Mack Sovereign, chief content officer of Wave Sports + Entertainment—the company behind Jason and Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast—spoke about the value of storytelling through not only digital and social media, but in-person experiences with fans. Rebecca Gitlitz, director of the four-part Netflix documentary “Under Pressure: The U.S. Women’s World Cup Team,” noted that increased access to athletes amplifies the power of already unpredictable events.
“Sports has the most amazing ability to show human nature,” said Gitlitz, also head of sports at TIME Studios: “It’s unpredictable. It is an experience unlike any other with the highest of highs and lowest of lows.”
Streaming isn’t ‘fragmentation,’ it’s a needed platform
The story of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) and its role in the rise of star players including Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart and Nneka Ogwumike was one that deserved to be told… but had difficulty finding a home.
“This story hits on all the pillars that frame women’s sports: it’s pay equity; it is being a working mom; it is planning your family; it is working overseas; it is diversity and the importance of representation and inclusion,” Terri Carmichael Jackson, executive director of the WNBPA, told ADWEEK TV editor Bill Bradley.
Premiering in January on Tubi in partnership with Puma, the all-access documentary Shattered Glass: A WNBPA Story was stuck in development for two years as brands and distributors passed, but found a home on Tubi that gave it a free platform, a broader Gen Z audience and a unique perspective.
“There really aren’t many women’s sports documentaries at all—anywhere,” said Nicole Parlapiano, Tubi’s CMO. “The thing about Tubi is that we look for stories that haven’t been told before, that are sort of bubbling under the surface. That’s our specialty.”
Women’s sports are a financial force
Sports Innovation Lab CMO Gina Waldhorn recently held a NewFront on behalf of her group’s Women’s Sports Club to both simplify women’s sports media buying for potential partners and to spell out the business argument for their purchase.