There have been plenty of interesting alternate feed broadcasts in recent years, from the ManningCast to NFL on Nickelodeon to a variety of college football MegaCasts and alternate feeds for other sports. The latest approach is a NHL on TNT/Bleacher Report pairing, featuring esports athlete and personality Andrew “Nasher” Telfair (featured on the B/R Open Ice vertical) hosting a B/R app interactive stream as an alternate viewing option for the first period of the NHL on TNT‘s Toronto Maple Leafs-New York Rangers broadcast Wednesday, beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET. Here’s more from a release:
WHO: Andrew ‘Nasher’ Telfer – Preeminent hockey content creator and lead voice for B/R Open Ice,. Bleacher Report’s digital hockey vertical.
WHAT: Nasher will live stream the first period of the Toronto Maple Leafs-New York Rangers game, incorporating fan interaction and answering questions posed through the B/R app. He will also respond to fans’ favorite hockey trick shots, clips, goals, etc. submitted via his popular Twitter page HERE.
WHEN: TONIGHT – Wednesday, January 19 – at 7:30 p.m. EST
WHERE: Live in the B/R App
And here are some of Nasher’s tweets on this:
Pumped to announce I’ll be hosting one of the first official NHL watch parties?
We can watch the 1st period of MAPLE LEAFS vs. RANGERS together tomorrow night! I’ll be in the corner with a green screen reacting to the game live as it happens.
Let’s do that hockey. @BR_OpenIce https://t.co/9I3whYAUMA
— Nasher (@TheNasher61) January 18, 2022
The setup is looking clean ?
RANGERS vs. LEAFS watch party on the @BleacherReport App. I’ll be in the corner of the game, reacting as it all happens.
Need 5 goals minimum in the 1st period. We’ll be LIVE right at puck drop. @BR_OpenIce pic.twitter.com/n0rfoitRgb
— Nasher (@TheNasher61) January 19, 2022
This is an interesting move, and fits in with past moves by Turner and B/R (both part of WarnerMedia) to provide some cross-brand content, especially in the B/R app. We’ve seen that before with The Match (with the most recent version having a press conference with fan-submitted questions air on the app) and with other properties. And esports in particular has been something where WarnerMedia’s done a lot across their different brands, including B/R and Turner Sports. So this seems to make some sense from that perspective as well. We’ll see how this watch party goes and if B/R does more of these in the future.
[@TheNasher61 on Twitter]