Cam Newton sets sights on media empire with metro Atlanta studio

Two productions are actively filming in the studio. There’s “Funky Friday,” a filmed podcast, which features dialogue between Newton and a rotating list of guests, as well as weekly sports show “4th&1 with Cam Newton.” Content for C1N, Newton’s youth sports organization, is also filmed and edited there.

Newton founded his production company more than a decade ago as a way to create a platform to share his stories, said Kristin Meyers, the president of Iconic Saga. The idea to create the company came on the heels of a postgame interview during his time in the NFL when the story he told was misconstrued.

The studio is the physical extension of the brand. Opening the space makes it easier for Newton not to travel to different locations to film content for his brands, Meyers said.

Credit: AP Photo/John Bazemore

Credit: AP Photo/John Bazemore

“He’s a creator. He’s a storyteller. He has a media platform he built on his brand and the game of football. The next step is to have a house to put it all in,” Meyers said.

Newton is one of several current and retired pro athletes who have transitioned into producing original content and building out media companies. These include NBA All-Stars LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Blake Griffin, as well as former Denver Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe and brothers Jason and Travis Kelce.

James seems to be at the forefront of this generation’s efforts in media ownership and production. He cofounded an entertainment development and production company around five years ago — the SpringHill Company — that has helped to produce a number of scripted and documentary projects. Some of the company’s titles include HBO’s Muhammad Ali documentary “What’s My Name”; a CNN documentary about the Tulsa race massacre; the Adam Sandler-fronted sports drama “Hustle”; and, of course, “Space Jam: A New Legacy.”

Before his death, Kobe Bryant was headed along this pathway, too. He launched his own content company, Granity Studios, in 2013, under which he produced “Dear Basketball,” which won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, among other accolades.

These ventures are a way for the athletes to extend their brand beyond the field or courts and have a secondary life, said Samantha Sheppard, a professor of cinema and media studies at Cornell University. Leveraging their celebrity differentiates them in an industry difficult to break into.

“How do you have a leg up on Paramount Global? How do you have a leg up on these legacy producers?” Sheppard said. “You create your own production company, you begin to take and leverage the fact that you are well-known enough in one arena and then you begin to translate that into another arena.”

Interest in owning media companies has increased with the rise of digital technology. Social media and self-distribution platforms like YouTube have allowed athletes to get in front of the consumer without having to sign a television or first-look production deal, which can involve relinquishing creative control.

Now the public is seeing the rise of the athlete-media mogul, Sheppard said, wherein athletics is only a time-bracketed part of their career. Athletes are now driven toward opportunities or enterprises that are backed by their celebrity but take them well beyond the playing field.

“That kind of entrepreneurialism is something that’s deeply celebrated in American culture,” Sheppard said.

Both “Funky Friday” & “4th&1 with Cam Newton” air on YouTube. Though it may not have the same prestige as its streaming competitors, YouTube dominates American television viewership. According to media analytics firm Nielsen, YouTube far surpasses any other streaming service, accounting for 12.4% of total viewing, compared to 7.5% for Netflix and 5% for Disney. Cable television represents 24.5% of total viewing.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Though Iconic Saga’s focus is on YouTube, the company is open to exploring different ways to put out content, including linear television, Meyers said. They’re also open to allowing other content creators to make use of the production space. This is especially true for smaller, independent creators who don’t have space to film.

They’re also open to expanding the studio space in the future.

“Now that we’ve put our touch on it, it feels like, oh my God, I think we may need more space,” Meyers said. “We may need more sets because the ideas never stop.”

This column has been adapted from the May edition of The Scene, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s LinkedIn newsletter about all things in the Georgia entertainment business. Keep up with the latest insider news about what’s happening in the business of film, music and TV by subscribing on the AJC‘s LinkedIn page, https://www.linkedin.com/company/atlanta-journal-constitution/.