NFL Draft 2024: NFL Media Teams With The Fantasy Footballers on Hybrid, REMI Production of Post–First-Round Draft Show on NFL+

Podcasters’ at-home studio, NFL-constructed flypack will be used to produce the hybrid show

It may only be April, but it’s never too early to start talking about fantasy football. At least not for the team at The Fantasy Footballers.

The Arizona-based independent fantasy-football podcast/content producer will, tonight, partner with NFL Media to deliver a 90-minute live show on the league’s direct-to-consumer streaming service, NFL+, beginning immediately after the conclusion of the first night of the NFL Draft. The Fantasy Footballers Draft Special will provide instant reactions and analysis of the impact that the first round of the NFL Draft could have on teams and what that means for fantasy-football players heading into next season.

The Fantasy Footballers Draft Special will stream on NFL+ immediately after the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Though hosted from a Phoenix-area studio, the show will be cut and distributed from NFL Media’s Los Angeles facility (Photo: The Fantasy Footballers)

The program marks the first time that NFL Media will distribute a live show with a fantasy spin during NFL Draft Weekend. It’s also the beginning of a partnership under which NFL Media leverages a custom-built flyback and the facilities of an independent content producer to deliver live programming.

“We’ve admired what [Fantasy Footballers] has done for years,” says Matt Schnider, head of digital production, NFL. “They do great work and have a loyal fan base. There’s a lot of overlap and synergy with what we’re doing at the NFL.”

The Fantasy Footballers has been producing content for more than a decade, largely in an audio/podcast format. As of late, the brand has continued to branch out into video for YouTube and has built a small production studio in suburban Phoenix. Though only about 300 sq. ft., the space features five robotic cameras (ISO shots on talent and a producer, and a wide shot) and a Blackmagic Design switcher. One of the show’s hosts — Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, Mike Wright — triggers segment drops and music from a Stream Deck application on an iPad.

The NFL first had a licensing deal with them last season, co-branding and distributing The Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Podcast to the NFL Podcast Network and iHeart.

“Developing the technical capabilities to produce our show and collaborate on a national, live scale with the NFL has been a gradual yet intentional process,” says Jeremy Grantham, executive producer, The Fantasy Footballers Podcast. “Our experience with live streaming and constant testing, iterating, and improving has been crucial. Over the years, we have continued to persist in these efforts, recognizing the significant future benefits of these abilities. It’s incredibly rewarding to see our work come to fruition as we partner with the NFL’s extremely skilled production teams to broadcast our show to a live national audience.”

NFL Media will take a clean feed from The Fantasy Footballers’ Phoenix-area studio via a LiveU LU300 encoder and package a final show with this custom-built flypack, which includes a vMix switcher and Tagboard insert graphics. (Photo: NFL Media)

To produce Thursday night’s program, NFL Media will use a LiveU LU300 live-streaming encoder to transmit a clean feed of The Fantasy Footballers program from the Arizona studio into a control room in the NFL’s Los Angeles facility. There, NFL branded graphics and B-roll will be layered in before final distribution to NFL+.

The NFL will use a custom-built flypack powered by vMix, a workflow that the NFL uses to produce more than 30 hours of programming per week for NFL Network and NFL+. Included in the flypack is Tagboard for insert graphics. The elements are fully cloud-based.

Schnider will be the lone NFL representative onsite at The Fantasy Footballers studio and will serve as the point-person between Phoenix and L.A., where NFL Directors, Digital Production, Jason Kleinman and Zachary Saile will produce and direct the show, respectively.

Schnider will communicate with the on-camera talent via Slack and with the L.A. control room via a partyline. Since The Fantasy Footballers has never done traditional live television before, the NFL Media team thought it important to minimize the technical changes in the workflow to allow the hosts to focus on what they do best. That means no IFBs in their ears, which is made easier by the fact that the show will not feature any commercial breaks.

“We want to keep that out of their headspace and let them operate at a level they’re accustomed to,” says Schnider. “The NFL side will do all of the heavy lifting as far as comms are concerned.”

NFL Media toured The Fantasy Footballers’ studio in January. The 300-sq.-ft.) studio houses a control room built around a Blackmagic Design switcher. (Photo: The Fantasy Footballers)

The Fantasy Footballers’ video aspirations first caught the attention of the digital crew at NFL Media last season and led Schnider, Saile, and Kleinman to visit the Arizona facility in January. The confidence built there laid the groundwork for this project.

“We were pleasantly surprised by how their small but nimble studio was set up and realized that there is an opportunity to create a hybrid production with them if and when the time was right,” says Schnider. “You’re looking at well over a thousand shows with these guys, and they’re continuing to upgrade their facility; they have plans for even more in the future. We wouldn’t dream this up without having toured [the studio] and getting an understanding, but they’re very professional and do a great job.”

From a programming perspective, The Fantasy Footballers’ quality video product proved a good fit for the expanding programming portfolio the NFL is building to fill its new direct-to-consumer streaming service, NFL+. This year’s NFL Draft — flush with skill-position talent (QB and WR, particularly) — seemed a natural place to start doing something together on the video front.

“We are trying to attain viewers and gain more subscribers in the offseason in and around tentpole events like the NFL Combine, the Draft, Mini Camp, and so on,” says Schnider. “We thought Night 1 of the NFL Draft: what better way to infuse the rabid fanbase of “The Footballers” when there’s a marriage of all these offensive weapons that can affect teams, fantasy leagues, and dynasty leagues. It’s really a marriage of the right timing and continuing to push the envelope on NFL+.”