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Meadowlark Media, the content studio founded by former ESPN president John Skipper and ESPN broadcaster Dan Le Batard, wants a sports anchor to call his own.

And so the production company is launching its most ambitious content effort yet, a series called Sports Explains the World.

“We’re betting we’re going to be a storytelling company,” Skipper told The Hollywood Reporter. “When we launched the company, what we wanted to do most of all was to share stories. Both in the number of podcasts we do and in our videos. One of the best ways to tell a story is to have an anthology series to post those.”

Sports explains the world is a “bold statement” by Meadowlark that she is playing to win. “When we started 30 for 30 [ESPN], people knew it was quality, the kind of story we did. We want to do the same with Sports explains the world,” Skipper added.

The series will consist of 30 documentaries (about 22-30 minutes long) and 45 commercials (mostly one-shot stories, but some with multiple episodes), using sports-related stories to highlight big facts about about the world and society.

Some of the stories in the works come from Ukraine and Ethiopia, but they also include topics closer to home, such as a look at the 300 or so Kobe Bryant murals around Los Angeles. Curt Schilling’s infamous 38 Studios debacle and the legacy of Wilt Chamberlain are among the topics of the podcast in progress.

It’s all part of a plan to build a Sports Explains global brand.

“Certain stories that don’t involve a big name or a famous band or an important event can be hard to sell, that’s a lesson we learned from 30 to 30,” Skipper said. “Once you build the brand, then you can tell the story of drug trafficking in Colombia through the story of the Colombian National Team’s involvement in the 1994 World Cup, and what happened to Andres Escobar.”

The documentary and podcast are set to debut in early 2023, although the exact home for viewers has yet to be decided.

“We think this will attract streamers, and most of the big streamers have audio partners, or audio divisions of their companies, so they’re equipped to do business with both brands,” Skipper said.

“The view is that at the end of the day the content that sticks to the content is the best story, and we are in a world where streamers need to get their customers and keep them, some names or famous subjects will bring viewers. , but you keep it up by creating content that people want to see,” he added.

Meadowlark executive editor Gary Hoenig will lead the series, with filmmaker Smriti Keshari and podcast veteran Bradley Campbell acting as video executive producers and audio executive producers respectively.

Meadowlark will also work with Campfire Films for a series of documentaries, and Campside for podcasts. Firelight is the production company backed by Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith, and was behind last year’s Academy Award-winning doc Attica, while Campside produced the popular documentary Suspect.

“We wanted someone who shared the values ​​of storytelling and quality,” Skipper said of Firelight and Campside, adding that Nelson was a “kindred spirit” for the kinds of stories he wanted to tell.

Campside and Firelight’s partnership underscores Meadowlark’s passion for Sports explains the game to the world. The company started and built on the Le Batard podcast and related shows, but wants to establish itself as a serious player in the nonfiction scene.

The company already has a first-look deal with Apple TV+, a platform that could make it an attractive home for the business.

“We’re also creating intellectual property here, we’re creating different stories, all of which can be made into a video documentary, or even a documentary series,” Skipper says. “Of course there will be more dollars and more differences in the long stories, but we are ready to take the initiative, and present ourselves as a company that specializes in this, hoping that it will lead to other work.”

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