SVG Sit-Down: CBS Sports’ Jason Cohen on How New HYPE Sports Pact Will Spur Bleeding-Edge Technology

Initiative aims to capitalize on sports tech from startups around the world

Last month, CBS Sports announced an intriguing new partnership with HYPE Sports Innovation that aims to cultivate new technology for broadcast and beyond. Through this strategic collaboration, CBS Sports will tap into HYPE’s array of sports-production technologies to explore new solutions, including artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and remote broadcasting.

CBS Sports’ Jason Cohen: “It’s in our nature to do everything we can to stay competitive, as well as to give startups opportunities to shine.”

SVG sat down with CBS Sports VP, Remote Technical Operations, Jason Cohen to discuss how this collaboration came about, what his team is looking to gain from it, the process of evaluating tech startups and deploying the new technologies, what specific new tools CBS is looking to add, and how this marks the latest chapter in the company’s long history of innovation.

Why was CBS Sports looking to launch this type of innovation initiative in the first place?
The world is big, and there are so many innovative companies all over the globe developing amazing technology and exploring groundbreaking [advances]. We’ve seen a lot of technology from various outside industries make its way into sports [coverage], but it’s extremely challenging to unearth these small startups that are doing these really cool things all by yourself.

We’ve been working on this [incubator] concept for quite some time. It got a little bit derailed during COVID, but we’re excited to finally see it come to fruition. This is one of the more exciting developments that I’ve worked on in my entire career, and I think it’s going to be tremendous for CBS Sports.

How did you become aware of HYPE Sports, and what made it the right partner for these efforts?
We had spoken to three or four different companies about collaborating and partnering with us to incubate startups from around the world and bring their technologies and ideas to our platforms. We started talking to HYPE a little over a year ago, and they checked all the boxes right away. We liked their vision, their people, and their philosophy.

We did some pitch sessions and reverse pitch sessions with them where they pitched to us and we pitched to them. It became apparent that HYPE has plenty of very interesting startups under their umbrella. We were able to put together this multi-year relationship, and now we’re excited to say that we are open for business. We want to innovate and break new ground, and we have a tremendous dance partner to do that in HYPE.

How will this process work exactly, and what will go into evaluating these startups?
The team at HYPE is expert in finding young startups that are eager to get a break. They already have [around] 400 companies signed up under their umbrella. In terms of this partnership, HYPE will take their current roster of companies and carefully select those that they think would be most appropriate for CBS Sports. They will present a task force that we’ve assembled representing a myriad of departments across CBS Sports with a couple of dozen startups at a time for us to evaluate: think technology speed dating. Then we will work together to whittle it down to a manageable number of five or six companies. From there, we will do a deeper dive into those companies as a group. Finally, any division of CBS Sports that is interested can take the next step of demoing or trialing that technology.

HYPE has also developed an interesting reverse-pitch mentality. In addition to HYPE pitching us startups, we can pitch our technology needs and interests to them. Maybe we have a particularly big event coming up or a specific sport where we’re looking to add technology. We can communicate that to HYPE, and they can then survey their roster of startups to see if there is a solution for us.

What specific technology areas most interest you? Are you looking for anything specific right off the bat?

We’re not looking just for tools that impact the linear broadcast; we’re also looking at social media, streaming and OTT, interactive experiences, marketing, and a lot more. Of course, we’re going to look closely at engineering and production [tools], but it will run the gamut in terms of new technologies.

I firmly believe you don’t know what you’re looking for until you find it. Every now and then, you get a director asking if we can put a camera in this place that has never been done before, and then you go out and speak to vendors who can try to do that. More often than not, you end up on a Zoom [call] with a company who found you on LinkedIn and have something cool that you hadn’t even thought of before.

All the buzzwords are certainly in play: AR, MR, VR, AI, REMI. Those things are certainly applicable to what we’re doing today, but I think what’s important is to not limit the scope. We want to make sure this isn’t limited to opportunities for the linear broadcast, because the digital, streaming, OTT, and spaces are ripe with a ton of opportunities.

How do you foresee this collaboration playing out in the coming months? When do you hope to demonstrate the first technologies in live scenarios?
We don’t have a firm timeline, but I think this [process] is going to move pretty quickly. We’re excited to see how we can introduce some new things in the near term. CBS Sports has been a leader in technology for many, many decades; it’s in our DNA, and it’s who we are. We try to create, innovate, and develop as much as we can. Today, television and sports production are extremely sophisticated and quite competitive. It’s in our nature to do everything we can to stay competitive in the marketplace, as well as to give startups from around the world opportunities to shine.

This gives them an opportunity to present their technology and thrust themselves into the spotlight. At the same time, it gives CBS Sports and all of our verticals an opportunity to continue what we’ve done best for so long, which is to be atop the industry in innovating. It was the ultimate win-win scenario for us and for the marketplace. We’re excited to see where it goes.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.