The NFL is looking to launch a channel on Snapchat Discover

Steven Loeb · July 12, 2016 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/4673

It would be the first sports league to get a channel, joining ESPN, Comedy Central and CNN

The National Football Leagues is an economic powerhouse, with revenue expected to surpass $13 billion this coming season. That's larger than the gross domestic product of many countries. So it's no wonder so many companies can't wait to sign the NFL up as a partner.

That is especially true of social media companies, most notably Twitter, which won the rights to stream the NFL's Thursday Night games earlier this year, but it has been wooed by Snapchat as well.

Now that partnership with Snapchat looks like it could be going even deeper, with a channel on the company's Discover platform, aka its collecting of media partnerships featuring original content. A job posting, put up on LinkedIn late last week, shows the NFL looking for a managing editor to run its new Snapchat Discover team.

"We are looking for an expert storyteller who is forward-thinking, and a social media junky to help shape our new Snapchat Discover channel strategy.  As we build out this team, you will help create a distinguished vision/voice for the NFL Snapchat Discover channel that represents the future of the NFL brand," the posting says.

The managing editor will be responsible for, among other things, determining "the best content execution for each story element," such as whether it should be a video, an animation or an article. They will also "coordinate with other departments to leverage content produced for other platforms and optimize for Snapchat."

Specifically, the NFL wants someone who has experience managing a team of social/digital content creators with emphasis on video production and graphic design, as well as knowledge of the NFL and its history. 

Here's a copy of the listing, just in case it gets taken down:

Like I said, the NFL and Snapchat have worked together before. Last year, the two companies announced a partnership that saw Snapchat deliver NFL content to fans through its Live Story product. Each NFL Live Story, curated by Snapchat, combined fan-submitted Snaps, from users who have their location services on at select NFL event and game locations, and official inside access content.

The deal also included a weekly programming schedule that extended throughout the postseason, including the Super Bowl.

Having the NFL put up a Discover channel would deepen their relationship, and make it more long-term, while also allowing the NFL to broaden the kind of content it was able to put up on the platform.

Becoming a Discover partner is a pretty coveted position, with channels belonging to well established publishers, like ESPN, BuzzFeed, Cosmopolitan, People, Comedy Central, CNN and The Wall Street Journal. The NFL would be the first sports league to get a spot.

This could be a big deal for Snapchat, not just for the content it will get exclusive access to, but big advertising dollars as well. 

When the Twitter and the NFL partnered up in 2013, through the Twitter Amplify program, its video advertising product that it had launched for media companies and consumer brands. The two sides extended that deal over last summer to include more content, such as in-game highlights from pre-season through the Super Bowl, as well as breaking news and analysis, best plays, custom game recaps, fun infographics, behind-the-scenes content, and archival video.

As Re/Code pointed out, the extension also changed the way the two sides divided up revenue. In its original deal with Twitter, the NFL split revenue down the middle. In the second iteration, the NFL is being paid up front for the content it provides, and Twitter collects the ad revenue. 

In its first deal with the NFL, the two side split the ad revenue that came from those Live Stories. It's unclear if that will still be the case if the NFL does launch a channel on Discover, or if the deal will more along the terms of Twitter's second partnership with the league.

A Snapchat spokesperson had no comment on the listing. VatorNews reached out to the NFL for comment, and we will update this story if we learn more. 

This listing was first uncovered by Mashable.

(Image source: snapchat.codes)

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