The Athletic is very excited about its recent string of deals to utilize footage from the NBA, WNBA, and now the NFL within its content.
This week, it announced the NFL agreement, which will see football highlights and game tape deployed across The Athletic’s web and app interfaces, its social media feeds, and its digital video shows.
Unlike a previous experiment with video that centered on long-form documentaries, The Athletic sees these new video rights as an extension of the journalism and commentary its newsroom already provides. Similar to a great SportsCenter segment in the 1990s or a dispatch on cable news from a reporter on the ground, The Athletic hopes to package game footage with expertise from its journalists to synthesize the stories of each week’s NFL games for its growing subscriber base.
“One of those very big leaps that helps us get into that next echelon of sports media is to have footage rights from the leagues we cover,” The Athletic’s Chief Commercial Development Officer Sebastian Tomich told Awful Announcing. “There’s something about it that feels very intuitive and table-stakes while at the same time, we see an opportunity to do things that are different and can help elevate the product.”
Last year, the New York Times Co. reported that The Athletic was profitable for the first time. With support from its successful parent company and continued engagement from sports fans, the company sees game video as an obvious place to level up. “Making an investment like this is not something that, frankly, The Athletic could have pulled off before the New York Times acquired it,” Tomich said. The company wants to become “an iconic household name in sports media,” as Tomich repeated throughout our conversation, and sees game video as a way to appeal to more types of sports fans.
In May, The Athletic recorded nearly $3 million in adjusted operating profit, after losing almost $9 million in the first quarter of the previous year. Advertising revenue was up 82.5 percent.
From its launch until recently, The Athletic was primarily a sports writing product that accordingly had an older audience. Tomich believes that the same sports fans who might use a league’s app or social media feeds to follow games will appreciate the storytelling and context that The Athletic can add, thanks to what he calls “the biggest sports newsroom on the planet.”
Examples from the earlier deal with the NBA and WNBA feature The Athletic reporters narrating clips of key plays in big games, such as in one article that answers the question, “Just how clutch is Tyrese Haliburton?” Another uses footage of Caitlin Clark within a video analyzing her economic value to the WNBA. More recently, the NFL deal enabled The Athletic to embed video footage of key plays from the Buffalo Bills’ miraculous comeback in Week 1 on Sunday Night Football,in a story highlighting quarterbackJosh Allen’s poise.
Tyrese Haliburton coming up clutch, by the numbers 📊 pic.twitter.com/OoYAgnhyd0
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) June 6, 2025
Game footage has become a significant commodity as sports media brands invest more in digital content. These videos take sports content platforms from barnacles on the hull of live sports games to complementary assets. As Pat McAfee was building his juggernaut live YouTube show before taking it to ESPN, one of the most powerful investments he made was in personally paying for NFL footage rights. McAfee built segments in which his crew of former NFL athletes could break down key plays and viral moments on-air.
The Athletic hopes to put its touch on these highlights in the same way. Just don’t expect The Athletic to become a repository of quick clips and recycled material.
“Largely what I see in the highlights ecosystem is it’s pretty commoditized,” Tomich explained.
“And I get really excited, and the thing I would pay attention to most from us, is just our ability to create things that are net new. Applying a journalist’s expertise, what they saw at that game, an hour after that game, just being able to apply even light touches to a highlight to say these are the things that I thought were most important. Just to cut through the noise, I think, is really interesting.”
Unlike this deal or the pilot project with the NHL this past spring, The Athletic will be able to monetize its video-powered NFL content. Beyond selling ads and sponsorships for its app and web platforms, the recently expanded Athletic Football Show and Scoop City video podcasts provide the company with numerous options to generate revenue from this agreement.
“The Athletic has become a leading destination for NFL news, information, and storytelling,” said NFL VP of Media Strategy Brent Lawton in a press release. “This new content partnership enhances The Athletic’s NFL experience with official content that will drive a deeper connection with readers.”
If The Athletic can generate original video content in a way that bolsters its written and podcast coverage of the NFL this season, it is likely to pursue more deals like this in the future. Tomich cited the “momentum” of the company while describing his plans to be aggressive in bidding for game footage from other leagues.
“If we cover a sport and we have the ability to create something new with footage of that sport, I would love to do a deal,” he said. “Point blank.”