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Has The BBC Really Cancelled Doctor Who?
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RefCam, FIFA Technology and the American Aesthetic of Sport
At 21:01 · chapter starts 19:55
FIFA controls the broadcast feed and is using the 2026 World Cup to debut several innovations. The most striking is RefCam: a body-mounted AI-stabilised camera on the referee that gives viewers a first-person POV of chasing Raul Jiménez to his goal. It makes you sympathise with referees, and it looks, as Richard notes, like a computer game but real. Gary Neville's complaint is also given air: all this data and technology — why won't FIFA share it with fans? Both hosts view FIFA's opacity with deep suspicion (Richard calls it a dictatorship). The 'data-tainment' push — QR codes on screen, stuff sent to fans' phones in stadiums — earns particular scorn. 'I have all the information I need,' Richard snaps. 'Stop trying to upsell me all the time.'
FIFA's RefCam gives viewers a point-of-view camera from the referee's body during matches. Stabilised by AI, it provides a visceral, immersive new angle — and makes you genuinely sympathise with how hard it is to keep up with elite footballers. Gary Neville's point remains: if you have all this data, why won't you share it?
Netflix users spend roughly one hour per session on the platform — and the streamer has been desperately trying to fix that. The Rest Is Football, dropping a new episode every morning during the World Cup, is acting as a Trojan horse to teach Netflix viewers to come back every single day.
