Athletes To Cash In On NIL Deals Using 90+ Years Of Game Footage

AI has entered the chat for NCAA video.

In an agreement that could accelerate the financial opportunities for both athletes and the NCAA, athletes will soon have the opportunity to license and broker their performances from NCAA championships to sponsors as part of NIL deals.

The NCAA recently entered into an agreement with Veritone to become the Global Archive of Record and Exclusive Video Licensing Agent for the distribution and licensing of video content from past, present and future NCAA championships. In a promotional video, Veritone highlights they will have access to 92 years of NCAA “highlights and buzzer beaters” for 90 NCAA Championship events.

While similar vehicles exist for still photography (Getty Images, APNews, etc), this is a first of its kind partnership designed to streamline the licensing process for past, present and future NCAA athletes to use video content from NCAA Championships for their own NIL purposes.

In an interview with Forbes.com, CEO and President of Veritone Ryan Steelberg, spoke about the long term history of licensing footage for commercial use by the Masters Golf Tournament, the NFL, NBA and other professional sport organizations. “While the WNBA just signed a multi-billion dollar deal with ESPN for ‘primary coverage’, the secondary market for licensing footage for commercial use (like documentaries) is a good sized business. We call that legacy footage”.

Veritone has historically of brokered many these deals; from Serena Williams’ iconic matches at the U.S. Open, to CBS’ Walter Cronkite announcing the moon landing in 1969, these moments as they are shown and repeated later become a part of our country’s life story, Steelberg said.

Enhancing this deal is the opportunity to use artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up the cataloging, storing and search for hundreds of millions of hours of game footage from NCAA tournaments dating back decades. While performing their due diligence to assess the volume of game and practice footage the NCAA owns (as well as the “indexing” or organizing of the decades of content stored in their archives), Steelberg told me they decided to “use AI to ingest and index and organize it. So, if we wanted to quickly search for all footage with Michael Jordan’s face on screen, they could call up the images or video almost immediately. We are taking a highly unstructured library and quickly making it easily searchable”.

How can athletes benefit and leverage their video NIL with a sponsor? Instead of taking days or weeks to locate, get approval and share image content with an NIL partner, the athlete themselves or their agent can reach out directly through Veritone’s website and quickly get approvals, assess the cost of purchasing a license and immediately share with their sponsor partners.

Research has shown that when NIL content is engaging to the viewer and highlights the athlete doing what they do best, the value to the sponsor to enter into the partnership rises quickly. Instead of a still photo, game action featuring the athlete scoring a goal or a touchdown exponentially increase engagement with the post or commercial.

This partnership will also streamline the process for those who make films and documentaries. The docuseries “Coach Prime” used film created by SMAC enterprises in 2021, then added to You Tube by Barstool Sports, and finally was picked up by Amazon Prime in late 2022. Each step of the way, there were negotiated licensing agreements for each side to agree to, allowing the project to advance.

In a press release, the NCAA commented on the enhanced partnership with Veritone, saying “We are excited to continue our relationship with Veritone as our official global archive and footage licensing agent,” said Chris Termini, NCAA Managing Director of Championships External Operations. “This collaboration will allow us to preserve and share the rich history of NCAA championships while providing enhanced accessibility and licensing opportunities. Veritone’s tech-driven solutions align perfectly with the NCAA’s commitment to innovation and our goal of showcasing the achievements of student-athletes across divisions.”

While it’s likely that events like the men’s March Madness basketball tournament will dominate the early archiving and requests made of this service, eventually women’s sports and Olympic sports will be added to the mix. The NCAA has also been live streaming many of championships in all three Divisions for several years now, and it’s likely that footage will be useful for athletes in those sports who want to raise their profile.

Steelberg noted that even footage from the 1940s and 1950s could soon be available to license to athletes and other interested parties.

This groundbreaking partnership will open new financial opportunities in both sports and media for athletes.