Golden State Warriors point guard Steph Curry will star in his own Facebook documentary series entitled Stephen vs. The Game. The six-episode series will air exclusively on Facebook Watch later this Spring.
The new series will be directed by Gotham Chopra and will showcase behind-the-scenes footage of Curry’s life over the past year, beginning during last season’s championship run, and concluding with the current NBA season. Curry’s docuseries marks the second installment in Facebook’s VS On Watch series. In 2018, Facebook Watch aired its first installment Tom vs. Time about Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, which was also directed by Chopra. Curry’s production company, Unanimous Media, will produce the upcoming docuseries.
“We believe that athletes are their own media companies,” said Dan Reed, Facebook’s VP of global sports and media partnerships, according to the Washington Post. “And via social platforms like ours, we’re really focusing on athletes being able to take advantage of this medium in ways that weren’t possible before.”
Each episode of the new series will run about 15 minutes. Footage will focus on Curry’s training, his family, his faith, plus home video from his childhood. Reed estimates that there are 700 million sports fans on Facebook, according to the Washington Post. Ads that will run during the series will serve as the project’s main source of revenue.
“With Tom’s [Brady’s] age, there was a natural tendency to look back on his career,” Chopra said according to The Post. “With Stephen, he’s peaking right now, so there’s this feeling of this is happening in real time.”
Versus. Coming soon
pic.twitter.com/Tn1flmq6eI
— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) February 12, 2019
SportTechie Takeaway
Unanimous Media, which Curry launched last year, is also producing an upcoming feature film called Breakthrough, about a boy who drowns and is dead for nearly an hour before his mother’s prayers help revive him. Curry is an executive producer for that film. In addition to Curry and Brady, Facebook watch has aired series for athletes such as Marshawn Lynch, Odell Beckham Jr., and Dwyane Wade. Social and digital media has empowered athletes to become their own media companies, and Facebook has both the capital and mass audience appeal to attract superstars to its on-demand video platform.