
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
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
15/06/2025
July 2025 in Dublin, Berlin, Amsterdam & London
Photo: Thea Martre
Music Production for Women (MPW) have announced that they will be running a series of fo...
15/06/2025
Composer/producer launches free virtual instruments
Sulcata Sound is the latest venture of Jason Graves, a two-time British Academy Award-winnning composer,...
14/06/2025
NEW YORK Pluto TV and the All Womens Sports Network have launched a free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) AWSN channel in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and the Nor...
14/06/2025
NEW YORK and CINCINNATI E.W. Scripps has announced a new, multiyear agreement with the WNBA that will continue Ions regular-season coverage of the league on Fri...
14/06/2025
WASHINGTON The National Association of Broadcasters highlighted the hidden importance of spectrum in the production of major sporting events and described wha...
14/06/2025
WASHINGTON Sunsetting ATSC 1.0, expanding business opportunities for NextGen Broadcast and increasing international adoption of the ATSC 3.0 standard were top o...
14/06/2025
SAN FRANCISCO Samba TV and Acxiom have announced that they will dramatically expand their longstanding relationship....
14/06/2025
July 2025 in Dublin, Berlin, Amsterdam & London
Photo: Thea Martre
Music Production for Women (MPW) have announced that they will be running a series of fo...
14/06/2025
San Francisco State University's School of Cinema Uses Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton June 13, 2025
0 Comments
More than 40 Blackmagic Design came...
14/06/2025
Boris FX Mocha Pro Adds New AI Tools To Tackle VFX Tasks Fast
Jessie Electa Petrov June 13, 2025
0 Comments
The 2025.5 release helps artists work more...
14/06/2025
AJA Debuts DRM2-Plus Mini-Converter Frame at InfoComm 2025
Brie Clayton June 13, 2025
0 Comments
Next-gen frame addresses diverse rackmount needs wit...
13/06/2025
(L-R) Lindsay Utz, Michelle Walshe, and The Right Honourable Dame Jacinda Ardern attend the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Prime Minister at Eccles T...
13/06/2025
Photo credit: Atsushi Nishijima
If you're a true lover of rom-coms, chances...
13/06/2025
Pure Drama and Fierce Rivalries set to dominate the world's most iconic spor...
13/06/2025
Johannesburg, 12 June 2025 - The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an a...
13/06/2025
ABILENE. Texas A severe storm knocked down the tower and severely damaged the news studio and main facility of Sinclair-owned KTXS here on Sunday, June 8....
13/06/2025
Berklee's Music Business/Management Department Recognized by the Music Biz A...
13/06/2025
WASHINGTON The ATSC, the Broadcast Standards Association, honored veteran technologist Aldo Cugnini and Clarence Hau, Senior Vice President of Standards, Policy...
13/06/2025
(Editor's note: The 2025 UFL Championship Game between the D.C. Defenders and Michigan Panthers kicks off Saturday, June 14, at 8 p.m. Eastern. The game wil...
13/06/2025
New iPad/iPhone synth App announced
Following on from last year's release of Gradient Synth - which reached #6 on the App Store's Paid Music charts ...
13/06/2025
LONDON Warner Bros. Discovery has announced that HBO Max will launch direct-to-consumer in multiple new countries this July as the streamer becomes available in...
13/06/2025
AI voice transcription and captioning platform Verbit has added a new feature to its Captivate ASR solution the ability to identify specific features in automat...
13/06/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission member Anna Gomez has wrapped up two weeks in California visiting broadcasters, television studio executives, enter...
13/06/2025
WASHINGTON The U.S. House of Representatives voted mostly along party lines to approve a rescission package that would cancel $9.4 billion in previously approve...
13/06/2025
At InfoComm 2025, AJA Video Systems announced DRM2-Plus, an intuitive, high-capacity 3RU frame that can neatly house up to 24 AJA Mini-Converters. Tailored to s...
13/06/2025
Cinema advertising leader to leverage AOS and suite of AI-enabled solutions to optimize forecasting, yield management, and streamlined ad sales and operations a...
13/06/2025
Manfrotto has launched the ONE Hybrid Tripod, a new support system designed specifically for professional content creators working with mirrorless cameras acros...
13/06/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that its Media Edge Gateway (MEG), an ATSC 3.0 software-based IRD, now supports Device Security requ...
13/06/2025
LiveU, the global leader in live IP-video contribution, production and distribution solutions, is deepening its commitment to the German-speaking market with th...
13/06/2025
Chaos, the leader in architectural visualisation software, today announces Chaos Corona 13, giving archviz designers new ways to add eye-catching style and flai...
13/06/2025
PALI's Nena Music Video Shot with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton June 12, 2025
0 Comments
Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K and DaVinci Resolve Studio b...
13/06/2025
OddBeast Powers Up iRobot's Newest Roombas with Suite of CGI Launch Assets
Brie Clayton June 12, 2025
0 Comments
The motion design and production ...
13/06/2025
On Chick Coreas Birthday, a Newly Uncovered Archival Release The Visitors, composed by Corea and performed by vibraphonist Gary Burton and pianist Kirill Gers...
13/06/2025
In fulfilment of a recommendation by the Government's Expert Advisory Commit...
13/06/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Backblaze's Gleb Budman Talks Products, Partnerships, and the ...
13/06/2025
SVG Sit-Down: DAZN's Walker Jacobs Calls Streaming the FIFA Club World Cup ...
13/06/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Vecima Networks' Paul Strickland on How Improving QoE...
13/06/2025
Pitch Perspective: Where's Next for Specialty Cameras in Soccer? Leaders from Sky Austria and ACS discuss the possibilities of camera placement pitchside B...
13/06/2025
Premiership Rugby Final 2025: Vintage clash between Bath and Leicester gets full...
13/06/2025
Premiership Rugby Final 2025: TNT Sports gears up for Bath vs Leicester battle w...
13/06/2025
NCAA Men's College World Series: ESPN Adds Two-Point SupraCam, Invests in Ne...
13/06/2025
New FSWX signal and spectrum analyzer with novel architecture overcomes limits o...
13/06/2025
Apple today announced the addition of iPad to Self Service Repair, providing iPad owners with access to repair manuals, genuine Apple parts, Apple Diagnostics t...
13/06/2025
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today previewed iOS 26, a major update that brings a beautiful new design, intelligent experiences, and improvements to the apps use...
13/06/2025
At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple unveiled Apple Games, an all-new destination designed to help players jump back into the games they...
13/06/2025
Industrial AI isn't slowing down. Germany is ready.
Following London Tech Week and GTC Paris at VivaTech, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang's Europea...
12/06/2025
In 2018, Spotify launched Heart & Soul, a mental health initiative developed to ...
12/06/2025
50 Years Strong: SBS and NITV Supercharge NAIDOC Week 2025 in a joint 50th celeb...