The Big Lead

TNT, Bleacher Report, House of Highlights get infusion of NFL content rights: report

By J.P. Hoornstra

Feb 9, 2023; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Buffalo Bills linebacker Devin Lloyd (left) interviews Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd on the Bleacher Report set on radio row at the Super Bowl LVII media center at the Phoenix Convention Center.
Feb 9, 2023; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Buffalo Bills linebacker Devin Lloyd (left) interviews Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd on the Bleacher Report set on radio row at the Super Bowl LVII media center at the Phoenix Convention Center. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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In an interview with Puck's John Ourand on The Varsity podcast this week, Axios' Sara Fischer recalled ESPN's initial launch of a Snapchat show for football.

"They did not have the NFL rights to distribute clips on Snapchat," she said, "and so they had to kind of like animate what the football play was they were talking about — that's the risk you run if you don't have the rights to these clips, and that's why the leagues have been able to position themselves very well on these platforms."

"I remember listening to an ESPN executive telling me, 'we're meeting them where they are — that animation is working even better than having the rights,' which of course wasn't true," Ourand replied.

Give House of Highlights credit. There are no animations of football plays on their YouTube channel, which has 16.5 million subscribers. There are no football plays of any kind — though that might change.

Sports Business Journal reported Thursday that the NFL and TNT Sports’ Bleacher Report signed a three-year content partnership that gives the property and its House of Highlights subsidiary access to NFL game footage, as well as "access to NFL tentpole events like the Super Bowl, Draft and Combine."

Mainly, the contract allows Bleacher Report to distribute highlights throughout its owned and operated platforms and integrate it into original content.

Although Warner Bros. Discovery lost its seat in the NBA's media-rights package to Amazon Prime Video last summer, it inked an 11-year deal with the league last November that also "expanded global content and highlight rights for TNT Sports, Bleacher Report and House of Highlights."

The NFL deal comes just ahead of Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans on Feb. 9. It will be interesting to see what the TNT properties are able to do with their broadened scope of content rights — particularly in a world without TikTok, the doomed social media platform where TNT Sports has a presence.

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