Disney+’s Overlap deal exemplifies creator-led football gold rush
The next sports rights battles will be as much about owning the conversation around the game as the game itself.”
Earlier this month, Disney+ announced a one-year exclusive agreement with sports media group The Overlap, bringing its popular football podcast Stick to Football and new show Stick to United with Wayne Rooney to the streaming platform.
The two shows began streaming on Disney+ last week in line with the start of the Premier League season. Subscribers can now watch 40 episodes of Stick to Football on Disney+ alongside existing streaming platforms and The Overlap‘s YouTube channel, with 20 guest episodes available exclusively on Disney+ for a limited time before being released on YouTube.
There will also be 50 episodes of Stick to United with Wayne Rooney, which sees the former Manchester United and England footballer Wayne Rooney joined by football content creator Mark Goldbridge to analyse Manchester United’s latest results and performance.
The deal follows The Overlap‘s April acquisition of Goldbridge’s The United Stand and That’s Football channels, expanding the business’s offering.
Both shows will remain available on YouTube via The Overlap‘s channel, while Stick to United will also be available on The United Stand‘s YouTube channel.
Stick to Football‘s 2026 FIFA World Cup coverage generated over 250m views across all platforms, including 46.9m views on YouTube, 203.4m views across social media, and 2.25m audio streams.
Analysis: Creators in demand
Disney+’s deal with The Overlap appears to be part of a wider push by streaming platforms to invest in established creators and their engaged audiences.
This year, Netflix began streaming Goalhanger’s The Rest Is Football for the FIFA World Cup and, following its success, it extended the partnership in a two-year deal that will carry twice-weekly episodes of the podcast through the UEFA Euros 2028.
Goalhanger reaches milestone as Netflix continues to test the podcast waters
It’s one of several partnerships Netflix has struck to build its podcast portfolio. In October, it partnered with Spotify to bring a selection of Spotify’s top video podcasts to Netflix, with the agreement removing full episodes of those shows from YouTube.
The deals suggest growing demand for access to established creator IP, as YouTube is also seeking to keep successful creators on its platform. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that YouTube has been offering popular channels millions of dollars in financing and brand deals in return for uploading videos exclusively to the platform for certain periods.
However, Disney+’s deal with The Overlap allows the shows to continue on YouTube – something that The Overlap co-founder and co-chair Gary Neville was keen to retain, saying that the deal “expands our reach without compromising our identity”.
For some episodes, it gives Disney+ subscribers a period of exclusivity before the episodes reach YouTube, allowing The Overlap to build on its existing audience relationship.
For Disney, Sean Doyle, VP, Unscripted, Disney+ EMEA, said adding The Overlap broadens Disney+’s local original content offering as it looks to expand into new sports formats.
More generally, Disney has been expanding its opportunities for creators. Earlier this month, it announced a deal with TikTok that brings fan-created content from the social platform into the Disney+ app, alongside an ambassador programme designed to give creators increased visibility, access to exclusive events, and career development opportunities.
The move suggests Disney sees value in bringing creator-led content and audiences into its own ecosystem, further blurring the lines between social, video and streaming platforms.
Football fandom
Notably, both Netflix and Disney have invested in creator-led football podcasts as part of a wider strategy to tap into established fan communities.
As ESPN’s parent company, sport is already a major priority for Disney. In its most recent earnings report, the company said it was looking to build out ESPN’s “marketplace of sports” and create a single destination for fans.
Disney brought a selection of ESPN content to Disney+ in 2024, initially in the US market, before expanding it globally. The company has said it wants Disney+ to become the digital centrepiece for The Walt Disney Company, aiming to increase engagement and retention.
The deal with The Overlap appears to fit into that strategy, giving Disney+ access to a potentially new football audience and allowing the conversations around matches to continue after the events.
For both Netflix and Disney, the deals suggest video podcasts are becoming an increasingly important way to extend sports fandom beyond live events.
Dan Wood, SVP for sports & entertainment at WPP Media, similarly described the significance of The Overlap as the point at which the “boundaries between podcast, creator, social, video, broadcaster and sports rights holder are disappearing”.
“For planners, reaching football audiences can no longer be about the 90 minutes alone,” he said. “The live match remains hugely powerful, but fandom is 24/7 behaviour built around debate, analysis, humour and conversation. Moves from Disney+ and Netflix underline the value of owning that wider cultural moment.”
From podcast to media network
The blurring of boundaries Wood describes is evident in The Overlap‘s acquisition of The United Stand, and That’s Football. Alongside its existing shows and social presence, the acquisitions are turning The Overlap into a creator-led media network rather than a collection of podcasts, tapping into its ambition to build what it describes as the leading non-live football media platform in the world.
Similarly, Global’s acquisition of a majority stake in The Overlap in January further demonstrates the scale of its ambitions for the business.
Global launched Global Studios last year to bring together podcast shows and digital media businesses, including The News Agents and My Therapist Ghosted Me.
The media and entertainment group also hired Craig Hunter as managing director of Global Studios in March, bringing him in to oversee the creative partnerships with The Overlap. Hunter joined from STV Studios, having previously worked as lead commissioning editor for natural history and specialist factual at the BBC, indicating that Global is positioning The Overlap as a larger media business.
According to Wood, the shift towards creators working across video, audio, social, and live experiences is also key for advertisers.
“That means planning should focus less on rigid channel definitions and more on audiences, IP and moments of fandom,” he said.
That means the question becomes not where to advertise around the match, but where football culture is actually happening. It also means treating creators “as strategic media partners, not simply an influencer line on the plan”.
He added: “The next sports rights battles will be as much about owning the conversation around the game as the game itself.”