NHL Big City Greens Classic Animated Broadcast Returns to ESPN in Spring 2024

ESPN Creative Studio and Production teams continue to innovate on a variety of initiatives

The NHL, ESPN, Disney Entertainment Television, and Beyond Sports are partnering together in early 2024 to bring the second edition of the NHL Big City Greens Classic alternative broadcast. ESPN’s EVP of Creative Studio & Marketing Tina Thornton, made the announcement as part of the ESPN Edge Conference last week in New York City. The animated alt-cast will once again leverage NHL Edge tracking data Sony’s Beyond Sports AI-based data-visualization platform to recreate the action on the ice in real time featuring Big City Greens characters skating alongside animated versions of the NHL players.

ESPN’s EVP of Creative Studio & Marketing Tina Thornton (left) took the stage at the ESPN Edge Conference alongside Head of Event & Studio Production Dave Roberts and EVP of Executive Vice President, ESPN BET, Business Development and Sports Innovation Mark L. Walker.

“Big City Greens is going to be coming back, which is amazing,” Thornton said. “We’re excited to continue pushing that fan facing opportunity forward.”

The first Big City Greens Classic production was spearheaded by ESPN Creative Studio in conjunction with ESPN Edge Innovation Center and NHL EDGE Innovation partners Verizon, Beyond Sports and Silver Spoon (which provided motion-captured animated versions of ESPN commentators).

The return of the NHL Big City Greens Classic comes on the heels of the success of ESPN and Disney’s Toy Story Funday Football alt-cast on ESPN+ and Disney+, which was produced during the Atlanta Falcons vs. Jacksonville Jaguars matchup from London’s Wembley Stadium last month.

“[In terms of] collaboration, you also have to collaborate across Disney,” Thornton added. “We had to get permission to use Disney IP in a lot of these things, whether it was Big City Greens or Toy Story. To have Disney and Pixar trust us to use that brand and to take their assets and create that out of it was so special. And same goes from Big City Greens. That’s really what collaboration is all about across the Walt Disney Company.”

Thornton added that next year’s NHL Big City Greens Classic is just the latest chapter in ESPN’s long running history of alternate presentations. While much of the attention has been centered on Monday Night Football With Peyton and Eli in recent years, Thornton was careful to note that ESPN has been in the alt-cast business for the better part of two decades at this point.

“If you think about alternate telecasts at ESPN, a lot of people think it started with ManningCast. No, it did not,” said Thornton. “We had our first alternate telecast back in 2006. It was called ESPN Full Circle, and it was the Duke-Carolina game in which we put different looks of that game on different linear platforms. And then that later turned into the Megacast…and it continued to evolve…And then all of a sudden we got into this volumetric business where we’re taking chips and putting them in players and we’re able to transition that to an animated world.”

Thornton was joined on stage at the ESPN Edge Conference by Head of Event & Studio Production Dave Roberts and EVP of Executive Vice President, ESPN BET, Business Development and Sports Innovation Mark L. Walker to discuss “Innovation Across ESPN Creative Studio and Marketing & Production and Talent Integration.” Other key innovation initiatives on the discussion docket included ESPN’s powerhouse daytime lineup headlined by the recent addition of The Pat McAfee Show, the new NBA In-Season Tournament, the launch of ESPN Bet, and First Take’s HBCU Homecoming on-site shows last month.

The Daytime Murderers Row: Get Up, First Take and McAfee

Roberts stressed that ESPN’s daytime lineup – which now features a six-hour block of Get Up with Mike Greenberg, First Take with Stephen A. Smith and The Pat McAfee Show weekdays from 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. ET – is focused not only delivering the latest news and opinions to fans, but also having fun. He also addressed how this programming is resonating with sports fans beyond linear television.

“What you have in the morning with Greeny, Stephen A, and McAfee is distinctive content and distinctive personalities who will translate not just on the linear platforms, but the innovation that happens on all the other platforms. And I can tell you that our YouTube numbers are through the roof. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but they set records every single month. And the reason why they do that is because of the innovation through distinctive content created by unique personalities. And that’s the key.”

NBA In-Season Tournament ‘Ripe for Innovation’ 

Roberts also expresssed plenty of excitement around the Inaugural NBA In-Season Tournmanet, which tipped off earlier this month and has seen viewership on ESPN go up 55% vs. the comparable windows last season (1.7M average viewers vs. 1.09M average viewers).

“You’re going to see unique courts at every city, you’re going to see access unlike any other, and you’re going to see all the players on the court committed to winning a half million dollars per person to win this championship,” said Roberts. “And ESPN is going to lead the way with the coverage…for the next month. That’s a clean slate that is ripe for innovation and big ideas.”

First Take kicked off the first week of November with back-to-back roadshows at two HBCUs with a special connection to the show. First Take’s HBCU Homecoming on-site shows brought iconic alums Smith and Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe back to their alma maters, Winston-Salem State (Nov. 7) and Savannah State (Nov. 6), respectively.

“The idea came about once we hired Shannon Sharpe, both [he and Smith] went to HBCUs and someone came with the idea that why don’t we find a way to take them back to their alma maters, which we did,” said Roberts. “And it turned out to be one of the proudest moments in my career because [we had] a good idea and [we] executed through the essence of teamwork, collaboration, communication, and cooperation across all aspects of ESPN.”

ESPN Makes Big Bet 

The ESPN Bet app was also a big topic of conversation with the launch set for today. It’s a significant moment in the rapidly growing sports betting market as ESPN becomes the first legacy media company to place its name directly on an online sportsbook. The network is partnering with PENN Entertainment and, while the app will appear very ESPN-like in its branding and design, the product itself runs off of PENN’s proprietary in-house tech stack.

“ESPN Bet, both from a Creative Studio and marketing side… [we are creating] an entire brand identity that is very bold and unique and young and interesting, and it looks a little different than ESPN and yet it’s still the ESPN brand, which makes it special. We’re just super excited about it. And when you look at the teams and the collaboration that had to happen to bring all those things together, and when you think about the production group and the stats group and all the groups that are bringing things together for that, including the Penn team and how great they are and what collaborators they are, I’m telling you, it’s going to be amazing.”