A new sports programming initiative is trying to target kids where they live. And it isn’t necessarily television.
The Whistle recently was launched as a multi-platform vehicle hoping to snare the large portion of the 70 million kids in the U.S. (ages 6 to 16) who like sports. Programming will be geared towards them.
As co-founder Jeff Urban says, The Whistle hopes to be the bridge between ESPN and Nickelodeon.
“Our partners and I were watching media through the eyes of our kids,” Urban said. “The news cycle is so loud and in your face. When all the Brett Favre stuff was breaking a few years ago, my 9-year-old turned to me and said, ‘Daddy, what’s sexting?’
“We thought we could come up with a way to deliver good sports content to kids in an age-appropriate manner.”
The Whistle recently made its TV debut with a Friday afternoon show (4 p.m. ET) on the NBC Sports Network. The first shows featured Aaron Rodgers, Eli Manning, Ray Rice, and Henrik Lindqvist. The Whistle has content agreements with NFL Films, U.S. Soccer, U.S. Olympic Committee, among others.
However, television isn’t going to be the main vehicle for this enterprise. Rather, the drivers for now are a website, a youtube channel (featuring the clip above from the Harlem Globetrotters) and a distribution deal for the channel to be seen through X-Box Live.
The Whistle has hit on something. My 15-year-old lives on X-Box. My 17-year-old burns a hole through his computer while the TV is playing in the background.
“Our aim isn’t to develop a linear channel,” Urban said. “It is one point of distribution. However, these kids are creating their own channels. Those channels aren’t defined the same way you and I are used to defining them. They are using their aps, going to websites.
“We think this is a way to have the content live and breath in ways in which all your kids are engaged.”
The concept sounds interesting. However, I told Urban that kids are very sophisticated these days. They want to hear what Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon have to say on PTI after school. My son’s friend goes crazy for Stephen A. Smith. By 11 or 12, they know what “sexting” is, and much, much more.
I asked Urban, what kind of content are you going to produce to lure those kids away from ESPN?
“ESPN has a 35-year head start,” Urban said. “We’re not looking to compete with ESPN. What we have to do is entertain and engage kids with good authentic sports content. What we’ve seen thus far is that the leagues and partners are willing to play ball with us. They understand the need to develop a youth market and content that is engaging and age appropriate.
“We’re not going to swing every 10-year-old to come over from ESPN to us. But if we can get some of them to try us, then we can grow and build with the next generation of sports fans.”