Fox Corp. is getting into business with one of its star sports talents, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Fox Sports is making a strategic investment in Shadow Lion, the entertainment and marketing studio co-founded by Tom Brady, Fox’s lead NFL analyst. Shadow Lion and Fox will develop original series, films, event programming and digital content that sit at the intersection of sports and culture.
“It’s extending this Fox Sports experience beyond just NFL games on Sunday,” Brady tells THR in an interview. “How do we branch out and continue to tell stories year round and develop original content, original series, things that are behind the scenes that everybody wants to see. You find different partnerships with different athletes, different brands, I think it’s just exponential growth. And I’m so excited to have all these things happen in one place.”
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Fox Sports CEO and executive producer Eric Shanks says the company is investing “for the long term.”
“Once we met them, it became pretty clear that a partnership with Shadow Lion and Tom could Give Fox Sports, I think, a different gear, a new gear, and as time went on, it became a natural conversation and investment for the long term,” Shanks says.
Fox, it should be noted, has made strategic investments in the past. Over the summer, Fox Sports made a large investment in Penske Entertainment, the owner of Indycar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and this year it acquired stakes in the vertical video firm Holywater and BJ Novak’s food company Chain. It has also entered into business with star talent, such as its joint venture with Gordon Ramsey, Studio Ramsey Global. But in each case, the company is thinking long-term.
“We’re not necessarily private equity, just looking for deal flow,” Shanks says.
“I think a lot of it is just shared values and shared principles,” Brady says. “I think if you look at Fox and that culture of people, and the amazing energy from the top, from Lachlan [Murdoch] and Eric Shanks, who I work with, and [Fox Sports executive producer and president of production] Brad Zager, all the incredible passion they have for telling stories, we do it every weekend. And then I look at Shadow Lion, they’ve got just incredible drive to succeed.”
“I see this as kind of a new chapter for us and for the business as we expand to produce more longer form and continue to produce digital and short form content, continue to be talent-led in a lot of the things that we do, and now have a really great partner in Fox who’s eager to distribute great content, to maintain the premium experience that they’ve developed for sports fans,” says Gilad Haas, the co-founder of Shadow Lion.
The first project post-investment will be a docuseries about the University of Michigan football program (which counts Brady as an alumnus). Brady and former Michigan coach (and current Los Angeles Chargers coach) Jim Harbaugh will executive produce, with Brady likely to appear on camera in some capacity as well, according to Haas.
“It was a huge moment in my life, my career there,” Brady says. “Being in Ann Arbor and seeing the program and seeing what coach Harbaugh built felt like the perfect way to start the collaboration.”
Shadow Lion will also open an office on the Fox lot in Los Angeles, where newly-hired head of content Philip Byron will work from. The studio operates at the intersection of entertainment and marketing, playing in both sandboxes, depending on the project.
“Knowing how much we want to produce with Fox, a lot of that being entertainment-driven, it made sense for us to have more proximity to what they’re doing day to day,” Haas says.
Ultimately, Shadow Lion wants to get bigger, expanding not only its branded content and marketing business but also its entertainment production, including projects that don’t have a direct connection to Brady.
“We have a lot of plans, and ambitious plans for growth, and how we tell these stories, and how we build something that both benefits Tom, but can also grow beyond him,” Haas says.
Fox and Shadow Lion are also set to work together on next year’s Fanatics Flag Football Classic, which will be held in Saudi Arabia and will air on Fox. Brady is planning to play in that event alongside other NFL and celebrity stars.
Fox, meanwhile is betting that it can tap into Shadow Lion’s branded expertise
“It’s not just the Tom content company,” Shanks says. “I think when you look at the number of brands that they activate through storytelling, actually shooting commercials for brands, activating digitally, as well as some of the longform storytelling like the Michigan doc, as well as some shortform storytelling, I think those are the gears that we think can be beneficial to Fox. In return, our relationship with brands, and having a new outlet for our brand partnerships to easily be able to take them to Shadow Lion is something that we find really attractive, and I think brands will as well.”
“Fox has obviously tremendous infrastructure and reach. They have massive scale,” Brady says. “And then you have Shadow Lion, which provides its own unique creativity … we’re in such a world of entertainment now, and I think Shadow Lion continues to capture that.”
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