Baseline Productions’ live sports stream aired CBC Sports' YouTube
A fourth-year RTA Sport Media student production, a live sports broadcast titled OSBA: Battle in the 6ix, was published on CBC Sports’ YouTube channel late last year.
The five-member team that makes up the practicum project included Emily Bancroft (producer), Zoe Ye (project manager and director), Ishaan Thandi (business manager and colour commentator), Esther Rho (social media manager) and Thurga Srisathananthan (director of photography).
Together, they settled on creating Baseline Productions “out of a desire to create a great live event — one that integrated all of our skills in multicamera production, with our keen interest in learning how to put together a live event.” The name itself was inspired by their goal to broadcast a live basketball game for their practicum project.
Battle in the 6ix came about through Ye’s connection to the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association (OSBA) (external link) as a freelance camera operator and director for the league.
The OSBA is a partnership between schools and basketball programs that creates “an immersive preparatory sports experience for high performance basketball players at the high school level.” Ontario Basketball said it manages both men’s and women’s programs in the league, with seasons generally running parallel to the school year. The OSBA is a sub-league of the Ontario Basketball Association (OBA).
After getting in touch with the OBA, and bringing up the idea of hosting their regular season match at a neutral court, the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC), so that they could be the centre of Baseline Production’s practicum project, Ye said they were enthusiastically on board. She was the main point of contact with the OSBA, as well as the two teams who played in the matchup at the centre of the live broadcast (Canada Topflight Academy Gold and Fort Erie International Academy) and many others.
“It’s difficult to put into words how much planning went into an event like this. Every little tiny detail had to be considered and thought of,” Ye said.
Bancroft and Thandi said the “email chains were certainly daunting,” as they coordinated between multiple parties to pull off the live broadcast. Some of the things they had to consider as a group were budgeting, finding a date and time for the match, ensuring the teams didn’t show up in the same colour jerseys, coordinating with facilities staff at the MAC, operating the shot clock during the game and more.
While Ye pulled off the coordinating, Bancroft was in-charge of pre-production paperwork. On showday, she worked with Ye to keep the elements of the live broadcast on time. Thandi, meanwhile, worked on securing sponsors and made connections to advertise the event. On game day, he also provided analysis on both teams as a commentator, which required hours of preparation in advance.Ye said she had likely put “something like 180 hours” into the project.
The game was produced and originally aired live on OSBA’s YouTube channel on Nov. 1, 2025, where it became the most-watched Game of the Week broadcast of the season at the time of airing,amassing more than three thousand views.Then, the opportunity arose to bring it over to CBC Sports’ YouTube channel as well.
Bancroft, a production assistant at CBC, floated the idea of redistributing the broadcast on CBC Sports’ YouTube channel by sending the tape to CBC’s producer of digital streaming and Youtube strategy manager. Both Baseline Productions and OBA saw it as a great opportunity for exposure.
“To me, this feels like the perfect culmination of everything that sport media has offered to all of us in terms of opportunity, as well as skills. I could not have asked for a better final project, or a better ending to the project,” Bancroft said. The stream now lives on CBC Sports’ YouTube channel (external link) , as well as OSBA TV’s YouTube (external link) .
All three of the students interviewed said their experience in the program was invaluable and led to the execution of such a high-calibre project.
“I have had the privilege of working with every person within my group previously on other major projects throughout my 4 years at TMU – which I felt really contributed to our success,” Bancroft said.
“I really felt that the documentary class that we took in third-year Sport Media (RTA 994) was extremely beneficial to the pre-production of this broadcast. We were really well equipped with knowing how much effort was involved with paperwork and all the mental preparation that goes into a shoot day,” Thandi added.
Working TMU Bold games outside of class also added to their experience and comfort with pulling off the broadcast, despite the minor hitches that came their way.
Ye said the biggest tip she would give to students looking to do a live event like theirs for their practicum is to “work with people who bring something valuable to your team.”
“With an event like this, you will be putting over 100 hours of your time into planning and execution — make sure you’re enjoying what you’re putting your time into and what you’re working towards,” she said.
Bancroft added, “The in-person experience of an event is just as important as the live broadcast, and neither component can be ignored when planning the event itself.”
Meanwhile, Thandi’s message to students is to, “Be prepared that a live event is a lot more work than expected.”
Overall, the team said they’re proud of the work they put into their practicum project and the outcome of it as well. The impact of their work has gone beyond a school assignment; it has opened doors for each of the team members, equipped them with new skills and has created connections they can build on with future projects.
Ye said, “Ontario Basketball is extremely happy with how the event and broadcast turned out, we have only received positive feedback from them. They, as well as the coaches of the TMU Bold men’s basketball team, have expressed an extreme interest in making this event a yearly thing.”