- The rise of sports documentaries has provided athletes with more ways to be on screen and build their brand.
- Players and their agents are looking for hits like the Netflix Formula 1 documentary series “Drive to Survive”.
- Apple TV+, HBO and Amazon are all vying for sports documentaries that bring viewers into the lives of athletes.
Thanks to the rise of sports documentaries in recent years – ESPN’s Michael Jordan-focused ‘The Last Dance’, Netflix’s ‘Formula 1: Drive to Survive’ and ‘Cheer’, ‘Being Serena’ and ‘Shaq ” from HBO, Amazon’s football series ” Good Rivals, to name a few – amateur and professional athletes Looking to become content creators have one more platform to enhance and amplify their brands.
“People have a natural appetite for sports,” said WME partner and agent Josh Pyatt, who co-leads the agency’s sports group and represents LeBron James’ content business. They want to see behind the curtains of what The life of Leo Messi is like. They want to see behind the curtain of what Neymar’s life it’s like what The life of Michael Jordan is like.”
And soon, audiences will see even more amid a slew of new material from streaming services, “Super League: Football Wars” from Apple TV+ and Documentary Boris Becker to Netflix’s “Break Point”, focused on tennis.
Being featured in a sports documentary can dramatically raise an athlete’s profile, giving them more fans and more brand power. It can even be used to boost an entire sport.
Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” has been credited with doing wonders for the F1 fandom, especially in the United States, where American interest has always been scarce. ESPN F1 viewership surged after the start of the 2019 docuseries, which chronicles the lives and careers of elite drivers.
According to a month of March Morning Consult survey, 53% of F1 fans surveyed said the series had played a role in their interest in the sport – and 30% called the show a “major reason” for becoming an F1 fan. “Drive to Survive” is now in its fourth season, and has been renewed for a fifth and sixth.
“The big by-product of all of this was: there was a pop for F1,” Pyatt said, adding that the quality of the storytelling elevated the series. “I hope it works in golf, and I hope it works in tennis, because it makes those sports more valuable and creates better opportunities for our customers.”
No doubt the stars of Netflix’s “Break Point” are betting on some of these opportunities. Players from No. 3 Casper Ruud to “bad boy tennis” Nick Kyrgios to Ajla Tomljanović – who memorably beat retired Serena Williams at this year’s US Open – enthusiastically promoted the series on their accounts. social media.
The leagues have also decided to capitalize on the growing interest in space: the NFL, for example, has a new joint venture with David Ellison’s Skydance Sports and seeks to expand its footprint In the television and theatrical space, production companies are hungry for more sports content.
For an athlete, being the subject of a well-made documentary can be redeeming. UTA partner and agent Ryan Hayden said that for his client Manti Te’o – who in 2012 was the victim of a high-profile catfishing incident while playing football for Notre Dame – making the subject of an episode of Netflix’s “Untold” series was “therapeutic.” It also created opportunities for speaking engagements.
“The Netflix effect of things has really, really helped him and it’s also helped him in the sports market for him too, letting people know he’s this great guy and he knows the sports space,” Hayden said.
But not all reps want their clients’ lives documented so closely, especially when the storytelling is no longer in the hands of the athlete. Klutch’s head of basketball, Omar Wilkes, said many of the agency’s stars had been approached to star in sports documentaries, but he was wary of young clients signing on at this stage in their careers. .
“Our mindset is: own the content, own it yourself, and tell your story later,” he said. “I think it’s a bit premature for some of them.”
Maintaining ownership of a viewpoint can be crucial, and communicating directly with fans via Instagram or Twitter posts can, in some ways, be more valuable than a TV deal.
“These people can go on air and stream their own content and they can capture and curate their own content,” said Jason Weichelt, vice president of content and development at Octagon. “These clients are sitting on huge assets to content themselves with all their lives.”
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