Animated balls. Lighting Dunks. Hero Points. Fun.
That’s what “The Worldwide Leader” ESPN brought us on Monday night as part of “Marvel’s Arena of Heroes” broadcast on ESPN 2. Now this isn’t anywhere near the first time ESPN has tried a little disruption to test the waters with alternative narratives for broadcasts. We have seen the megacast many times, along with different feeds for other games. This also was not as much as the technology and content rich broadcast the CBS and Nickelodeon pulled off during the Saints-Bears NFC Playoff Game in January (that broadcast was on Nickelodeon specifically). What it was was another way to create convergence with partners, bring buzz to a game that may or may not have been on a casual (and younger) fans’ schedule on a Monday night in may, and again give us a little peek at what various consumer choice streaming broadcasts could look like as rights, and ways to view become a bit more fluid and the choice of camera angles and content lands in the hand of the consumer vs. the broadcaster.
Also as pointed out in The Ringer, There’s also a demographic element at play; Marvel and the like may be the new monoculture, but they are also, ultimately, for children. Eventually, those children may grow up and buy tickets to Deadpool, but while they’re young, it’s easier to leverage their attention into lifelong allegiance to a sport and its various distributors. With the NFL especially, Nickelodeon is part of a concerted effort to win over a demographic whose parents might balk at football as an after-school activity given what’s now known about the sport’s long-term health effects. It’s ethically ambiguous, but also entertainingly absurd!
Translation: Use the alternate broadcasts not just to appeal to a younger, and casual audience but to families, or even better, to those who have transitioned away from the younger demo but who still LOVE Super Heroes or SpongeBob and pull them back in for a few hours to have some fun…that emotional connection may not be sports fandom, but it is fandom and affinity and it may, just may, bring them back to watch the games now, and when they are bringing their little ones around to the kids shows down the line. It’s not just building new fans or connecting generations, its reinforcing across generations that sports and entertainment are now one more than ever, and they can mix genres if presented right.
As far as the broadcast itself, we had Ryan Ruocco and Richard Jefferson chatting away with visits from people like Mr. Captain America himself, New Orleans native Anthony Mackie to talk things up. Marvel’s podcast host Angelique Roche found ways to weave in talk about characters in context with the on court action, and there were plenty of elements of content that gave the athletes themselves a chance to wax on about their favorite Super Heroes. Oh and the Hero Points…mixing in data and graphics from various categories…that will be back as well. ESPN also weaved in commentary from other parts of the NBA universe (Vince Carter dropped in) as well as some fan comments from those watching, and even worked the hashtag #Arenaofheroes into the mix, so that gasp, people could actually follow and engage on social as well.
Would the hoops purest turn to the traditional broadcast? Maybe. Was it fun and did it draw buzz on a night with little broadcast competition? Yes. Was it a way to combine areas of influence in the Disney empire and cross promote pretty seamlessly? Yes. It was a good combo with the right voices, the right tone, the right amount of surprise and delight, and the right amount of fun, none of which really compromised the main focus, which was an NBA game from New Orleans with the Golden State Warriors. Oh, and it was all done remotely. Think of what else can be done with a Marvel centric stream when we return to maybe having talent…and large amounts of fans in the stands.
So ESPN gave us another test, one that passed, and the result was a look and a feel for a broadcast that someday may be part of 50 streamed offerings…a different take, different voices, different look, heck even different stats…that can appeal to another audience and raise the level of engagement and value for a long regular season.
Heroes win, the NBA and ESPN scored, what’s not fun about that?
