The Future Fan-zine: Vol TWO

‘THE RISE OF THE KIDS-FIRST ‘ALT-CAST’

You would be forgiven for missing it, but among everything else that happened in sport in 2024, we also had Homer Simpson throwing touchdown passes on Monday Night Football, Donald Duck putting up 41 points at Madison Square Garden on Christmas Day, and SpongeBob SquarePants performing the half-time show at Super Bowl LVIII.

It’s not a fever dream, it’s the start of a fascinating new trend, making sports more accessible for younger audiences. And it’s just the beginning.

Few entertainment products are as well placed as sports to capitalise on cross-generational fandom. The industry offers communal viewing experiences like no other, from the youngest
in the household, to the oldest.

And rightsholders have started to take notice. These innovative co-watching opportunities turn to partnerships to target younger audiences, in a bid to cut through the noise of entertainment formats vying for their attention. And winning them over as fans earlier in life in the process.

Whether you are a club, league, governing body, brand or rightsholder, a successful kids IP strategy can be hugely valuable in amplifying your brand story to a new audience. Just ask any kid, or any parent for that matter, who watched that Bluey episode about cricket.

This fact, teamed with the rapid development of cutting-edge tech enabling real-time cartoon characterisation of live action on the field, has led to an explosion of collaborative broadcast packages, particularly in the United States. These all have one significant shared aim – to create engaging, live sporting products that appeal to both adults and Future Fans alike.

Get this right and the sky’s the limit.

So, what can we learn from early movers in this space? What lasting impact will these initiatives have in growing fandom among Gen Alpha?

What works, what doesn’t… and what’s next?

At its heart, the alt-cast concept is nothing new. Tailored sports entertainment products that offer an alternative to the traditional broadcast are a tried-and-tested tactic to capture eyeballs and engage new audiences.

A quick scan across YouTube or swipe through TikTok during a big Premier League match presents a variety of fan-centric streamers offering a personalised and colloquial match commentary. Comedians, musicians and celebrities have increasingly found their way onto punditry panels. The appetite and benefits have always been there.

But what sets the recent trend apart has been the clear focus – from broadcasters in particular – to target younger fans by bringing in popular kids’ IP from across their digital ecosystems.

The 2022 NBA All-Star Dunk Contest was commentated and judged by the cast of Teen Titans on Cartoon Network, while the characters and IP from the world of Nickelodeon have featured on the NFL’s kids-first highlights show Slime Time since 2021.

And the leagues jumped on interest from younger audiences by offering a live experience. The NBA offered an alternative broadcast for a regular season game between the Warriors and Pelicans in 2021 that saw kid-friendly graphics packages and commentary added to the broadcast.

Nickelodeon has aired six alternative game broadcasts on the channel, including several using augmented 3D characters. This tech allows character avatars to replace players on the field, in real-time, culminating in a Super Bowl LVIII half-time show by SpongeBob himself. The NFL has led the way with innovation here.

They have since partnered with Disney to produce alt-casts of league games using the worlds of Toy Story and The Simpsons, which aired on ESPN and Disney+.

These innovations aren’t just for the youngest of the family. Football’s Manningcast, as well as the likes of Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football simulcast with Dude Perfect, are examples of the same practise in action. Put simply, they are leveraging personalities that resonate with specific audiences, in a place where they organically consume their content, to create a tailored experience that is more attractive to them.

And it does not have to be live. During the Olympic Games in Paris, NBC used the characters of Sesame Street to bring the Games to younger audiences with on-demand and features and clips, as did Eurosport with their Sports Made Simple Looney Tunes explainers.

The Challenge?

The sports industry has recognised the need to innovate and evolve to protect its relevance among the next generation of fans. These partnerships show willingness to innovate, and are undoubtedly eye-catching, but the challenge will always be converting that attention into fandom.

An audience that craves content on their terms might not be willing to wait a week until the next match, let alone the next kids’ alt-cast. Early adopters are going to have to learn what works and what doesn’t, and lean in. This includes lending the same on-demand tactics to these partnerships that have turned sport into a 24/7 entertainment product: effective storytelling, extensive use of rights, sophisticated distribution tactics, alongside relevant merchandise and licensing opportunities.

The prize is there for those who get it right. Of its six NFL alt-casts to date, Nickelodeon has aired two games on Christmas Day, and a Super Bowl. The fact that some of the crown jewels of their broadcast package are being repackaged for younger fans shows that they mean business, and that this is no gimmick.

And what next?

Future Fan alt-casts are here to stay.  While still in its infancy, we expect more bravery and more trial and error as rightsholders try to blend their sports and kids’ properties.

To date this trend has largely been driven by the biggest sports in North America. Expect that to change, as more and more of the top-tier brands around the world want in on the action.

We’re going to see more shoulder content supporting the partnerships outside of the ‘live’ window, as rightsholders think more creatively about narratives that blur the line between ‘real life’ sport and their IP. If that means more Stephen A. Smith rants about Homer Simpson (the “half-shaven snowman built out of mayonnaise”), then we’re all for it.

We anticipate more mid-level sports organisations experimenting with ways to leverage kids’ IP to tell their stories, without costing the earth. With the right approach, on-demand integration of recognisable characters can be just as effective as a three-hour, big-budget alt-cast.

And what about a brand who could bring you both? Imagine the long-term value a kids’ IP built specifically by a sports property could bring.

Maddli scoring the winning goal at the EUROs? Ellie the Elephant on court for the WNBA playoffs? Or Team Jay taking to the field for a Serie A game? We’ll cover that in volume three…