Chicago native, Tom Fletcher has been named to the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame class of 2023. Fletcher is credited with transforming sports production and changing the nature of sports coverage for the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and NASCAR broadcasters.
“From an NHL standpoint, I think it’s fair to say that Fletcher Cams revolutionized the televising of our games” stated Gary Bettman, Commissioner of the NHL, “Tom Fletcher and his group gave us an opportunity to show views of the game that nobody had ever seen before. Whether it was the speed shot or the rocker cam, or overhead from the scoreboard or in the net, it enabled our fans to get inside a game that up until then, many people thought was too fast to televise,” he added.
Fletcher and his team at Fletcher Sports, created a new genre in sports broadcasting – the remote-controlled camera. These new camera angles have become so pervasive in the industry that “Fletcher Cam” is synonymous with any “robo-cam.”
“Tom and I have had a long collaboration on the NBA in innovating things,” stated Andy Rosenberg, former Sports Director at NBC Sports. “First, it was 1991 and the NBA finals, Tom came and said, how about putting a camera underneath the scoreboard that can look down on the players? And I thought, that’s great, we can really show the action in a way that hadn’t been seen before. And people going like, how’d they get that shot? Where did that come from? We’re always trying to take people to the best seat in the house, better than the one you can buy. And then in the Minnesota All-Star game, I always had the idea of putting a camera behind the backboard. I said, Tom, how are we going to do that? He says, I got an idea. And he came up with an industrial camera to put behind the backboard. It worked out great, but then it morphed, and Tom was able to deliver a robotic camera that was able to do what I had always hoped but didn’t think possible,” added Rosenberg.
Using remote controlled cameras, Fletcher Sports conceived and introduced some of the more innovative camera angles in sports broadcasting:
• Above the Rim – Basketball (NBA, NCAA, and Olympics)
• Behind the Backboard – Basketball (NBA, NCAA, and Olympics)
• Behind-the-Net – Hockey (NHL, NCAA, and Olympics
• In-Net – Hockey (NHL, NCAA, and Olympics)
• Center Ice Speed Shot for Hockey (NHL, NCAA and Olympics)
• Center Scoreboard Camera – Hockey and Basketball (NHL, NBA, NCAA, and Olympics)
• Low-Home – Baseball (MLB)
• Dug out Cameras – Baseball (MLB)
• Goal Post Camera – Football (NFL)
• Speed Shot – Auto Racing (NASCAR
Fletcher has five national EMMYs for the application of robotic cameras in Sports Broadcasting and is world renowned for his dedication to the adoption of electronic cinematography having presented at the International Broadcasting Conference (IBC), National Associations of Broadcasters (NAB), Cannes Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and National Association of Television Programming Executives (NATPE).
This year’s Broadcasting Hall of Fame induction took place on Dec. 12 at the New York Hilton. More than 150 leading sports-TV-industry executives took part in this year’s voting, our most ever,” says Ken Aagaard, chairman, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. “Once again, they elected an exceptional class of innovators and game-changers who embody the commitment to excellence, professionalism, and leadership that makes our industry great.” Also joining Tom in the class of 2023 honorees were Val Ackerman, Lance Barrow, Cris Collinsworth, Steve Hellmuth, Andrea Joyce, Tony Petitti and Jeff Zachary.
Fletcher has been the Director of Marketing, Optical Devices Division, at Fujifilm since 2016 and is the co-founder of Momento, the newest innovation in fan engagement. Momento is a digital fan engagement platform for sports/live events that captures every fan in high quality imagery during the most exciting moments of the event. The platform empowers fans to become social storytellers for teams and sponsors with engaging personalized and memorable content. The platform recently launched in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks and continues to expand.
Tom is a graduate of the University of Illinois (Champaign) and holds a Certificate in Business Administration from the University of Illinois (Chicago). Tom is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), Digital Cinema Society, (DSC), Society of Camera Operators (SOC), Information Display & Entertainment Association (IDEA) and Sports Video Group (SVG).
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