Media and entertainment group Warner Brothers has invested $15.8m in Uninterrupted, a US-based sports-themed video content producer co-founded by basketball star LeBron James, The Hollywood Reporter stated on Wednesday.
Uninterrupted produces video content in the form of first-person shorts focused on famous athletes. The company was co-founded by James and his manager Maverick Carter, and the two had financed the startup themselves prior to Warners’ investment.
Warners and subsidiary Turner Sports provided the funding to Uninterrupted in order to form a partnership that will allow it to secure additional content to be broadcast both on television and on the conglomerate’s web, mobile and social platforms.
James and Carter already have a deal in place with Warners to supply video content through their SpringHill Entertainment production vehicle, though SpringHill’s output consists of more diversified programming.
Uninterrupted itself will continue to produce first-person shorts, but plans to expand its content into documentaries, interviews and even an animated sitcom centred on a fictional retired NBA player.
Describing James and Carter’s video ventures, Craig Hunegs, Warner Bros. Television’s president of business strategy, told The Hollywood Reporter: “They are speaking to an audience – young men – that we do not reach easily or readily.
“When they started sketching out to us what they could do with more investment, it was a no-brainer.”
– Photo courtesy of Erik Daniel Drost via Wikimedia Commons