The NFL announced Wednesday that new official technology partner Sony is developing a custom headset for coach communications as part of a growing relationship with the league.
The new equipment will appear ahead of the 2025 season as Sony expands its sports marketing footprint.
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Financial terms of the Sony deal have not been made public. Previous headset sponsor Bose’s relationship with the NFL ended in 2022, and the league hasn’t had a headset sponsor since. However past estimates of the value of the TV exposure for logos on coaches’ headsets have proposed a ballpark figure of $72 million. Former league sponsor Motorola reportedly paid $40 million for similar rights more than a decade ago in 2012. This time around, Verizon Business will also be credited with supporting the headset connection technology.
The deal builds upon an existing relationship between the parties, which includes the NFL testing Sony-owned Hawk-Eye technology to augment officials’ line-to-gain and goal-line decisions this preseason. Also, Sony’s Beyond Sports division worked with the league and Disney/ESPN on last year’s Toy Story Funday Football animated broadcast of a live game, Sony Pictures plays a hand in the distribution of NFL Media’s Good Morning Football, and Sony cameras serve a critical role for broadcasters.
“It’s an obvious partnership,” Tracie Rodburg, NFL SVP of global partnerships, said. “When we presented the deal to owners—because they are so involved in this process—it was a 32-0 vote, which I was pleasantly surprised by, but it’s because you could see all the work that we’ve been doing together that got us to this point.”
The official designation allows Sony to extend its brand visibility at NFL games and gives it greater freedom to publicly promote its work with the league. It could also do additional deals with individual teams, broadcasters, athletes and leagues to build on the new strategy.
“We see a lot of opportunity in sports and using our innovation and using our technology to help take sports in general to a new level,” Matthew Parnell, Sony Electronics North America senior director and head of brand and community marketing and imaging solutions, said.
As part of the headset creation process, a team of Sony engineers recently visited with Philadelphia Eagles staffers in Lincoln Financial Field. Testing will continue throughout the season, though Sony’s new offering will likely rely on the company’s noise-canceling tools and other existing audio knowhow.
“From the fan perspective, we want them to know that wherever they’re watching the game they love, whether they’re in stadium or at home, that Sony technology is helping to bring that experience to life,” Maya Wasserman, Sony Electronics North America director and head of marketing for personal entertainment, home entertainment and brand marketing, said. “We’ve been working with creators and in communities around photography and music and filmmaking for a long time now with our headphones and our TVs and our cameras, so it’s a natural progression to go into sports in this way.”
Regarding line-to-gain testing, information gathered this preseason on the accuracy and speed of Hawk-Eye’s systems when it comes to measuring whether a ball carrier achieved the necessary yardage will be used to determine a potential future rollout. The league’s football operations and competition overseers will ultimately decide if and how that program progresses.
While Sony is now an official technology partner, the $100 billion market cap company is far from the only tech giant in the NFL’s orbit. The league has already found marquee ways to involve Cisco, TCL, Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Apple. This season, the league is also adding Netflix as a live game broadcaster.
“It’s really about a partner that is the best in their particular area. And so that is truly why we carve out our tech space like that,” Rodburg said.
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