Detroit Lions Tap Former Players, NFL Analysts for Preseason Alternative Broadcast

Kiswe-powered live stream took place during Lions–Giants on Aug. 11

Heading into the NFL season, many live-event and team-based production professionals use the preseason to work off the rust and get ready for the 17-week-long sprint. The Detroit Lions used their first preseason game, against the New York Giants on Aug. 11, to present a new alternative broadcast marked by special guests and technology provided by Kiswe.

“This production was an evolution from what we did last year for the first time,” says Carl Moll, director, broadcasting, Detroit Lions. “We wanted to take this idea to a new platform and offer a different product around the traditional broadcast.”

Extending the Digital Reach: Team Gains Traction on Website, Social-Media Platforms

Looking to not just duplicate the broadcast, Moll and his team went to work on creating a new run of show for digital-centric fans. To amplify the traffic on the team website and attract more followers to the team’s numerous social-media channels, the Lions’ production team brainstormed ideas to come up with the new alternative broadcast. Once the idea was conceived, Moll worked closely with COO Mike Disner and SVP, Revenue, Kelly Kozole, and the executives were all-in on the new activation during an NFL preseason that allowed all 32 clubs more broadcasting freedom.

Lions GM Brad Holmes joined host Peter Schrager on the live stream from a physical setup at Ford Field.

“Everybody jumped on board with this new idea,” says Moll. “Preseason provides a very team-centric broadcast, so it gave us the opportunity to do something that we wouldn’t be able to do in the regular season, when national networks are producing games.”

The final plan that was put together placed Good Morning Football’s Peter Schrager as main host with a slate of celebrities and pundits intermittently joining the live stream. To pull off this feat, Kiswe was recruited as the team’s new video-conferencing provider. Given Kiswe’s experience on live-streaming projects, including the Washington Capitals’ Virtual Gameday during the COVID-impacted NHL season in 2020-21 as well as NBA TV’s daily programming during the worldwide stoppage of sports broadcasts in early 2020, it was a fitting choice. From Kiswe’s perspective, Chief Strategy Officer Mike Schabel; Head of Business Development, Sports, TK Gore; and Producer Corey Smith played an important role on the platform’s creation.

Aligning Schedules: Crew Balances Time for Various Personalities

Golden Tate joined the alternative broadcast from his home.

One of the hardest parts about doing a discussion-based alternative broadcast is keeping fans entertained and engaged, but, from a behind-the-scenes point of view, the hardest aspect of the show was figuring out free time on a variety of schedules. To diversify the guests, Moll and company opted for individuals from different backgrounds: from the Detroit Lions family, EVP/GM Brad Holmes, Special Assistant to the President/CEO and Chairperson Chris Spielman, former safety Glover Quin, and former wide receiver Golden Tate; from other sports, former NBA point guard Jalen Rose, former Detroit Tigers outfielder and Bally Sports Detroit analyst Kirk Gibson, and Detroit Red Wings right winger Darren McCarty; and from the media, Detroit Free Press beat writer Dave Birkett and NFL reporter Stacey Dales.

Director, Football Communications, Eamonn Reynolds and Director, Marketing, Samantha Barney took the lead in sending out invitations and organizing the timing on their respective itineraries. As for bringing the guests into the actual platform, a pair of Lions employees — Senior Director, Digital Operations, Todd Marcy and IT Manager Mark Wilke — pulled the strings on the backend.

Glover Quin was another former Lions player to participate in the alternative broadcast.

Kiswe Provides Cloud-Based Video Conferencing; Lions Produce Linear Broadcast

When it was time for the kickoff at Ford Field, the Lions’ production team was ready to handle two shows at once: Moll oversaw the linear show on the local Fox affiliate in an onsite mobile unit, and the tag team of Marcy and Smith led the alternative broadcast. Kiswe was in control of the guests’ joining the show remotely, including Schrager, and Moll set up a physical spot with a computer, microphone, and headset for Holmes, Spielman, McCarty, and Birkett at Ford Field. Speaker connectivity was established via a rehearsal prior to the game, and the feed shown on the alternative broadcast was a dirty feed sent from the truck to Kiswe.

Jalen Rose (bottom) was among local celebrities from other sports to appear on the live stream, here with Peter Schrager (top) and Golden Tate.

As for the flow of the show, Moll wanted the interaction between Schrager and the guests to be organic and free-flowing: “We tried to not have any cold out with any of our guests. We also wanted to make sure we had time for the guests to interact with each other.”

Prior to the production, the graphics department developed a special template and other visuals to commemorate the club’s 90th anniversary season. “We wanted to make sure that we incorporated that look into the overall main screen,” says Moll. “[These graphics] were very much in line with our branding for this season, and our creative team assisted with those elements.”

What’s Next: Positive Feedback Makes Future Editions a Possibility

After the production, both executives and fans alike were in favor of what Moll and his team had pulled off. From Moll’s vantage point, the retention rate for the live stream was the most impressive statistic from the night.

Kirk Gibson (center) hung out with Jason Rose (bottom) and host Peter Schrager.

“Fans that never watched a preseason game stayed all the way through the fourth quarter,” he notes. “The overall feedback, internally and externally, was very positive, and we were really pleased about the fans’ reaction.”

As for the future, there’s a chance that fans of the blue and silver could see an iteration for such events as the NFL Draft, which is slated for Detroit in April 2024.

“We did two postmortems, one with Kiswe and another internally, about a week or so afterwards to talk about some other opportunities,” says Moll. “There’s nothing concrete at this point, but we’re looking at it to determine what the value of this would be in both the short and long term.”