NBA, motorsports, college football, college basketball, the Ryder Cup, Breeders’ Cup World Championships, and pre-Olympic events.
“And that’s all before we turn the calendar to 2026,” he continues. “We have been preparing for the past 18+ months for the unprecedented network production schedule coming in February 2026.”
Coverage of Thursday’s NFL Kickoff Game begins with the NFL Kickoff Special at 7 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, followed by kickoff at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC, Peacock, and Telemundo.