Category: In the News

Bleacher Report is betting on its animated content to break through all the sports coverage around the FIFA World Cup tournament kicking off next month. The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned sports publisher has launched a dedicated home for its cartoon shows on YouTube this week.

The move is also about deepening audience engagement, by giving the fanbase around B/R Cartoons a place to go for all the animated content and to engage with others.

B/R’s animated content has “driven more viewership than any other original content franchise at the company,” said Drew Muller, vp and gm of House of Highlights, Bleacher Report’s social-first sports vertical.

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The NBA is ramping up its bet on creator-led commentary, elevating YouTube basketball star Kenny Beecham to the center of its fan-facing media strategy as it continues to chase younger audiences across digital platforms.

Beecham, who has more than 4.16 million followers on his own channels and has worked with the league for over six years, now fronts an original basketball trivia series, hosts official telecasts and appears on NBA TV — all while remaining an independent creator.

The financial agreement was not disclosed, but the partnership underscores how legacy sports leagues, long built on TV and radio, are increasingly using creator-native formats to reach more fans in more places, and how creators can work with leagues rather than being targeted by them for distribution and branding rights issues.

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