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At the ESPN Edge Innovation Conference in New York last week, Disney unveiled a holiday surprise.<\/p>\n
Dunk the Halls,<\/em> a holiday-themed animated NBA game alt cast that first premiered last year , will be returning this year on Christmas Day. Last year\u2019s alt cast, which featured a game between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs, included characters like Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse; both characters will also return for this year\u2019s alt cast, and Lilo & Stitch<\/em>\u2019s Stitch will appear for the first time in a matchup between the New York Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\nDunk the Halls<\/em> is just one ESPN event that was touched on at the conference, where the sports network\u2019s executives, along with representatives from Meta, Accenture, Microsoft, and sports content automation platform WSC Sports, discussed their efforts to innovate sports viewing using emerging technological capabilities.<\/p>\nA monstrously fun game:<\/strong> It\u2019s not just the NBA that\u2019s getting the alt cast treatment. ESPN is hosting a Funday Football<\/em> alt cast for a Philadelphia Eagles vs. Los Angeles Chargers game on December 8 that will feature characters from the film Monsters, Inc.<\/em> like Mike Wazowski.<\/p>\nThe alt cast marks the third consecutive season that ESPN, Disney+, and the NFL have teamed up around a Funday Football<\/em> alt cast.<\/p>\nThe more, the merrier:<\/strong> ESPN is employing an aggressive marketing campaign that aims to bring sports fans and the sports-curious into the fold for its new DTC streaming offering, also called ESPN, which rolled out in August, Jo Fox, the company\u2019s marketing SVP, said onstage. That has meant having a presence in diverse locations, including Walmart, TikTok, and Snapchat. Fox expects ESPN and ABC\u2019s simulcast of the 2027 Super Bowl to drive further visibility among viewers.<\/p>\n\n
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Look ahead: <\/strong>When it comes to future technological innovation in sports, AI agents are going to usher in important changes to the space, Simon Crownshaw, worldwide strategy director, media and entertainment at Microsoft, said onstage.<\/p>\n\u201cThose agents are coming,\u201d he said. \u201cThe challenge for everybody in this room is going to be, \u2018How do I make sure my data and my API is ready to get access to that?\u2019 Because I\u2019m going to do a lot more off-content discovery and off-platform discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
ESPN is also leaning into VR, with the goal of making sports experiences available to consumers on various new devices that roll out in the space, Sonia Doshi, VP of strategic operations, design, and production for the Office of Technology Enablement at the Walt Disney Company, said onstage. It\u2019s already working with partners like Meta, which manufactures Meta Quest VR headsets, on the endeavor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat animated telecast is such a great example of where worlds are colliding,\u201d Doshi said. \u201cThis type of technology allows for that, for you to completely reimagine what you could do with your story, your IP, or your league in a totally different way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the ESPN Edge Innovation Conference in New York last week, Disney unveiled a holiday surprise. Dunk the Halls, a holiday-themed animated NBA game alt cast that first premiered last year , will be returning this year on Christmas Day. Last year\u2019s alt cast, which featured a game between the New York Knicks and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-marketing"},"yoast_head":"\n
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