The Rise of Athlete Led Media

Towards the end of the summer two things happened which were significant moments in the player led media era. In fact, sports media period.  

Cristiano Ronaldo’s UR Cristiano launched the 21st August and broke YouTube records for the fastest channel to reach a million subscribers, doing so in less time than a football match takes to play. As of today he’s at 65 million subscribers, more than Taylor Swift and just outside the top 30 most popular channels in the world. 

Less than a week later, Travis and Jason Kelce’s popular and award winning podcast New Heights was bought by Amazon’s Wondery Network for a reported $100 million. One of the largest podcast deals in history. 

Both moments feel significant in the current state of not just the role of media in sport but also when it comes to athletes crafting their brand, creating content and owning their narrative. 

As Ronaldo’s career reaches its tail end he aims to allow fans to learn more about him, his family and views on different subjects. For a footballer so popular to the point he’s the most followed person combining various social media platforms, he’s previously never been very forthcoming or revealing in the media or on his socials, bar the odd family photo and that strange Piers Morgan interview. UR Cristiano far provides the sort of minutia into his life that some would find mundane but will have super fans locked in. 

When Travis and Jason Kelce became the first brothers to play against each other in the Super Bowl in 2023 their award winning New Heights podcast had fans and traditional media hanging onto every word as they remarked on the frenzy going on outside of their family. The money might seem crazy but Wondery is buying into a thriving show with a large and engaged audience and is reflective of companies buying up athlete podcasts or launching them with talent. 

The era of athletes as brands is something we’re long into starting from the Michael Jordan days through to David Beckham and now the likes of Ronaldo, Stephen Curry and Patrick Mahomes. As part of the evolution we’re seeing athletes become creators and media moguls. 

We’ve moved beyond an athlete just posting tweets and Instagram stories to full blown content with production teams around them. Podcasts are getting acquired and players are making documentaries. Athletes are founding companies and selling content to streamers and traditional media. Their content can generate news and set the agenda. 

This shift is disrupting traditional media platforms and owners who are having to evolve to figure out where they play in this new landscape, as athletes grow large and engaged audiences.

HUMANIZE THE ATHLETE

Players can now build deeper connections to fans as previously there used to be a barrier between the players and athletes of sport as communication was controlled and drip fed through official channels like the teams, organisations and media associated with it. 

With the democratisation of channels and platforms, it’s never been easier for athletes to create different types of content and athletes across all sports are seeing the benefit of owning their IP. 

A week doesn’t pass by it seems without a new player podcast or YouTube channel being launched and the quality does vary widely. We’re arguably at peak player content, but the general direction is helping change how we see all sides of an athlete and how they’re wrestling back control of the narrative from traditional and social media.  

THE KEY SHIFTS

Social media made it easier for any athlete to share their voice, but player led media has become its own category within the sports media landscape thanks to three key moments happening in the 2010’s.

The first actually took place on traditional media and caused a lot of controversy at the time but when we look back now at Lebron James revealing his free agency choice live on national TV, ‘The Decision’ was arguably the biggest player empowerment moment of the decade. If it was to happen today, Lebron would no doubt be hosting ‘The Decision’ under his SpringHill Entertainment Company or Uninterrupted platform, which was founded in 2014.  

That same year New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter launched the Players Tribune three days after he announced his retirement from baseball. It has received multiple rounds of investment and become a space for athletes to tell their side of the story. It’s where Kevin Durant revealed his free-agency decision to sign for the Golden State Warriors in 2016 and Kobe Bryant announced his retirement. Players have opened up to reveal sides we don’t often see or raise issues that have changed the conversation, from Kevin Love and Larry Sanders on mental health, Natasha Cloud on racism and social justice and Breanna Stewart on child sexual abuse.

In 2016 renowned NBA shooter JJ Redick became the first current playing and regular publisher of a podcast with The Vertical in 2016, originally on Yahoo but has seen Uninterrupted and The Ringer play host until he set up ‘The Old Man & The Three’ podcast and ThreeFourTwo Productions with Tommy Alter. Redick was once a divisive college player at Duke but that reputation began to change as his podcast grew and is one of the best, most insightful and arguably influential given the number of players podcasts that followed. It was no surprise he rose quickly on ESPN after his retirement to become an NBA Finals analyst or why he was appointed LA Lakers Head Coach this summer, with his basketball IQ and acumen all there to hear and see on his podcasts. These qualities were particularly on display during the ‘Mind The Game’ series launched earlier this year as he meticulously broke down the game with a player he’ll now coach, Lebron James. 

THE SECOND ACT

These three moments all played their part in a shift to players taking more control and being more open to telling their stories on their terms. To begin with it was mostly players at the tail end of their careers or newly retired who would dabble in creating podcasts or vlogs as they began to figure out their second act. 

In basketball, the Knuckleheads (Darius Miles & Quentin Richardson), Road Trippin (Richard Jefferson & Channing Frye), Queens of the Court (Sheryl Swoopes) and All The Smoke (Matt Barnes & Stephen Jackson) didn’t just tell unfiltered stories of their playing days, they have also led to analyst work and media deals. 

AJ Hawk, at the time a linebacker with the Green Bay Packers could argue he actually launched the first player podcast when the ‘Hawkcast’ in 2014 but was very sporadic with it as his career drew to a close.

In football, Peter Crouch’s everyman personality grew with his popular podcast, while Ben Foster’s Cycling GK YouTube vlog showed us his love of two wheels and took us into his games with his cameras in the goal to give fans a different access to the game. Jill Scott’s Coffee Club spoke to her old Lioness team mates and Hollywood stars. Jon Parkin’s and Chris Brown’s Under The Cosh shed light on players who, like them, mostly made a career outside of the Premier League where life on and off the pitch is very different. 

Last year Serena Williams launched her YouTube channel to document her post tennis career as an entrepreneur.

REDICK’S INFLUENCE

Now we’re seeing more active players following JJ Redick’s lead and getting shows off the ground while still playing to take us into the current state of the changing room and day to day life. 

Paul George is one of the more popular NBA players and his Podcast P show goes out regularly during the season and has revealed him to be one of the better interviewers out there, including those who do it for their profession. Duncan Robinson, Austin Reeves, Josh Hart & Jalen Brunson have all added to the mix. Draymond Green broke new ground by podcasting just hours after each NBA Finals game in 2022 as the Golden State Warriors returned to NBA title winning ways. 

Carmelo Anthony was the most prominent on YouTube throughout his playing days. During the NBA Bubble, when the 2020 season finished at Disney Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Philadelphia 76ers rookie Matisse Thybulle vlogged from inside. The player summer workout vlogs are beginning to become their own genre. Serge Ibaka’s cooking show is just weird. Aerial Powers of the Atlanta Dream and Isabelle Harrison of the Chicago Sky produce great day in the life content. 

Back to football and Jude Bellingham launched his YouTube channel around the time Ronaldo did and while not quite on the subscriber scale given the early stage of his career, the intention is clear with his documentary series Out of the Floodlights going behind the scenes of a successful debut season at Real Madrid but also brand Bellingham. 

Bussin with the Boys Will Compton and Taylor Lewan is one of the most popular NFL podcasts that was started when both were active in the league and picked up by Barstool Sports where their deals are in the seven figures. As well as Bussin With The Boys, Barstool Sports has pods with Arian Foster, Pat Beverley Ryan Whitney and Paul Bissonnette while The Ringer has or had shows with JJ Redick, Steve Kerr C. C. Sabathia, Ian Wright, Raja Bell, Ben Foster and Austin Rivers. In 2022, The Ringer was acquired by Spotify for around $200 million.  

It makes sense for digitally born publications like Barstool and The Ringer to work with active and retired athletes as part of their vast podcast networks but what about the legacy players like ESPN, Sky Sports and the BBC? They’ve got involved to varying degrees from the BBC launching Peter Crouch’s podcast to Sky Sports influence on The Overlap but it’s at ESPN where a blurring of lines is happening and could indicate where the traditional players could move.

Pat McAfee launched his self named show after his NFL career ended and has become one of the most popular figures in the player media era as it grew and moved through digital platforms and publishers like Barstool and SiriusXM before eventually landing at ESPN. The show isn’t just going out across where you get your podcasts or YouTube, it’s on the main ESPN channel. ESPN was already paying McAfee as a full-time analyst for college football but to bring his popular show under their umbrella they had to front up an eight figure deal to licence the content. They don’t even get to own it as McAfee retains control. Why would ESPN do this?

The leading US sports network is already increasing its spend to hold onto various live rights across the main American sports leagues, but when Sports Center doesn’t hold as much influence on news or highlights anymore as that can be found on social media, they need to keep people watching outside of games. I’d expect more deals to be made with players in the future and form part of their daily programming but this does seem to come at the cost of the expertise they’re losing when journalists like Zach Lowe and countless others have lost their jobs due to budget cutting.  

THE MOGUL ERA

Some athletes are thinking bigger than creating or selling one show and looking at building networks, platforms and companies. 

Uninterrupted is now a decade old, a partnership between Lebron James and his school friend and business partner Maverick Carter. That’s spun off shows like The Shop and branded content like Kneading Dough with Chase and sits under their SpringHill Entertainment. NFL legend Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions joined forces with Uninterrupted and Higher Ground Productions, the studio run by former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama to create Netflix’s newly launched Starting Five, a season in the life of Lebron and four other NBA players. 

Other notable companies and publishers include Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s Boardroom, Stephen Curry's Unanimous Media, Carmelo Anthony’s Creative 7, Rio Ferdinand’s 5 Media, Tom Brady's 199 Productions as well as Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson’s All The Smoke Productions. The media and commerce company Togethxr, from Sue Bird, Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim, and Simone Manuel is designed to elevate women’s voices, around but not exclusively within sports.

THE PLAYER LED DOCUMENTARY

With all this player led content and ownership, we’re getting to see many sides of the athlete and access we previously didn’t have in generations before which should be applauded and appreciated. 

Do we get to see all the sides and are those stories told impartially? The fact an NBA player can now respond to criticism from Stephen A. Smith on their own channel and providing their view is certainly beneficial both to the player and the fan. For too long the narratives of players were distorted by the media. My worry is when things become too polished to the point we lack the impartiality and where that could happen the most is the rise of the player led documentaries.

I grew up in a generation of 30 for 30 documentaries like the Fab Five or fly on the wall docs you can’t believe were approved like An Impossible Job. Now these player led docs feel more like auto-biographries or infomercials. David Beckham’s, Stephen Curry’s Underrated and Tom Brady’s Man in the Arena are both produced by the athletes production companies so are we really getting everything we could? 

I appreciate I’m being picky here as some players will never let a documentary crew in unless under their own production company, so at least we get something even if they’re leading. I just hope we still get more of the Andy Murray ‘Resurfacing’ or Roger Federer ‘Twelve Final Days’ where they’re not involved in the direction or production side and it feels rawer, unpolished and all the better for it. 

THE FUTURE

In previous generations if an athlete didn’t move into coaching, they would try to stay in the game with a lucrative move into the media as a columnist, pundit or analyst and while this continues today, players are now just as likely to become the media and do it their own way. 

The dynamic has now shifted and player led media is finding more engagement and relevance with fans and it’s not just content about playing days or locker room life anymore. Player led media has the influence to attract politicians, musicians and on screen stars to the point an appearance on player’s podcasts is part of a PR plan to promote their latest output.   

As traditional sports media continues to figure out how to keep subscribers while costs for live rights continues to rise and streamers also battle for subscriptions, working with athletes by licensing their content or providing the infrastructure to make it their way feels like a mutual win for reach and relevance as long as the relationship is balanced. 

Player led media will continue to grow as athletes are creating content earlier in their careers as they see how older generations have led the way to craft their brands. In the age of NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) this will be happening long before someone turns to the pros. 

Players creating podcasts, YouTube’s, documentaries and companies isn’t just an evolution of the sports media landscape, it’s a seismic shift to sports becoming more inclusive, more diverse and more authentic as players lead the narrative.