Yahoo is one of the only outlets still striving to serve all sports fans, all the time, on every platform.
With Yahoo Sports Daily, its recently launched, two-hour live digital sports news show, it is melding an old format with a new sensibility.
“Given the speed at which sports move, we wanted to have something that was really going to anchor our discussion of what was going on in sports every day beyond those deeper dives on our (other) shows,” Sam Farber, head of Yahoo Sports content, told Awful Announcing at the company’s San Francisco offices in early February.
“We wanted something that people could, sort of, appointment view and watch on a daily basis, at the same time, and have some predictability to the viewership.”
With a YouTube channel boasting nearly half a million subscribers, a channel on every major FAST platform, and more than 2.5 million followers across X, Instagram, and TikTok, Yahoo Sports has a large following all over the internet. Yahoo Sports Daily is about populating all of them, starting as a flagship morning show and ultimately expanding across all those accounts as clips.
Hosts Jason Fitz and Caroline Fenton set the tone for the network with smooth chemistry and sharp opinions. Both have experience across radio (and both in Nashville, coincidentally) as well as digital content. They are equally comfortable giving takes on NFL free agency as they are riffing with YouTube streamer iShowSpeed.
Fitz was one of the first hires at Yahoo Sports following its revamp under Ryan Spoon, after the two worked together at ESPN. A year or so later, Fenton, another ESPN vet, came aboard. The duo that would ultimately become the faces of YSD and the concierges for Yahoo Sports collaborated at both networks on college sports content before being paired together for YSD.
Together, they were allowed to build what Yahoo hopes will be a go-to each morning for its audience of avid sports fans.
“The beautiful thing that I fell in love with was, our bosses had the bare bones, had the skeleton of, ‘We want to give you the platform to do this show, you fill everything else in,’” Fenton told Awful Announcing. “So we had a wonderful creative runway, which is rare and special in this industry.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu_WjpaPhwg
Launched last September, the show seized on its first big opportunity to broadcast live from the Yahoo offices down the street from Media Row for Super LX. The week of in-person shows showcased the best of YSD, featuring the full breadth of Yahoo commentators and great outside interviews, including a news-making hit with Fox’s Jay Glazer.
Still, a daily general sports show is a challenge in a modern media environment where most content is trending toward a more niche, fan-focused perspective. Building a show like YSD into a daily habit from scratch is a challenge.
Yahoo, though, sees the show as integral to its overall strategy and identity. Having gone from being at the forefront of shiny new projects at ESPN to being part of mass layoffs, Fitz valued management’s commitment to giving YSD a real chance.
“When they mentioned daily … the chance to be part of something that is flagship for this place and is significant to the bosses and significant to the growth of the company, I think what you want to be in this business is you want to feel like your work matters internally and externally,” Fitz explained.
“And externally takes a long time … so in order to find your external audience, the most important thing is to have an internal audience.”
The show has a meager audience for its packaged YouTube live streams so far, but it also airs on its 24/7 FAST channel, the Yahoo Sports Network. This feed is also available on YouTube, Samsung TV Plus, the Roku Channel, and other FAST platforms.
Farber said the show is growing as anticipated. It also gives Yahoo clips to populate into articles on its site for just about every topic, a valuable tool for a website that still garners significant traffic.
Both hosts have noticed certain topics continually popping up, both in the livestream audience and for clips. WNBA fans have flocked to the show for big news, as have fans of the Las Vegas Raiders — Fitz’s favorite team.
Everyone working on the show preaches the value of being nimble. When big news breaks, as with the multiple early-morning NBA trades during Super Bowl week, YSD must be able to cover those stories quickly.
By combining an internet urgency with a radio patter, Fitz and Fenton believe they are bringing the best of both worlds — and both generations — to YSD.
“It’s the perfect marriage of our background in radio and also our background in digital,” Fenton said. “I view it as a two-hour radio show that we put on digital, and we have graphics and video.”
Since Spoon and Farber took over at Yahoo Sports, the company has targeted some of the brightest analysts in the industry. From college football newsbreaker Ross Dellenger to NFL guru Nate Tice to hoops aficionado Kevin O’Connor, Yahoo is developing a reputation for elevated analysis.
Like the rest of the network, YSD is chasing smarter, more avid fans. Because it is available only on YouTube and FAST channels, the company hopes to build a digital-first audience of young adults.
“If you’re going to invest time in a daily sports news program, you’re probably self-selecting a more avid sports fan and … often hand-in-hand with someone who’s more informed and smarter,” Farber explained.
To build an audience beyond one-off surges around news or viral clips, Fitz and Fenton want to be approachable and informed. Fitz said he had to add two new TVs to his living room setup to keep up with all the regular-season basketball, hockey, and baseball action he had missed in previous jobs.
The two are investing heavily in their chemistry, even shooting the show remotely most days.
“The best sports talk conversation anywhere in the world is the most conversational,” Fitz said. “People fall in love with something that they feel comfortable with.”
Yahoo hired ESPN and Jim Rome Show vet Michael Goldfarb to run production for the more complicated live show. At the studio in San Francisco, Goldfarb was a supportive, calming presence for his staff and the hosts.
There is an ease among everyone making YSD that appears to belie a confidence in the product, even as it searches for a foothold in a crowded marketplace.
“A three-hour live show is really, really hard to produce,” Farber said. “You need to keep it fresh, you need to change topics, you need to speak to a topic sufficiently, but also not belabor the point such that you lose the audience.”
As some networks chase celebrity hosts or a small set of the most-watched sports, Yahoo is broadening its focus. So far, Yahoo Sports Daily is working to attract the audience the network wants.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.