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NBA star Stephen Curry and his Unanimous Media production label have signed a sweeping, first-of-its-kind talent deal with Comcast NBCUniversal.
The multi-year template agreement is billed as the media giant’s first-ever “global talent partnership.” It counts a dizzying amount of first-look development opportunities across the company, including: Universal Studio Group for scripted and unscripted TV projects; DreamWorks Animation for kids and family content; creative and on-camera contributions at NBC Sports; opportunities at NBC News Studios, MSNBC and CNBC; Universal Parks and Resorts; and Comcast’s Xfinity brand.
Insiders valued the deal in the high eight-figure range with a potential upside from producing fees on greenlit content. The agreement was brokered by Jimmy Horowitz, vice chairman of NBCUniversal business affairs and operations. WME represented Curry and Unanimous.
It’s an impressive, if not urgent, move from Comcast NBCU, led by Brian Roberts and Jeff Shell, to secure talent with mass appeal in a landscape littered with blank checks from the streamers. NBCU has always touted its vertical integration program “Symphony,” but the Curry deal looks and feels like an aggressive play to realize the full power of its portfolio.
“While Stephen is a world class athlete, his brand and mission transcends the basketball court. The reach of Comcast NBCUniversal’s diverse portfolio will allow us to collaborate and support Stephen and Unanimous’ goals and ambitions while making compelling and impactful content for a global audience,” said Horowitz. “We aspire to work with creators who want their impact to reach broadly across our content ecosystem, which makes our partnership with Stephen, Erick [Peyton] and the team at Unanimous Media an ideal fit.”
Curry said Unanimous’ goal “has always been to create content that is not only entertaining, but also uplifting and inspirational. It’s incredible to imagine all the different ways we can make this vision come to life by incorporating all the amazing assets across Comcast NBCUniversal’s portfolio that has a footprint in all areas of media and entertainment.”
First up for Curry on the sports side is joining NBC Sports’ Golf Channel for coverage of the ultimate team golf event, the Ryder Cup. He will create original content for the channel’s acclaimed “Live From the Ryder Cup” coverage and GolfPass, which will be featured internationally on Sky Sports.
“When we met with the team at Comcast NBCUniversal it was clear that they had done their homework,” said Erick Peyton, Unanimous co-founder. “They presented to us a vision for a genuine partnership that was creative, multi-dimensional and stayed true to our mission. We can’t wait to roll up our sleeves and get started on projects and content that shifts culture in a meaningful way.”
Curry will also help launch a reimagination of “The More You Know,” NBCU’s award-winning PSA campaign. The initiative has been running for over 30 years and will see Curry will sit down with multiplatinum artist, activist and EGOT winner John Legend to discuss topics related to diversity, equity and inclusion that will appear across many of NBCUniversal’s platforms, including Peacock.
The deal agreement also brings innovative opportunities for brands seeking to work with Curry. Together with NBCU’s creative partnerships team, Curry and Unanimous will explore scaled relationships with marketers that inspire meaningful connection with Curry’s fans and the media and technology powerhouse’s global audience.
Recent deals that reflect this new blanket approach to talent includes pacts with Meghan Trainor and Miley Cyrus; the Universal Studio Group deal with Seth MacFarlane; and the film and television deals across Universal Pictures and Universal Studio Group with Jordan Peele and Justin Lin.
The Unanimous Media leadership team includes executive vice president of TV Jenelle Lindsay, film and feature documentaries head Brian Tetsuro, and podcast and publishing head Kalyna Kutny.
Variety's Matt Donnelly contributed to this post.
https://variety.com/2021/film/news/steph-curry-comcast-nbcuniversal-talent-deal-1235064388/#recipient_hashed=27d3e1decbdd57f8473998652dd3259302a49d011cd4c3c98101f80952412574
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