Altcast


An alternate broadcast, also known as an altcast, is a secondary broadcast feed of a sporting event. Altcasts are designed to showcase an event from a different perspective, including specialty camera angles, extended analysis, simulcasts with alternative commentary, and other unconventional formats. These broadcasts are sometimes carried on secondary linear channels owned by the event's rightsholder, but are more often carried on digital platforms.

History

After its launch in 1993, ESPN experimented with using its new sister channel ESPN2 to carry alternative broadcasts of events from the main network, such as carrying a CART race entirely from the perspective of in-car cameras in 1994. In March 2006, to mark the one-year anniversary of the launch of its college sports channel ESPNU, ESPN introduced a format known as "ESPN Full Circle" during a North Carolina–Duke college basketball game; ESPN would carry the main telecast, while ESPN2 would carry an "above the rim" camera angle, ESPNU would carry a feed focusing on Duke's student section, the network's broadband service ESPN 360 carried a statistics-focused feed, while ESPN.com and Mobile ESPN offered supplemental digital content and interactive features. ESPN reported a total viewership of 3.78 million viewers, making it the network's most-watched college basketball game since 1990. The Masters Tournament in golf would begin experimenting with supplemental webcasts that year, introducing an "Amen Corner Live" broadcast focusing upon Augusta National's 11th, 12th, and 13th holes.
ESPN would extend the Full Circle concept to other events, including a 2006 NBA playoffs opening game between the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat in April, and a Florida–Florida State football game in September—in which a split-screen feed of eight camera angles was shown on ESPN2, and a skycam feed aired on ESPNU. The Los Angeles Times reported that the ESPN2 broadcast faced a mixed reaction from viewers, with one considering the split-screen format to be the "stupidest" thing they had seen in a sports broadcast since Fox's "glowing" hockey puck.
In 2014, ESPN revamped the Full Circle concept for the BCS National Championship Game as the "Megacast", with its networks carrying broadcasts such as "BCS Title Talk", a "Film Room" broadcast on ESPNU with extended examinations of plays by a panel of analysts, a commentary-free feed on ESPN Classic, a "Command Center" with on-screen stats on ESPN Goal Line, and other viewing options on ESPN3. These offerings would continue into the College Football Playoff era, with other concepts such as special editions of Paul Finebaum's radio show on SEC Network, and broadcasts with alumni of the opposing teams as analysts.
In 2021, ESPN2 began to carry Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli during selected Monday Night Football games, which featured brothers Peyton and Eli Manning discussing the game with celebrities and sports personalities. The entertainment-oriented broadcasts proved to be critically successful, and received a Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Live Sports Series in 2022. ESPN would enter into a long-term agreement with the Mannings' Omaha Productions to produce altcasts in a similar format for other ESPN sports properties. They also influenced similar offerings from networks such as TNT, which in 2024 broadcast a feed of the NBA All-Star Game featuring Inside the NBA panelist Charles Barkley and the Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green.
While an altcast may not be necessarily viewed as widely as the main telecast of an event, they can help expand interest in an event among wider demographics. They have also provided additional sponsorship opportunities, such as altcasts dealing in statistics often being sponsored by technology firms such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft.

Types and examples

Alternate commentary

A common form of altcast are feeds with different commentators to provide supplemental perspectives of an event. Examples of these can include:
Some altcasts are built around analysis and analytics, including additional graphics with specialized statistics, commentary and analysis based around statistics, and the use of augmented reality graphics to visualize plays and statistics in real-time.
  • A recurring "Megacast" offering on ESPN's college football coverage was the "Film Room", which featured a panel of analysts—usually including current and former coaches—performing extended breakdowns and analysis of plays and calls.
  • In 2024, NBC Sports first presented an NFL altcast sponsored by the Madden NFL video game franchise, which featured video game-style visualizations of play options and routes, and commentary by Chad Johnson and Kurt Benkert incorporating discussions related to topics such as in-game player ratings.
  • A similar type of altcast format is centered around sports betting, with coverage of the game being presented from the perspective of odds, props, and futures.

    Whiparound and split-screen broadcasts

A "whiparound" show is a format used for broadcasts featuring rolling coverage of multiple, simultaneous sporting events. These broadcasts typically feature real-time highlights, curated views of multiple live games in a split-screen format, and isolated "look-ins" on games where potentially significant events are about to occur.
In some sports leagues, whiparound broadcasts are not necessarily one-off altcasts, but a regular, standalone program that may be a component of a cable network or out-of-market sports package, such as NFL Network's NFL RedZone channel, MLB Big Inning, MLS 360, CBS Sports' The Golazo Show, and ESPN's former Goal Line/Buzzer Beater/Bases Loaded channel.
Whiparound feeds have also been used as part of one-off altcasts and special events; NBC has offered the Gold Zone for its coverage of the Olympic Games on Peacock, while ESPN has televised occasional whiparound specials such as MLB Squeeze Play, and NHL Frozen Frenzy—an event held since 2023 where all National Hockey League teams play games with staggered start times, ESPN airs a national tripleheader, and ESPN2 and ESPN+ airs a whiparound feed of all games in progress. Since 2008, ESPN has broadcast feeds of the NCAA Division I Men's Wrestling Championships with a similar split-screen format, with the early rounds offering a "quad-box" view of four simultaneous matches, and isolated coverage of individual matches available via streaming. In October 2021, Fox Sports 1 aired a whiparound broadcast of six simultaneous Big East basketball games as part of the opening night of college basketball season.

Youth and family-oriented broadcasts

There have been notable instances of alternate broadcasts tailored towards youth and family audiences, with some leveraging the use of player tracking technologies to create entertainment-oriented features.
  • ESPN has offered a "KidsCast" broadcast for the Little League World Series and MLB Little League Classic, featuring students of the Bruce Beck School of Broadcasting.
  • Since 2021, CBS Sports and sister network Nickelodeon have partnered on altcasts of selected games aimed towards family co-viewing; all of the games have been called by Noah Eagle and Nate Burleson, usually joined in the booth by one or more cast members of a Nickelodeon series. The games have included augmented reality "filter" effects, cameo appearances by other Nickelodeon characters as "reporters", attendees, or to provide additional explanations of rules, as well as other youth-centric features. These efforts culminated at Super Bowl LVIII in 2024, where CBS provided the Super Bowl's first-ever altcast.
  • On May 3, 2021, ESPN presented a Marvel Comics-themed altcast for an NBA game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Golden State Warriors entitled Marvel Arena of Heroes; the broadcast contained Marvel-themed graphics, as well as augmented reality filters and character appearances. The broadcast placed a focus on three star players from each team, who accumulated "hero points" based on their in-game performance. It also featured guest contributions by Angélique Roché, host of the Marvel's Voices podcast.
  • In 2022, Prime Video partnered with the sports comedy troupe Dude Perfect to host a family-oriented altcast for selected Thursday Night Football games, interspersing coverage of the game with segments incorporating the troupe's signature trick shots and stunts.