Nearly two months after pulling its popular Surviving Barstool series from YouTube over claims of censorship, Barstool Sports has a new video home.
On Monday, Rumble announced a new “wide-ranging partnership” with Barstool Sports, which will give the online video platform access to all of the irreverent sports brand’s video content, including live streams. Meanwhile, Barstool Sports will market and promote Rumble as its “preferred video home,” with both sides working together to bring “brand advertisers to the Rumble platform” as a part of an advertising arrangement.
Additionally, Barstool will receive access to the Rumble Cloud as its provider for services such as computing, storage, and network.
“I’m excited about Rumble’s commitment to sports and broadening audiences,” Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy said in a release. “With the power of Barstool Sports, we are going to help Rumble be the top player in the video, cloud, and livestreaming space.”
Added Rumble Chairman and CEO Chris Pavlovski: “The partnership with Barstool Sports is a major step in pursuit of our mission to continue building a portfolio of widely popular sports and entertainment content. Rumble is quickly emerging as a leading platform for the under-30 demographic, and we’re excited for Barstool Sports to be a significant part of our rapid growth.”
While not explicitly mentioned in the release, Barstool’s issues with YouTube appear to have been the catalyst in the outlet looking for a new video home.
In late-November, Portnoy posted a video in which he explained that the company had received a call from Google requesting that it edit an episode of Surviving Barstool due to threats that an employee had made against another employee in jest. Rather than comply, “El Presidente” opted to pull the series from the platform altogether, putting it behind a pay-per-view paywall for $9.99 on Barstool TV.
Emergency Press Conference – I Refuse to Edit Surviving Barstool Because YouTube is Stupid pic.twitter.com/0pW8F802Oz
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) November 30, 2023
While the pay-per-view venture was seemingly successful — Portnoy posted a screenshot indicating Barstool had received more than 100,000 Surviving Barstool purchases — Rumble is presumably making it worth the outlet’s while to move its content elsewhere. It’s unclear how much of a presence, if any, Barstool will maintain on YouTube moving forward as the deal with Rumble doesn’t appear to be exclusive. While Pardon My Take posted Monday’s episode to its YouTube page, Barstool’s own YouTube page hasn’t added a new video since Friday.
Considering Barstool’s concerns about censorship, the partnership with Rumble makes a lot of sense, as the platform touts itself as a free speech-friendly alternative to YouTube. While the company considers itself politically neutral, it has largely been associated with right-wing figures, including former President Donald Trump, Fox News host Sean Hannity and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Even before Monday, it’s been a busy January for both Rumble and Barstool. Earlier this month, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirmed that it has opened an unspecified investigation into the video platform, while last week, Barstool CEO Erika Ayers Badan (formerly Nardini) announced that she is leaving the company.
[Rumble]
