Hang Media Finds Success Connecting Fans, Players During Live Broadcasts Virtual Hangs during ICC World Cup Final, MLB World Series deliver for Gen Z audiences By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Monday, November 20, 2023 - 11:31 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
ESPN's ManningCast has been a very successful virtual watch party for the broadcast media landscape but Hang Media, founded in 2021 by former CNN President Jon Klein, is taking virtual watch parties to another level by giving fans a chance to get even closer to famous athletes who are watching the game.
Says Klein: What could be better than dropping famous people into the palm of their hand to watch the game alongside them? Watching a game with your heroes was the inspiration.
Former Texas Ranger Ivan Pudge Rodriguez recently took place in a World Series Hang along with Roy Oswalt, Dan Wheeler, Ruben Sierra, and more.
That inspiration has led to an experience (click here to see it in action) where athletes are signed up to host a virtual watch party which fans can then register to watch. It isn't a simulcast, ala the ManningCast, but rather a dedicated second-screen experience designed to be watched on a phone, tablet, or laptop alongside a big screen that has the actual game.
Registration for fans is free thanks to the support of sponsors like Toyota, Coca-Cola, Dave & Busters, MolsonCoors, and more. Since launch more than 20 million fans have taken part in the watch parties which require nothing but a Webcam, laptop camera, or phone camera on the part of the athlete. When fans access the Hang, they are then watching a second-screen experience that complements their first screen experience which has the actual game.
Klein says a study by Deloitte that came out earlier this year showed why Hang Media is finding success.
The report said that Gen Z sports fans expect the viewing experience to be communal, he says. They don't want to just sit there alone in their living room. They want to be involved in a group situation. And social media has also made them expect to have authentic connections with famous people. Providing that through Hangs has been a real lure for younger viewers as 60% of our users are 18 to 44.
We've seen plenty of companies come and go who bought rights to incorporate the feed into their experience and they're now out of business because it doesn't hold up, he says. But we do think there's going to come a point where the leagues and the teams will want to have their feeds included in front of our audiences.
Klein says the average session is one hour and 19 minutes and attracts an average of 800,000 viewers.
We are pulling in users and keeping them, says Klein. That is really rewarding and we're just going to continue to keep on learning about what works and what doesn't to continue to drive that number.
Hangs are available as both live streams and as VOD for a week following the event. Klein says that adds additional viewers, driving more value for sponsors and more exposure for the athletes.
The athletes rave about this experience every time as they love the face-to-face contact with their fans as this isn't just a quick hit on a radio show, he adds. It's a shared emotional experience and they also share it with other athletes as we often look to bring teammates together or current players on an off-night or bye week as they tend to attract a younger audience.
The athletes also help promote the Hangs via short videos they run on social media. Those clips have links that take fans straight to the ticketing page and then the fans submit their phone number and email address.
We share all that with sponsors and then on game day we send a text with a link to the fans, and they can even sign up for an on-camera slot which are limited to about 200 per game, says Klein Those are cycled through at around 40 people per quarter, but then unlimited people can access the chat where viewers can post questions.
Hang Media also offers trivia contests which Klein says are fairly simple graphics insertions that add another level of engagement and are often focused on the athletes in the hang. And then the sponsors also make sure to get engaged as well.
Restaurant chain Smokey Bones will deliver food to the athletes, so they'll be there eating ribs, says Klein. Cris Carter was on for an Ohio State game as he went there, and he mentioned how much he liked Smokey Bones donuts and Smokey Bones delivered them during the hang. So, it's all very organic with respect to product integration and endorsement.
The most recent sponsor to sign on with HANG is Toyota. To introduce its first-ever Grand Highlander SUV to targeted Black and Indian expat consumers, Toyota and its agencies, Burrell and InterTrend, have leveraged HANG's unique second-screen experiences to power deep engagement across more than 1 million views during the Toyota HBCU NY Classic football game back in September, and October's India-Pakistan Cricket World Cup match. They also teamed up this past weekend for the Cricket World Cup Final between Australia and India.
This past weekend Toyota sponsored a Hang for the ICC World Cup final between Australia and India that featured Cricket World Finals with Unmukt Chand, Mayank Agarwal, Priyank Panchal, Saiyami Kher, hosted by Ridhima Pathaki.
Klein says hangs are also a great way for athletes to showcase their personalities in a more meaningful way than a quick interview.
All athletes are acutely aware of how finite their careers are, and they want to position themselves for the next thing, he adds. We let them promote their podcasts or other products that they may be developing and that makes it a happy relationship.
The hang experience is focused on authenticity, fun, and being freewheelin
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
19/11/2025
Sphere Sound Kicks Up Its Heels at Radio City Music HallUltra-immersive system from the singular Las Vegas venue is also ready for sportsBy Dan Daley, Audio Edi...
19/11/2025
The Future of Stadium and Arena Video Control Rooms: Tech Leaders Talk 4K, IP, a...
19/11/2025
One Year at Intuit Dome: Walking Through the Stunning Arena's Advanced Video...
19/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: IMG's Francois Westcombe Goes Inside IMG's Annual Digital ...
19/11/2025
Inside Brighton & Hove Albion's fan-first media machine By George Bevir
Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 10:10
Print This Story
Brighton & Hove Albion'...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 1: Kansas Athletics Brings New Production Power to Rebu...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 2: A Pro's Guide to Kansas Athletics' New Video...
19/11/2025
MLB Media Rights Shakeup: NBC Inks Three-Year Deal for Sunday Night Baseball, Pe...
19/11/2025
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade attends the premiere of Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theatre on January 26, 2025, in Pa...
19/11/2025
Awards season is heating up, and the International Documentary Association just ...
19/11/2025
Aerojet Rocketdyne President Ken Bedingfield and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders were joined by state and local officials to celebrate the groundbreaking o...
19/11/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
19/11/2025
Calrec gives Phoenix Broadcast Solutions its full support in strategic multi-year enterprise partnership New Singapore OB company invests in Calrec technology f...
19/11/2025
October brings a larger audience in front of TV screens. The cooler autumn weather and the continuation of new programming schedules brought increases in both t...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Vitec has acquired Datapath, a developer of real-time video processing for large-scale video walls, AVoIP content distribution and KVM control in mission-critic...
19/11/2025
NEVADA CITY, Calif. Telestream has introduced ARGUS Version 2.3, which introduces Live Look, a feature that lets operators inspect live and on-demand streams vi...
19/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. and NEW YORK Charter Communications, Inc. has announced a major deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that establishes AWS as one of Charters stra...
19/11/2025
TOKYO Atomos has announced a major firmware update that brings integrated camera control to the Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX its new CFexpress-based monitor-recor...
19/11/2025
Berklee's Signature Series Reimagines the Musical and Visual Artistry of Col...
19/11/2025
PlayBox Neo departed the NAB Show New York 2025 on a high note. The company's all-new PlayBox Neo Suite made a splash on the show floor, drawing strong inte...
19/11/2025
AAVBR (American Audio Visual Baton Rouge), a leading full-service event production company serving Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region, has enhanced its product...
19/11/2025
In its mission to deliver live event services combining advanced engineering with a creative approach to captivating live sports and entertainment experiences, ...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK Short-form vertical video has exploded across platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, but a new survey commissioned by Media.net, a provider of c...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK YES Network, the regional sports network home of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, and CAMB.AI have struck a partnership they said will leverage ...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has issued detailed guidance on filings that were disrupted by the government shutdown. While many of those fil...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK The popularity of NFL games is largely responsible for continued seasonal momentum in TV viewership into October (measured Sept. 29-Oct. 26), according...
19/11/2025
DirecTV has announced that its MyFree DirecTV streaming service has added seven new channels. Those include four sports services, NBA FAST, Red Bull TV, DAZN Ri...
19/11/2025
SURREY, U.K. Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has launched Flair Bridge, a compact device that transforms how operators control the company's motion-contr...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission, which is continuing to rapidly ramp up its operations after the end of the federal government shutdown, has se...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Martin Freeman, Jessie Buckley, Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, Eddie the Eagle and ...
19/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz collaborates with Broadcom to enable testing and validation of n...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Innato, starring Imanol Arias and Elena Anaya, arrives on Netf...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Guillermo del Toro Sits Down With Troll 2 Director Roar Uthaug...
19/11/2025
Some projects feel monumental from the moment the first phone call comes in. When BCE, the host broadcaster appointed to coordinate the national coverage, asked...
19/11/2025
November 19 2025, 08:00 (PST) BAY AREA HOST COMMITTEE AND DOLBY PARTNER TO DELIVER IMMERSIVE FAN EXPERIENCES
During the Week of Football's Biggest Game...
19/11/2025
Michael D. Higgins: Ireland's Ninth President features RT Archives footage and interviews across seven decades
Watch Wednesday 19 November at 9:35pm on RT...
19/11/2025
Scripps Research scientists receive $1.1 million to advance AI modeling for HIV vaccine development New AI system helps scientists rapidly pinpoint the most pro...
18/11/2025
Independent media across Central America are operating under intensifying financial pressure, yet there is a clear appetite for models that can sustain both ind...
18/11/2025
NBA Debuts New Comms Infrastructure and Systems for RefereesTwo-phase rollout is intended to improve game flow, enhance officiating accuracyBy Dan Daley, Audio ...
18/11/2025
Platinum White Paper: How Aggreko Delivers Certainty For Broadcasters On The Wor...
18/11/2025
Kiswe Extends DTC Products With Kiswe Core Cloud-Based Tool for Distributing Con...
18/11/2025
Spanish Basketball Federation partners with ScorePlay to power digital transform...
18/11/2025
HBS selects BBright encoders and decoders to connect ST 2110 live production wor...
18/11/2025
Ashes to Ashes: Inside TNT Sports' hybrid and maverick' production plan...
18/11/2025
SVG All-Stars: Mimi Fotopoulos, Director, Talent and Production Operations, Tenn...
18/11/2025
SVG LIVE! Conference Explores the Tech Side of Sports and Entertainment ConvergenceLive sports and music productions increasingly share gear and infrastructureB...
Hang Media Finds Success Connecting Fans, Players During Live Broadcasts Virtual Hangs during ICC World Cup Final, MLB World Series deliver for Gen Z audiences By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
