National CineMedia and Religion of Sports, the Emmy Award-winning sports media company, today announced a new content partnership bringing diverse, real-life stories of athletes and sports to the big screen for the first time.
ROS was founded by filmmaker and producer Gotham Chopra, American football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, and seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady.
Each of Religion of Sports’ sixty-second episodes will feature a human-interest story where sports had an impact on an individual, team or community. The six-part content series launches in September and will run as part of NCM’s The Noovie Show, which airs in more than 19,000 theatres nationwide before the film trailers and will be available for brand sponsors seeking to reach young, diverse audiences at the movies each week.
Research has shown that the hard to reach, ad skipping and cord-cutting 18-34-year-old demographic who are passionate moviegoers are also major sports fans and consumers of sport content. Today, these super fans of sports are seeking to consume their sports content in digestible shorter form snippets. In fact, they are more likely to get their sports content everywhere except TV.
Less than half of sports fans aged between ages 18 to 29 watch live sports on TV (45 percent). As a result of this generational change, the value of short-form video content is expected to continue to grow relative to the live-rights market, possibly overtaking it within the next decade.
Religion of Sports has built a foundation around telling stories and showcasing the greatness in the greatest. Fans have come to look forward to the groundbreaking sports content that can only be found with ROS, transforming them into modern mythmakers. This collaboration with NCM is the first of its kind for Religion of Sports, as the company continues to expand both its audience reach, and partnerships, within the world of sports and beyond.
“When we created Religion of Sports nearly a decade ago, it started with a single series with the intention to show why sports matter and how the mythos of sports and religion are intertwined,” said Chopra. “With hours upon hours of content, across numerous platforms and distribution channels, and five Sports Emmy Awards, we’re thrilled to be bringing ROS to NCM’s premiere cinema advertising platform, and moviegoers nationwide, with one of the of the best representations of our work.”
Since the relaunch of The Noovie Show last year, NCM has developed a slew of new content and series aimed to engage moviegoing audiences while aligning brands with movie and pop culture storytelling. This includes collaborations with iHeartMedia and Tastemade, with more in development. New series also include The Noovie Trivia Show hosted by Maria Menounos and Cultural Celebrations featuring creators Jose Enrique Rivera Collazo, Nique Marina, and Jasmine Moore.
“We know moviegoers are passionate fans of great storytelling,” said Amy Tunick, chief marketing officer at NCM. “The powerful narratives and stories Religion of Sports brings to NCM’s screens will be incredibly compelling for Young Millennials and Gen Zs. Brands will now have the opportunity to work with NCM and ROS, connecting with our leaned-in movie audiences via the most premiere short-form sports content.”
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