LeBron James Signs Podcast Deal With Amazon’s Wondery
Last summer, the “Mind The Game” basketball podcast ended in unusual circumstances.
The dynamic among his co-conductors had been transformed: after their ninth episode, a guest, JJ Redick, became the head of the other guest, Lebron James of the Los Angeles Lakers.
It was not clear if “Mind The Game” would continue; Mr. Redick, a former player, confirmed his departure from years of podcasting saying that it was “excommunicated by the contents space”.
But on Wednesday, after a nine-month break, Mr. James will announce the return to April of the show-toe is transformed into himself. “Mind the game” does not only have a new co-conductor, the former player and coach Steve Nash, but a new distributor: the Podcast network owned by Amazon Wondery.
The partnership is a departure from the first lot of episodes of the show, which have been released directly on YouTube.
The three -year agreement is also Amazon’s last attempt to strengthen and distinguish his sporting programming. In July, the company signed a 11 -year streaming agreement with the National Basketball Association Is worth more than $ 1.8 billion per year.
A similar sequence took place in football when Wondery signed “New Heights”, Jason and Travis Kelce’s podcast – the contract was worth a $ 100 million reported – After Amazon Prime Video acquired the rights of “Thursday evening football. “
The agreement also comes as more Technological companiesPleases Netflix And Google, try to snatch the domain in sports programming from traditional television networks in a competitive scramble to maintain the attention of subscribers all year round.
Other podcasting networks are also investing in sport. Since December, Siriusxm has debuted “Casuals”, a sports comic podcast and becomes a partner with “The Fantasy Footkers”; Vox Media added “served with Andy Roddick” to his network; And IheartMedia has announced eight new podcasts on a women’s sports network, including a show with a retired football champion Ashlyn Harris. (Even the Democrats, trying to regain media ground, have crowded to sports podcasts.)
“Sport is a category that monetizes really well,” easily drawing the advertisers, said Jen Sargent, CEO of Wondery. And since sport remains a “priority” for Amazon, more than these agreements will be a “great goal” of Wondery’s year, he said: “We have the opportunity to create a house for the best sports voices outside. And podcasting is often the way to do it”.
Like most of the other podcasting networks, Wondery is relying Video PodcastingMainly on YouTube. But unlike other networks, Wondery plans to bring her podcast videos to Prime Video, with its 200 million monthly customers and Amazon’s domestic streaming devices.
Wondery also started developing consumer goods based on its podcasts, which can be sold directly on Amazon and beyond. (“Wow in the world”, a scientific podcast for children, made its debut his line of educational toys last year.)
It is an expert offer in an ecosystem in which Mrbeast, with its 377 million subscribers on YouTube, now earn more income from its chocolate brand that from its canal. James already has a line of grooming products based on “The Shop”, a separated YouTube interviews originally hosted by Mr. James and his commercial partner Maverick Carter in the barber. (“Mind the game” is produced by their joint, uninterrupted multimedia brand.)
Like with “The Shop” and “The Decision”, a special television special that announces his dramatic Moving from Cleveland to Miami, Mr. James sees “Mind the Game” as a way to speak directly to the fans – e About sports media mainstream. The show leans more for technical analysis than the noisier jokes in basketball.
“It’s no longer complicated than doing things I want to look at,” James said in a statement to the New York Times before his appearance on Wednesday on “The Pat McAfee Show“In which he planned to discuss the return of the podcast.” “Mind the game” is directed for fans, especially when many shows are less interested in the game itself “.
Mr. Nash, James’ new co-conductor, has maintained a relatively low profile since he trained Brooklyn’s nets from 2020 to 2022. He lives in Phoenix, where he played for most of his career.
“I am self -aware that everyone has a podcast,” Nash said in a telephone interview this week. “I recognize that there is an ability and a talent in doing a podcast that I don’t take lightly.”
But after spending years of his athletic career “trying to perfect this thing that is not perfectible”, he said, “I think there is a lot of space to share and offer insights”.
