From family-friendly alternate telecasts to immersive Roblox experiences, pro sports orgs like the NFL, the NHL and Formula One are breaking new ground in customized content for kids.
Like fine-tuned athletes pushing the boundaries of what's possible in competition, pro sports leagues are flexing their innovation muscles to meet their youngest fans on the platforms they love, catering to changing at-home viewing behavior and diversifying to build next-gen engagement.
In the last two years alone, the National Football League, National Hockey League and motorsport circuit Formula One collectively delivered 12 alternate telecasts geared towards kids, families and multi-platform viewing. And this is likely just the tip of the iceberg, with more new projects percolating in the production pipeline.
Multiple factors have converged to accelerate this new content trend: increased fragmentation of media consumption due to the massive growth of streaming and social media platforms; greater demand for immersive, family-friendly live sports programs; advancements in real-time animation and player-tracking technology; and sports organizations' ever-present need to boost loyalty by introducing their brands to a new generation of young fans.
For its part, the NFL had plenty of incentive to charge into the alternate kids telecast business -- American football ranks as the favorite sport for US kids ages 12 and up to watch, according to a 2023 SSRS Sports Poll.
The league got in on the ground floor back in 2021 when it partnered with Nickelodeon and CBS Sports on its first kid-focused alternate live telecast, NFL Wild Card Game on Nickelodeon. The Nick-ified spin on the game featured custom on-field visual effects inspired by iconic characters from SpongeBob SquarePants and The Loud House, along with slime cannons firing in the end zones after touchdowns.
This first NFL Wild Card Game special attracted more than two million viewers on Nickelodeon, and became the network's most-watched program in more than four years. And with CBS and CBS All Access (now Paramount+) audiences factored in, the game was the most-watched CBS Wild Card game in seven years with 30.6 million total viewers. It also generated more than two billion social media impressions.
Demand has only grown from there. Viewership for Nick's second NFL Wild Card Game in 2022 jumped by 35% to bring in more than 41.4 million viewers on CBS and Nickelodeon. And the NFL has partnered with Nick on two successful Christmas Day telecasts and the first-ever Super Bowl simulcast for kids, which attracted 1.2 million
viewers on February 11, 2024.
The league also teamed up with Disney, ESPN, Sony-owned immersive content specialist Beyond Sports and New York-based virtual production house Silver Spoon on Toy Story Funday Football, arguably the NFL's most technologically ambitious simulcast to date, in that every element of the live game was replicated in the animated
world of Pixar's Toy Story movie franchise. When it aired on October 1, 2023, it was the most-viewed live event ever on Disney+.
Beyond the record ratings, tech innovation and elevated social engagement, one of the biggest wins for sports leagues and their broadcast partners is the uptick in co-viewing for these kid-centric telecasts.
Uniting families
Sports viewing among kids is still largely driven by co-viewing moments, and more than 80% of all live sports viewing for kids ages two to seven includes an adult, according to research by ESPN and Disney.
"As more kids watch with their parents, there's not only the halo of engaging the kid audience, but when networks like Nickelodeon and Disney+ are also promoting the game more broadly, you're driving an overall lift to the audience," says Grace Senko, VP of media strategy and business development for the NFL. "With Disney+, we
were able to have the Toy Story game in 95 countries around the world, so streaming distribution is also a great way for us to reach a more global audience."
Turning from the gridiron to the rink, the NHL is generating a lot of co-viewing action with its kids telecasts, too. In partnership with ESPN, Disney Branded Television and Beyond Sports, the league's first animated simulcast on March 14, 2023 -- NHL Big City Greens Classic -- attracted 765,000 linear viewers on ESPN, Disney Channel
and Disney XD for the game between the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers.
"We noticed that the animated simulcast drove a spike in the traditional live broadcast on ABC and ESPN+, so we're seeing a lot of side-by-side viewing happening," says David Lehanski, EVP of business development and innovation for the NHL.
To put this performance into perspective, the animated simulcasts on the Disney networks delivered a higher share of overall audience than any other previous NHL alternate presentation had, and ESPN's audience for the live game was its largest for an NHL game in nearly four months that season.
In terms of reaching more people on the periphery of the NHL fan universe, the Disney Channel and Disney XD telecasts were watched by a younger and more female audience than is typical for either network.
"For a regular NHL game, viewership is about 60% male to 40% female, and the average female audience for Disney Channel and Disney XD is 36% and 48%, respectively. But both Disney networks skewed 59% female for the telecasts," notes Lehanski. "We didn't know what to expect, but the results absolutely exceeded our expectations."
Piggybacking on that success, the NHL has since launched three additional fully animated kids simulcasts -- a second NHL Big City Greens Classic (both are based in the world of Disney Channel's hit series Big City Greens from hockey-loving creators Chris and Shane Houghton); an NBC Sports Chicago telecast featuring the Chicago Blackhawks versus the Dallas Stars; and a simulcast in partnership with Warner Bros. Games and TNT Sports called MultiVersus NHL Face-Off, in which beloved Warner Bros. Discovery characters like Wonder Woman, Bugs Bunny and Steven Universe laced up in a game between the Colorado Avalanche and the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
As for key learnings, Lehanski says he was surprised by the number of repeat VOD views the telecasts generated. "In the first game, young kids probably liked the chicken referee that flies around and drops the puck as much as they liked the outcome of the game, and it led to repeat viewing. But we never really thought about it being as much of a show as it was a live hockey game, and that for kids, it's like watching a cartoon that you love a second time. So
that's being factored into our vision for next season."
Gaining traction
Shifting gears to the high-octane world of motorsports, F1 has been making big moves to diversify its fan base since Liberty Media bought Formula One Group in 2017 for US$4.6 billion.
While its successful Netflix docuseries Formula 1: Drive to Survive has certainly played a role in this diversification and unlocked new content opportunities, it's just one part of a much wider strategy, says Isabelle Stewart, F1's head of original content.
To get a better sense of how quickly F1 has grown, since 2018 its fan base has ballooned to more than 700 million; one in three fans started following the sport in the last four years; female fans now account for 40% of its audience; and one in three fans is under the age of 35.
The brand's social media presence has also accelerated. Since 2018, the total number of F1 followers across all platforms jumped 278% to 70.5 million; its average views per race on YouTube rose by 336% to 10.9 million; and the US continues to be F1's largest audience on YouTube and TikTok.
In fact, YouTube is by far the most popular social media destination for following sports, ahead of TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, according to the SSRS Sports Poll. "There's definitely been a real shift towards a younger, more diverse audience," says Stewart.
With the ambition to build a 360-degree content pipeline that includes factual entertainment, drama and kids content, Stewart's team won pole position last year when F1 and its long-term partner Sky Group launched the first F1 Kids children's telecast of the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Sky UK and Sky Deutschland feeds featured custom 3D graphics and animation, kid-friendly team radio transmissions, driver avatars (pictured at top) and technical explainers.
Additional F1-produced kids telecasts followed suit for races in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, which aired in more than 25 territories, including the US, Latin America and the Caribbean (ESPN); Canada (Bell); and Australia (Kayo Sports). "It's been a hugely successful initiative," says Stewart.
In fact, the feeds were so popular that the second season of F1 Kids this year has increased to seven live telecasts, including the Monaco, British, Dutch and Sao Paulo Grand Prix events.
Crystal-balling
Taking a long-term view, Stewart is excited by animation's possibilities and is in conversations with a handful of "really interesting" partners. The newest of these is Candle Media-owned Moonbug Entertainment, which first met with F1 at Kidscreen Summit last year. F1 has now agreed to provide content for two episodes of Moonbug's upcoming series Go Go Blippi Show.
And hinting at other storytelling angles that might come into play in future projects, Stewart adds: "What's interesting about F1, which is a bit different from other sports, is that it's a team sport featuring a wide range of skill sets. We want to show, particularly in our kids content, that you don't necessarily need to be a physical athlete to be on an elite sports team. F1 can also encourage kids to look at how STEM subjects can lead to a career in sports. That's a hugely exciting part of F1 storytelling for kids and is fairly unique."
Stewart is also enthusiastic about how F1 can tap into new social gaming and experiential opportunities for kids, having already invested in simulators, eSports and live exhibition experiences.
For the NFL's Senko, Roblox is particularly interesting as a distribution platform. "We could try to figure out some natural extensions in terms of showing NFL games in Roblox. That's something we're still evaluating," she says.
If the NFL is serious about taking its brand into the metaverse, it would join the NHL in that fandom-driven space. The hockey league's regularly updated Roblox experience, NHL Blast, has been red-hot with the platform's young users since it launched in 2023. Considering that kids who play a sports video game are almost three times more likely to be avid fans, it's not surprising that the NHL continues to invest.
"Every league and any IP owner in general -- and certainly in the sports world -- is going to develop more direct consumer experiences for products as time moves on," says Lehanski. "There's no doubt about it."