Overtime invests millions to expand its athlete talk shows, citing virality

THE sports media company Overtime plans to expand its slate of athlete-oriented talk shows in the coming months, increasing its current slate of four series to 10, according to general manager Dan Porter.

“By September, we will most likely double the size of the network and invest millions of dollars in it,” Porter said. “It’s been a real success and we think it’s the future.” The biggest challenge is that brands don’t understand that this is the new TV talk show format.

The shows, which feature famous college athletes in informal conversations with their peers and celebrity guests, embody the continuing convergence of video and podcasts.

For example, although the shows take the standard conversational format of a podcast, they are delivered primarily on YouTube and vertical video platforms like Instagram, rather than more traditional podcast platforms like Spotify.

In recent years, podcasts have increasingly added video elements to improve their visibility on social media, changing the product both commercially and artistically, said Nicholas Quah, a critic at Vulture who covers podcasts.

The hybrid nature of the format and the viral social clips it generates, however, could disrupt pricing and presentation to advertisers.

“The content should be the star, not the stars themselves,” said Dane Cardiel, vice president of creator partnerships at Gumball, adding that a fan who spends extended periods consuming a podcast or watching a TV show is more valuable to a fan. advertiser than a social media user scrolling through a clip.

Sell ​​clips

Clips from talk shows often go viral on social media, thanks in part to the strength of Overtime’s media empire: the company has more than 100 different social networks, including Over time And Overtime SZN– and the star power of the athletes themselves.

Current hosts include University of Colorado quarterback Shaddeur Sanders, Heisman Award winner Travis Hunter, LSU athlete and rapper Flau’jae Johnson and UNC phenom Ian Jackson.

The first of the current series of talk shows launched in July 2024. Since then, they have generated 390 million impressions, 225 million views and 533,000 subscribers across all platforms, according to Overtime.

So far, brands such as Elf, Armani Cologne and Gatorade have sponsored the series, although in most cases the talk shows are included as part of a larger media buy. Although shows are currently sold individually, as Overtime launches more series, it plans to offer brands the option to buy them as a network.

To integrate the brands into the shows, the hosts perform verbal ad reads, lasting approximately 15 seconds, during the first two minutes, once in the middle and again at the end. In the short clips, the brands are integrated through a Synthesis stonewhich is a custom graphic that appears briefly in the upper third of the video.

Hosts receive a guaranteed minimum payment, then share the resulting advertising and sponsorship revenue with Overtime, according to Porter, although he declined to provide financial details.

Blurred lines

Mixing a podcast format and a video environment in talk shows could create both challenges and opportunities in selling them.

On the plus side, clips from these shows generate outsized social engagement, which Overtime can use to sweeten the pot for larger media buys, according to Quah.

However, talk shows are not available on most platforms where media buyers are accustomed to purchasing media inventory, Cardiel said. This makes it difficult for a buyer to assess past performance of shows or integrate shows into a broader media strategy.

Still, talk shows embody the type of brand-friendly content that advertisers often flock to, according to Quah. And they represent the direction in which podcasts and videos are heading.

“Video podcasts are hot right now,” Quah said. “A smart player like Overtime takes that money, and when it dries up, he goes and looks for something else.”