Goalhanger to expand TV and film footprint with IP development hire

Goalhanger is expanding its efforts to develop and license big-screen content.

On Thursday, the company announced it had hired Tom Miceli, a television specialist at talent agency William Morris Endeavour (WME), as head of IP development, a new role focused on expanding the start-up’s status on TV and film.

While at WME, Miceli notably led the agency’s work on Goalhanger’s partnership with Netflix, which brought The Rest is Football to the streaming giant during the World Cup. Last month, Netflix extended the partnership in a two-year deal that will carry twice-weekly episodes of the podcast through the UEFA Euros 2028. Goalhanger head of commercial operations Josh Akers had previewed to The Media Leader in March that the Netflix partnership was “something we hope to replicate moving forward with all of our shows.

In his role, Miceli will lead Goalhanger’s IP development and licensing strategy, taking existing or in-development shows and turning them into TV or film propositions in the UK and internationally. He will report directly to Goalhanger founders Gary Lineker, Tony Pastor and Jack Davenport and work in tandem with talent and editorial teams to build relationships with commissioners and production partners.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to be joining Goalhanger, a company I have long admired both as a business and as a fan,” Miceli commented. “I consume its content every day and look forward to helping bring its IP to new verticals and platforms, while preserving the quality that has enabled Goalhanger to flourish and establish itself as one of the leading media and content companies in the industry.”

The Media Leader understands Miceli’s remit could include both further extensions of Goalhanger’s extant podcasts into TV deals — like The Rest is Football on Netflix — as well as the potential to move into scripted series and documentaries.

Davenport said Goalhanger was “delighted to welcome [Miceli] in-house”, adding that his expertise “will help us identify the right opportunities and turn them into successful television and film projects.”

He continued: “Having worked closely with Tom for many years, we have seen first-hand the rare combination of creative judgement, commercial experience and strong industry relationships he brings.”

The move comes amid a period of rapid growth for Goalhanger. In November, the start-up sought to move beyond its audio-first status, unveiling new branding as a “multi-platform media brand”.

In January, the company announced it reached 250,000 paying subscribers across its network of shows, with estimated annual subscription revenues of £15m, though advertising remains the company’s largest revenue stream.

By the summer, The Sunday Times named it Britain’s fastest-growing private company.

Apart from taking The Rest is Football onto television screens via Netflix, Goalhanger has expanded its editorial offering to include newsletters. In January, the company hired former Sunday Times associate editor Emily Kent Smith as editorial director. In her first eight months, she has led a rollout of written journalism that expands upon episodes from Goalhanger podcasts like The Rest is Politics and The Rest is History as a value-add for subscribers.

Meanwhile, Goalhanger has also moved into live events like next month’s The Rest Is Fest at London’s Southbank Centre, offering further opportunities for community-building and revenue generation.

The expansion comes with clear business aims. As Jack Davenport candidly expressed at the Professional Publishers Association’s (PPA) independent publisher conference last November, Goalhanger’s embrace of video production and a social-inclusive distribution strategy has led to bigger opportunities with advertisers.

“When we were going into media agencies and when we were talking to brands, suddenly when we had social inventory and video inventory, you’re just talking to much bigger teams with much bigger budgets,” he said. “Instead of the podcast buying team, which might be one person who’s in a corner of the office, you’re talking to digital budgets, which are much bigger. And agencies are much more used to the metrics and to buying social campaigns and social inventory.

“So for the same content, it massively increased our average deal size, and it just makes it a lot more efficient in monetising the same content.”

Goalhanger on making subscriber revenue growth look as easy as tap ins