- Sports media company Overtime announced on November 2 a new partnership with the NFL.
- Overtime will get special access to marquee events like the Super Bowl and the NFL Draft.
- Insider spoke with execs at Overtime and the NFL about how they're targeting Gen Z sports fans.
The sports media company Overtime boasts that 83% of its audience is under 35 years old. It says it's cracked the code on tapping into the next generation of sports fans, a key area into which established outlets like ESPN are pouring money — and others in the industry are taking note.
The NFL and the media company announced on November 2 a partnership that will give Overtime behind-the-scenes access to make content at key events, including the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, Combine, and Draft. It's the brand's first content deal with one of the four major US leagues.
Overtime will make and distribute short-form NFL videos on its platforms with its talent. The media company will also get the rights to use official NFL logos and intellectual property in its content.
Founded in 2016, Overtime is known for distributing sports content on social media, including highlights and clips that are usually captured by its creators, as well as funny videos and other content. The company also runs leagues for men's basketball and seven-on-seven football and recently announced a women's basketball offering.
The main Overtime account has more than 25 million TikTok followers, more than 9 million Instagram followers, upwards of 3 million YouTube subscribers, and almost 3 million subscribers on Snapchat.
Chief content officer Marc Kohn credits the brand's growth with Gen Z audiences to Overtime's creator network.
"Honestly, I haven't done anything," Kohn, who's in his mid-40s, told Insider. "I just have a lot of really smart, sharp, young content creators, whether that is in front of the camera or behind the camera, figuring out what the audience wants and feeds them more and more of it."
How Overtime is winning over the Gen Z audience
Overtime has sharpened its signature voice and style that Gen Z audiences love through coverage of its own leagues and hopes to do the same for partners like the NFL.
The company expanded into live and long-form storytelling recently with its coverage of its basketball league, Overtime Elite, which streams on Prime Video. The vast majority of viewers for Overtime Elite and the OT7 football league, which airs on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, are under 35 years old, Kohn said.
Kohn said his team has taken what Gen Z fans like on TikTok and Instagram and applied that to the broadcasts.
For example, their sideline reporters use a tiny handheld microphone, a trendy addition to informal interview-style videos on TikTok, as they check in with players on what Overtime calls its "Vibe Cam."
These creators are younger than traditional broadcasters, too, with most in their 20s and 30s. They ask questions that reflect what you might see in comments on social media. Sometimes that means going for the jugular by asking athletes about a controversial call or a mistake.
"'Did you think that you were going to be able to finish that dunk on them?' 'Did you think that you were going to be able to make that catch?'" Kohn said, sharing a few examples. "Compared to, 'That was a good half, what adjustments do you have to make?'"
Why the NFL is bringing in Overtime
The NFL has been targeting new live audiences for a while now, the league's vice president of digital media business development Blake Stuchin told Insider.
Its alternate telecasts like the "ManningCast," "TNF with Dude Perfect" livestreams on Twitch, and "Toy Story"- and Nickelodeon-themed broadcasts have all been efforts to reach new and often younger audiences.
With Overtime, the league is expanding that strategy beyond live broadcasts.
"What was exciting about working with Overtime is," Stuchin said, "creating a new type of storytelling, creating new content that would be complimentary to our live offer."
Stuchin said he hopes the Overtime partnership will "complement and expand," what the league and teams are already doing on social media, rather than replace it. He noted that Overtime's voice and style are different from that of the league's official accounts, which Kohn added could help show off players' personalities.
"Much as it might be nice if it all just came from the official league accounts or club accounts, we know that's not the way people engage with media," Stuchin said, "it's not the way they follow social media, it's not the way that they want to be able to interact, frankly, with players, as well."
The timing of the deal can be attributed to Overtime's expansion of its football content and audience, and the NFL's increasing partnerships with creators and media companies, Stuchin said.
This year, the league developed a "Creator of the Week" series where non-sports content creators make YouTube Shorts at games, and it approved others for a "Creator Access Pass" that green-lights the use of game footage and other NFL-owned videos. The NFL also struck a deal with YouTube to stream its Sunday Ticket package starting this season.
For Overtime, behind-the-scenes access to events like the NFL Draft is a key part of the deal. As a company focused on athlete storytelling from high school through college, the NFL, NBA, and WNBA drafts are like graduation days, Kohn said.
"The NFL draft," Kohn said, "is, in a way, our Super Bowl."
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