
NBA Finals 2019: As Raptors Fever Takes Over Canada, MLSE Serves Up Game Coverage on Sportsnet, TSN By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Wednesday, June 5, 2019 - 3:04 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
After five consecutive playoff runs of almosts and what ifs , the Toronto Raptors finally advanced to the NBA Finals this season. And while the entire country has seemingly been swept up in the team's run, no one is more enthused than the Canadian broadcasters and producers bringing the first-ever home-court NBA Finals to the fans. Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) is producing the telecasts, which are split between Sportsnet and TSN (in English) and RDS (in French). MLSE's operation marks the first time that a regional broadcaster is producing a national feed for an NBA Finals.
MLSE Toronto Raptors Broadcast Producer Dan Gladman and his team inside Dome Productions' Pioneer truck at the NBA Finals
Our production team feels incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to work on this event that is so special to all of us involved. We've all known for the last six years [during the Raptors playoff run] that it would be a possibility and we've all hoped for it, says MLSE's Toronto Raptors Broadcast Producer Dan Gladman. It's a huge step for our group and for Canadian sports broadcasting in general. Canadian broadcasters have always produced the Stanley Cup Final, but there's never been a Canadian production of the NBA Finals, so this is definitely a big step.
The MLSE production team, led by Gladman and director Chris Phillips, is utilizing Dome Productions' Pioneer mobile unit to deliver the game coverage, pre-game show (which has been expanded from 30 minutes to 60 minutes for the Finals), and halftime show in Toronto.
We truly do treat our regular season games as if it was the postseason game, so we've been doing the pre-game show on-site all season and we travel a huge production crew with us, says Gladman. So we're lucky in that that when we're here in this position at the Finals, we're really already prepared to do a show at that level.
Games 1, 3, 5, and 7 (if necessary) are airing on Sportsnet, while Games 2, 4, and 6 (if necessary) are carried on TSN. TSN and Sportsnet have also added numerous on-site resources to their shoulder programming including SportsCentre (TSN) and Tim and Sid (Sportsnet).
The MLSE production crew at the Eastern Finals (from left): Dave Leiter, John Rusin, Chris Phillips, and Dan Gladman
During the NBA playoffs, MLSE has deployed six unilateral cameras for its game coverage, while also sharing feeds from a handful of Turner and ESPN cameras. Although MLSE has cut its unilateral cameras to four during the Finals, it also now has access to all of ESPN/ABC's camera feeds.
MLSE has its own game camera, tight follow, handheld left, and low-right slash during the game, as well as access to several ESPN camera feeds, including the Skycam, above-the-rim robos, and through-the-glass robos. MLSE also has its own high-wide beauty shot, host position/player walk-off handheld, Q-Ball robo (coach cam), and a jib in Maple Leaf Square (better known as Jurassic Park) outside the arena.
It's a challenge being the No. 2 broadcast for an event of this caliber, but NBA and ABC/ESPN have been super cooperative in sharing resources and positions with us and allowing us to do a uniquely Canadian production for our country, says Gladman. This process really started six years ago when the Raptors made the playoffs in 2014 and there has been a very friendly spirit of collaboration and cooperation with ESPN and Turner, have been incredibly helpful in sharing their resources with us. Whatever we can offer a different angle, we give it back to them as well.
MLSE also has access to ESPN's Mic'ed Up segments featuring coach audio from the sideline for the first time this year, allowing fans to hear Raptors coach Nick Nurse up close and personal during the game.
Several of us in the production crew got our first jobs in TV working for the Raptors, mainly through work at NBA TV Canada and worked our way onto the game broadcast, says Gladman. We are all excited and proud to have this professional opportunity and to be in this moment.
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...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...