Whistle Sports Network

Whistle Sports Network is a multi-channel network that focuses on professional- and collegiate-level sports content from over 200 YouTube channels. The company provides support and resources to these video creators receiving a percentage of a revenue those videos generate. It's approach is to provide an alternative to major video networks from pro sports leagues and news organizations because it caters to a younger audience that prefers to consume short, humorous, or interesting video clips. Whistle Sports is a YouTube certified broadcaster.

Growth

In the summer of 2014, Whistle Sports launch an Xbox app to provide its content through the Xbox platform the network turned to developer Ratio, which built the Xbox app. In September, National Basketball Association (NBA) player Jeremy Lin became a content partner with Whistle Sports, adding his YouTube channel with roughly 400,000 subscribers in exchange for an undisclosed equity stake. He was the first athlete from one of the four major sports leagues in the United States to produce content for the platform. By the end of 2014, Whistle Sports subscribers and social media followers were: YouTube (8 million subscribers), Facebook (9.3 million fans), Twitter (1.3 million followers), Instagram (2.5 million followers), and Vine (2.2 million followers). Whistler Sports has 12.4 million YouTube subscribers as of January 2015.

Funding

Since its launch in 2014, Whistle Sports has raised more than $36 million in funding to date. In its second round of funding, Whistle Sports raised $28 million. Investors in Whistle Sports range from Sky Broadcasting, Liberty Global, former New York Yankee, Derek Jeter and Denver Broncos, Peyton Manning. Whistle first raised an $8 million funding round in 2014. A small percentage of Whistle Sports is owned by the Major Professional Sports. In October 2014, Sky Broadcasting invested $7 million in to Whistle Sports.