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Turner Sports is embracing the multicast for its coverage of the NBA All-Star Game.
Sunday’s game will feature two separate feeds — the traditional telecast on TNT, and an alternate one on TBS that Turner is calling “Inside the All-Star Game,” anchored by its Inside the NBA crew of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal. Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green, who signed a unique deal with Turner Sports in January, will also contribute to the TBS telecast.
(Green was selected as an All-Star for the fourth time in his career but won’t play in the game due to an injury.)
The alternate telecast for the NBA All-Star Game follows on the heels of ESPN’s successful “Manning-cast” alternate feed of Monday Night Football this season. The ESPN2 telecasts, featuring brothers and former NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning and a rotating guest lineup, averaged about 1.6 million viewers and helped boost the overall numbers for MNF.
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“We had been thinking about laying the [Inside the NBA] guys over a game to see what the experience would look like,” Turner Sports chief content officer Craig Barry told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. “When we were recording the reveal of the All-Star reserves in the studio and Draymond said he wasn’t playing, a light bulb went off.”
TBS has simulcast the All-Star Game for several years, but in the past it was a duplicate of the main TNT broadcast rather than the alternate presentation taking place this week.
Johnson, Smith, Barkley and O’Neal will be on site at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse for the game, watching from a set above the arena floor. Barry says the TBS telecast will mostly feature a split screen, with 75 percent devoted to game action and the other 25 percent to the commentary, with the opportunity to go to different looks as game action warrants. Green will be on the arena floor in the first half before joining the Inside team for the second half.
“Most of the decisions we make for content are based on a fan first mentality,” Barry said. “When we started thinking about what it would look like, we got more excited. We can include not only Draymond, but also current players that are mic’d up” — including Stephen Curry and Ja Morant — “live mics and [others] where guys on the bench can interact with our guys on the set.”
On TNT, Kevin Harlan will provide play by play for the All-Star Game, joined by analysts Reggie Miller and Dwyane Wade — both of whom are members of the league’s 75th anniversary team. Other members of the 75th anniversary team will also join the broadcast.
Turner Sports has experimented with alternate telecasts a few times in the past, doing “TeamCasts” for the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four and national championship, and on a smaller scale, with NBA games on Twitter and the League Pass subscription service. The All-Star Game will be largest-scale NBA effort to date, however, and feature all network talent.
Barry told THR that the All-Star Game will be a “proof of concept” that he hopes Turner Sports can apply to other games in the future.
“If fans enjoy watching it, of course we’ll do it again,” he said. “We’re equally excited to see how it plays out.”
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