The latest company to jump into the “animated sports broadcast” genre is TNT Sports, in partnership with Warner Bros. Games.
On Wednesday, TNT Sports announced the broadcast, airing on Sunday, April 14 at 3:30 p.m. on truTV and Max. The alternate broadcast will cover the Golden Knights-Avalanche game, which will air in its traditional form on TNT and Max.
The game, dubbed the MultiVersus NHL Face-Off, will feature iconic Warner Bros. characters who also appear in the upcoming MultiVersus video game. Here’s more from the TNT Sports release.
Legendary and beloved Warner Bros. Discovery characters appearing in the highly anticipated MultiVersus videogame, including Bugs Bunny, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, Velma and Shaggy, Steven Universe and Finn the Human, will take center ice in a fully animated presentation featuring a matchup of the two most recent Stanley Cup champions, Colorado Avalanche at Vegas Golden Knights. The slobbery and short-fused Looney Tunes character Tasmanian Devil will officiate the game and drop the puck on the afternoon’s action.
Before they take the ice, a special team selection draft of the MultiVersus icons will happen during NHL on TNT’s postgame coverage of the Buffalo Sabres at Detroit Red Wings on Sunday, April 7
The animated presentation of Avalanche at Golden Knights will use the NHL’s innovative NHL EDGE tracking technology to recreate the action on the ice as it happens in real-time, featuring the characters of MultiVersus alongside avatars of the NHL’s biggest stars — including Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar of the Avalanche against Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault of the Golden Knights, among others. The ice rink for the alternate telecast will be dynamic and incorporate rotating elements based on environments from the MultiVersus game, such as the Space Jam Court, Adventure Time Tree Fort, Sky Arena and Trophy’s E.D.G.E.
Kenny Albert, Eddie Olczyk, and Brian Boucher will call the traditional game broadcast, while Steve Mears and Colby Armstrong will call the MultiVersus broadcast.
Much as we saw with ESPN’s two Big City Greens broadcasts, the game will use “NHL EDGE positional data (NHL Puck and Player tracking) and Hawk-Eye Innovations optical tracking” to produce accurate positioning for players on the ice. Beyond Sports, which also partnered with ESPN on the Big City Greens games and last fall’s NFL Toy Story game, is working with TNT Sports to create the animation for the game.
Just like with ESPN’s animated broadcasts, this is a fun diversion from the Very Serious sports broadcasts we see daily. It probably won’t draw a ton of eyeballs, but it has the potential to reach a new fanbase and get them to interact with the NHL heading into the playoffs.
[TNT Sports, image via TNT Sports]
