Borna Nazari: Founder and CEO of Hog Media

00:03

Borna Nazari

Hi, this is Borna Nazari, CEO and founder of Hog Media, and I'm going one one with ADC partners.

00:25

Dave Almy

Hey, this is Dave Almy of ADC Partners, and thanks for checking out this latest episode of the Sports Business Conversations podcast. If you like what you hear, please go ahead and leave a review or a rating. Those are always appreciated. Now, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that if you're listening to this podcast, you probably consider yourself to be something of a sports fan. But what degree of sports fan are you really? I mean, how badly do your favorite team's losses really sting? For example, does that one run loss in the 27th game of the baseball season hurt so much that it forces you to go on a two hour walk to decompress? Probably not. But that's what fandom is like for this episode's guest, Borna Nazari, the president and founder of Hog Media.

01:17

Dave Almy

When his beloved padres hurt, he hurt with them. The difference, though, is that born a channeled that passion into a YouTube show focused on the Padres, and people started paying attention, a lot of attention. Sponsors followed, and pretty soon, Borna was quitting his day job to concentrate on building his channel and connecting with other sports content creators around the country. Which brings us today as founder and president of Hog Media. Born and now manages a network of close to 200 creators and is playing a key role in reshaping what media is for teams and leagues.

01:58

Dave Almy

In our conversation, we talk about the founding of hog Media, his insights into what makes compelling content, how brands can reap the benefit of working closely with sports content creators, and how authenticity isn't just key, but is also fundamentally changing what it means to be in sports media. So thanks again for stopping by and hope you enjoy my conversation with Borna Nazari, president and founder of Hog Media. Borna, I think, like a lot of people, you kind of wanted to be a sports agent at first, right? And that's. That's pretty common, right? People see Jerry Maguire, they sort of see that lifestyle about the people, and that's how they think they want to work in sports. You spent a couple of years at creative artists. What was that experience like for you as you started rolling down this thing?

02:50

Dave Almy

How did it meet or not meet your expectations?

02:52

Borna Nazari

It's. That's a loaded question.

02:56

Dave Almy

We're going to dump right into it, man.

02:57

Borna Nazari

eative artists agency back in: 2021

03:37

Borna Nazari

ous all day, every day. Yeah.: 1214

04:11

Borna Nazari

I will say this, and you can ask it, you know, as a follow up, but it is a lot of teaching points that helps me into kind of what I'm doing now and today. So you may, it may suck in the moment, but being in that business really does lead to a lot of interesting aspects and assets that you develop as a person.

04:30

Dave Almy

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, and you learn so much from those jobs that, frankly, in the moment, aren't that much fun. Right. You learn what, you know, you really, our eyes get open to the different parts of this industry that you didn't realize were sort of integral to it. But, you know, as part of that, though. So you're chasing that dream, and it's maybe dream is a little overstating. Right? It's turning into a little bit of a nightmare calling car dealers.

05:02

Borna Nazari

It really is, though, because there, I mean, it is a dream because you are rewarded with little things in the middle of this marathon that you're like, wow, this is pretty cool, you know, going to a. An all star weekend event and meeting some of the guys used to watch playing growing up. And now you're helping that his or her business. Right. So those are the little wins that you tell yourself that I got to keep going.

05:22

Dave Almy

That's what keeps you grinding. Right? That little bit of that. That just. That little tiny access. Yeah, just the tease. But you all start. Start running a YouTube channel focused on the San Diego Padres.

05:34

Borna Nazari

Correct.

05:36

Dave Almy

What's the origin of that? Is that something you just said? Screw it. I'm just gonna. I'm frustrated with what I'm hearing. I wanna have this point of view. How did you start doing that, and what was the impetus for it?

05:44

Borna Nazari

So I'll tell you this. I grew up as a. You know, it's kind of tough telling people as a guy, you're a sports fan, because you say, oh, you're just another guy.

05:52

Dave Almy

Right.

05:52

Borna Nazari

But what. I mean, when I'm a sports fan, unfortunately, it runs my life, you know, emotionally. Back in high school, I actually started covering the Lakers on the Internet, and my channel, you know, was developing some sort of steam. But when I started working in the basketball business, that started to become a conflict of interest. So I took down all that content and rewind slightly. Before I started at CAA, as you know, I'm from San Diego, I'm a die hard sports fan. And, you know, the Padres were starting to get better, and they had. They had some brutal losses, and I. I didn't know what to do with myself. You know, I'd go on walks.

06:34

Dave Almy

So this would really affect you. You would feel it, like, in your core, like, they've done this to me again.

06:39

Borna Nazari

Game 17 of a regular season game in April, they lose a heartbreaker. I'm going on a two hour walk. You won't believe it. So I said, I gotta do something else that's gonna help me about this. I started venting in front of a camera. I started venting, chatting about, you know, the sorrows of the team, the positives of the team, and long story short, there was a. I started a live stream after a few times doing this, and I'd put a little index card on the top of my phone where it shows the viewership count, because the days I'd start, there'd be zero people watching. And I didn't want to be discouraged. So I put this index card in. A week later, the Padres had a huge comeback from behind victory on Sunday night baseball. They were down seven to one to the Dodgers.

07:17

Borna Nazari

They come back when. Eight, seven. I go live. Cause I saw people type in the comments. So I removed the index card, and I saw there were 57 people watching, which was the beginning of the journey of the Hogwatch. So that's kind of when I started this as a therapeutic outlet.

07:31

Dave Almy

Yeah, it was catharsis for you, wasn't it?

07:34

Borna Nazari

It wasn't to start a business. It wasn't, it wasn't be my career, it was to help my health.

07:40

Dave Almy

I need someplace to put this agony and being on camera and just letting it go. So it was kind of like a shouting into the wind kind of at the beginning.

07:53

Borna Nazari

Oh, it was, I wasn't professional. Hey, this is born in Azari. Welcome to the post game show. This was, this team.

07:58

Dave Almy

Hey, man, podcast host is going to where you're taking your job when you start adjusting your voice like that.

08:03

Borna Nazari

I know, right? I know everyone. People still tell me, why aren't you going on ESPN and doing the whole play by play? I tell them I only got one life. I wish I could do it all. But yeah, it became, as you said, a catharsis. It was an emotional outlet and escape for me and it proved to really help me out, which was the most important thing initially.

08:20

Dave Almy

But I think that's also probably critical and we're going to get into this to the success of it. Right. There's this idea of, we're going to talk about the idea of authenticity later, but people felt that, right? I mean, and you feel like that's what drew them to you and what you were putting on air, you couldn't.

08:39

Borna Nazari

You couldn't be more correct because contrary to prior to the time when there was no one really doing this in this space. And, you know, the only kind of outlet that people were able to get from analysis perspective on sports was from a media perspective, usually people who were employed by the organization. So that content had to be censored. There couldn't be too much emotion. They had to protect the players. And sure, you still want to do that. Listen, if you're in someone in my positions, if you want to have those players on and stuff, you do have to protect, but you're independent, so fans are able to relate to your content a lot more than, let's say, a so media member of an employed affiliate of that organization.

09:21

Dave Almy

So you start the stream, you circle on live viewership numbers start to accelerate when people are buying into the. This guy is basically online saying, what's in my head, right?

09:33

Borna Nazari

Yes.

09:34

Dave Almy

Good for him. But what was the point where you thought this might be more than a hobby, this might be more than just helping my mental health?

09:45

Borna Nazari

Yeah. Yeah. It's a great question. You know, I will say this. I'm very thankful for what the podras organization has given me, because if they weren't spending two, $300 million like they were for the majority of their franchise, listen, if the team was winning 60 games every year, I can be as entertaining and as amazing as I can. But I wouldn't say I would have accelerated my growth as fast as I can. So I would say that on field product is still very important.

10:14

Dave Almy

Sure.

10:14

Borna Nazari

You know, Fernando Tatis, Manny Machado, polarizing names. But kind of the moment when I started to realize that this could be something bigger than that is when, it goes back to my CAA time. Now is when I was starting to get a really good hang of doing deals, partnerships for professional athletes. The question really started to come into the light bulb, said, why? Why aren't these brands activating on a community as niche and engaged as mine? And when I started to kind of understand that connection and started to leverage those relationships, that's when the light bulb went off and said, oh, this is the digital media business is actually a business.

10:53

Dave Almy

Yeah. And that, I think, filters back to the first part of what were talking about, too. When you think about God calling car dealerships for athletes to get free cars, that's not really what you probably wanted to be doing, but that's the bridge that built. You built to be able to start saying, how do I monetize this thing? Here's the opportunity. You knew how to create deals, you knew how to make the calls, and you knew how to position this.

11:18

Borna Nazari

all them. Go. And it would be: 2300

12:00

Borna Nazari

You know, and how can we help you? And you start understanding the ways to do it, and then you can just start leveraging that into this space that I know a lot about? Because I'm one myself.

12:08

Dave Almy

And so you've now had the experience. So when you're starting out, you start making deals with local businesses. Right, to appear on the channel. And I think that's when you start, first started to realize the potential of this as a marketing tool. Right? Yeah. I mean, that ROI and providing benefit for these brands that you were doing on this hype, you said it, hyper local basis, hyper attuned audience were far better than some of the big athlete deals that you're doing. So, you know, explain that a little bit. Why do you think that's the case and why did businesses start to buy in?

12:46

Borna Nazari

Listen, there's no doubt, there's no, there's, I mean, there's no doubt there's value when you associate your entity with a Kevin Durant, with a Devin Booker, but there isn't a targeted market related to that. I mean, that person's audience is so widespread and widespread reached when you have brands that are activating with those kind of people for high six, low seven figures, that is more of a statement of a brand to say, hey, we want to associate with that person. We want to develop awareness of our entity. But when it comes to creating sales, conversions customers, there is a obvious localization tool with these people that have a niche engaged, lack of a better term, cult like community.

13:25

Borna Nazari

So if a San Diego business that, let's say it's a brewery or a barber shop that's based in San Diego, that is maybe more male centric, that wants to focus on sport, there isn't a better outlet to promote than on someone like myself. So it's about finding those kind of people in all those different markets. That's not to say there's no national exposure. Well, I can get into that later. But that's kind of the light bulb that kind of, you know, went off.

13:48

Dave Almy

We talk about it in sports marketing all the time. Right. The reason why sports work so effectively is you're partnering with and generating that halo effect, right. By associating with the brands and the teams and the players and things like that. But when you dive into an audience that is particularly passionate, that's where the rubber can really hit the road. And I think that's probably what you really latched onto again by having this cathartic moment. If you had just sort of gone in and started doing, hey, here's what's happened in today's game. Thanks very much. Probably not the level of success, but you really vested your own authenticity. There's that word again.

14:29

Borna Nazari

Well, listen, it's. It's a good point. Sorry to cut you off, but the emotional. The emotional aspect is so important because it's authentic. It's no b's. So people know when I'm crying or I'm screaming and I'm joyful about the padres. It's emotional. And it's the same way with my partners. I mean this to a t. I don't promote partners that I don't consume or that I enjoy. And if that's the case, and I'm advocating for something, my community trusts me. They listen to me, and they will. They will go ahead and go get those things that have impacted my life. I mean, I'll give you an example. I was visiting a buddy in New York back in the end of my college day, so I was still in the couch. Couch crashing phase. When you go visit friends and my.

15:12

Borna Nazari

You know, he didn't have blinds. My buddy said, hey, take this sleep.

15:16

Dave Almy

Oh, hey, man. This is. This is g rated, man. So let's just make sure we keep it there.

15:20

Borna Nazari

No, I promise. No, no. You're not blind. No, no. Right?

15:24

Dave Almy

Yeah.

15:25

Borna Nazari

And he gave me a sleep mask, and he said, don't. Don't let the sun. This will be amazing. The sun won't wake you up. Right. And this sleep mask changed the way I could sleep in my life.

15:39

Dave Almy

Seriously.

15:39

Borna Nazari

I use it every single night. It's on my bed right now. I cannot sleep without it. And I had to get in with this company. I mean, they changed my life. And I got in. After a few months, I got in, and now my whole community, thousands of people around the city, have this sleep mask. I see. People thank me now. So many other youtubers around the country, if you see them, it's because of that. So.

15:59

Dave Almy

That's hilarious.

16:01

Borna Nazari

Yeah. Isn't that crazy?

16:02

Dave Almy

Well, I mean, it's a case study, but again, it's like you said, I'm not. If they feel that you're promoting something that you feel intrinsically about, and they know you're from the same community that they care about, sure. That's the gold, right? That's the gold. That's how these things work. So you carry those successes, right? You start to generate this success outside of CAA, you know, the Padres piece starts to really take off, and that leads to sort of a wider vision that became hog media. So what I want you to do now, like, I think most people understand the idea of, okay, here's a guy. He's on YouTube, and he's doing this thing, he's promoting these products, and that's a piece. But hog media sort of became the next level.

16:55

Dave Almy

So can you tease out a little bit what hog media does and how that was the origin story behind that?

17:00

Borna Nazari

When you're a content creator, for example, especially covering sports teams, you are, you know, I try to collaborate with other creators. So when the, you know, the Padres are playing the Mets, by the way, good luck to the Mets. Or after probably seeing this video, we'll know the Mets fate. But, you know, one of my good friends, for example, is a huge Mets creator. And so over the years, we, you know, I started collaborating with him, some Yankees people, and, you know, as I started to kind of look at these other channels, I wasn't even aware that there's so many of these space, you know, who are the, quote, leaders of fandom, of their teams.

17:34

Borna Nazari

And after deep diving into their channels and looking, I'm like, these guys aren't monetizing, you know, outside of strictly YouTube, and they're not working with the brands that I'm working with. So hog media kind of came about as let's bridge the gap here. Let's help all of these leaders of fandom stop their nine to fives and talk about their sports passions and their teams for a living and allow them to help them monetize and grow their entities. So that's basically the premise of how this overall business began.

18:03

Dave Almy

What's been some of the interesting developments now? So where are you right now with hog media? Because you have basically taken what you did with the padres, localized it in communities across the country with other creators that have a similar level of, I don't know if anybody can really achieve the level of passion that you have, but we'll say they have similar levels.

18:24

Borna Nazari

Of passion, which is not a good thing, by the way.

18:27

Dave Almy

You're not promoting it. You're not saying this is the lifestyle, but they're out there, they're doing these things, and you're basically creating a network, a collective to be able to replicate the success that you've had. So what have been some of the surprises to you as you've started trying to apply your success elsewhere? Is it easily replicatable?

18:51

Borna Nazari

Well, yes and no. No one is me, and I'm not anyone.

18:56

Dave Almy

Right.

18:56

Borna Nazari

So, you know, somebody who is a big ravens creator may not have the same passion as me, but may have more knowledge than me, or somebody may have the same passion as me, but not this of me. So it, but everyone has their own story and I think they have, they all have fan bases because they're all groups of people that want to hear that story. I mean, you know, I'm not going to get into names, but we have a female who is just crushing it with the university of Florida football right now, and the whole Gainesville is watching her and so on and so forth.

19:28

Borna Nazari

So, you know, a surprise that I had is, wow, they are literally everywhere and anywhere, which is a pleasant surprise, but I would say a challenge, maybe understanding his or her community and the kind of partnerships that he or she likes to endure and encounter, and understanding that, hey, someone like myself may not know some local entities in those markets, but I can help them from a national perspective and then kind of understanding what's that next step in allowing us to really have a linkage and a connection as a collective, as you said. So still a lot long ways to go, but it's a very exciting and still a new landscape.

20:03

Dave Almy

It's interesting. As someone way smarter than me once said, as consistent as possible, as different as necessary. And it sounds like, as you go find these other creators, one of the tricks with hog media is how do you apply your successes and how you've been able to do that while still maintaining the thing that makes them passionate about their sport or their team.

20:28

Borna Nazari

Literally. I'm literally writing down that quote, as.

20:31

Dave Almy

You said, like, yeah, it's a great one. I've used it all the time.

20:34

Borna Nazari

Yeah, that's because as consistent as possible, as different as necessary. Right? I mean, that one stuck with me right there. I had to write it down. And you bring up a good point. I mean, it is a ever so moving landscape. You know, I would say this. There's been a lot of, I guess, critics of this landscape saying, hi, you know, push comes to shove, at some point, there can't be ten to 15 to 20 creators of a specific team. I mean, take a look at me, for example. When I started covering the Padres on YouTube, there was nobody covering the team on the Internet like myself. Now there are eight different people who are covering the team on the Internet, and they're. And the beauty of it is everyone is growing, including myself. My audience isn't diminishing.

21:17

Borna Nazari

It's because everyone likes to consume the content. We have a lot of overlap, but people like to consume it in different angles. And that's a pretty huge fundamental discovery in this space that allows this thing to continue and coexist.

21:32

Dave Almy

Why do you think there's pushback? When you say that? People are like, you know, there's only so much you can do with this online community kind of thing. Where do you think that stems from? Is that just people who are more comfortable with traditional media?

21:44

Borna Nazari

Yes, it stems from the people who were a part of the local radio business. It's all those people. It's those people that lost their business to this kind of stuff. But a lot of those people are now starting to transition on to the YouTube space. But I think there was this struggle with traditional local radio of selling advertisements and not being a really revenue generating business. What makes this a little bit more beautiful on YouTube and another forum are these entities work with a ton of national partners in this space, whether it's in the. In the. In the sports gaming space, in the ticketing space, in the energy drink space. And these are things that all apply to these demographics, which I didn't think these people in local radio were able to ever crack into.

22:30

Borna Nazari

So it's a different game and that's kind of, I guess, why there is some pushback.

22:35

Dave Almy

Do you think? There's. So I want to circle back to the idea of this trust and authenticity and people feeling their own emotion in you, and it's clearly an important and differentiating piece to why the success has landed in your lap in this regard. Is there a. I mean, I know that there's also starting to be a little pushback against the quote unquote influencers, and I'm not going to lump you into that group because you're clearly something different. But about applying to appeal to what's a very sophisticated audience. Right. The folks that you're creating content for are probably the most sophisticated consumers they've ever seen. So they can feel when they're being sold to. Right.

23:21

Dave Almy

How do you maintain that discipline between wanting to generate wanting and needing to generate the revenue to keep hog growing, but maintaining that discipline so that your audience isn't like, it's just a show.

23:35

Borna Nazari

It's a great question. And I think it's all about having brands that tie into that person's life so they can organically integrate that into their content rather than it being a traditional advertisement. So if somebody is always going to a 49 ers game, then let's just have he or she buy the tickets with that ticketing partner on the show and say, hey, I'm going to be sitting here, come sit with me. Here's my code. Rather than saying, hey, if you want the best tickets, go to here and use my code. So it's all about finding the creatives and that's why we have a head of creative at our company who literally is, you know, tasked and designed to build organic integrations that are aesthetically pleasing. That is the key to all of this and that's kind of what I learned.

24:15

Borna Nazari

So hey, if somebody likes to bet on the sports games, then, then do it on your stream. Talk about why you like this player to do well today or not, rather than saying, hey, go to here and use my code for here. So for me, I think the simple, and it's not simple, right? It's not. But I think the simple answer for right now is it's organically integrating the content rather than an advertisement. And that's why I don't like to use the word I advertising, I like to use the word partnership because that's what it boils down to. And although it may be the same in theory and contract and whatever, from an integration perspective, it couldn't be more different. And that's how you're able to continue and grow and build that trust with your community.

24:54

Dave Almy

Where do you think brands struggle the most in taking advantage? Brands are businesses in making the use of the relationships that you're offering. Like what do you find yourself sharing with businesses again and again about how to take advantage of these opportunities?

25:16

Borna Nazari

Well, I think brands for the most part because I don't want to speak for all brands, a lot of brands, and this is why, this is a whole other business in its own of people consulting for these brands. But a lot of brands, you know, they know they need to be in this space, they know they need to be in digital media, they know influencer is huge, but thats all they really know. And its not ten years ago where you can just dump money and anything in the space and its going to work out. It is becoming more competitive. There are competing brands who are in this space. So I think its really helping brands understand, okay, what is your product? What is the message youre trying to send? What are you exactly trying to promote? And then being that matchmaker.

25:56

Borna Nazari

idea of it. But it's not like: 2015

26:32

Dave Almy

So do you think part of it is there's still the people who are creating these partnerships or quote unquote, buying the media because, but it's obviously a little more sophisticated than that. Are they still thinking about it in terms of traditional media?

26:49

Borna Nazari

No.

26:50

Dave Almy

Or they're not?

26:51

Borna Nazari

No, they know.

26:51

Dave Almy

No, they understand that. They understand the nuance.

26:53

Borna Nazari

They do understand the ones. Now there are still issues with, I'm not gonna name brands, but in the space where brands still think, you know, and I get it right, it does come down to the bottom line a lot of the times, right, but sometimes brands don't give enough Runway for these creators or these communities to really associate and educate their consumers on a brand. So a lot of brands will say, hey, okay, listen, we'll give you x dollars for one show and we want to see a two times return on investment. And sometimes that's not a long enough leash, you know, and that's an issue that I think that is prevalent right now in the space where a brand just thinks they're going to be able to get appropriate feedback one integration.

27:41

Borna Nazari

I said, heck, it took me a few months for me to help educate my audience on the sleep mask and now you see the whole damn city wearing them. So it's like, yeah, but sometimes, you know, especially if they're spending across a thousand different shows, they don't want to commit to eight different shows one channel. It's a risk to them, and I get that. But it's also, so it's a gray line, right?

28:01

Dave Almy

It's a very fine line between a brand that's probably thinking in terms of quarterlies and how do you create something that's actually going to be, if we're talking about organic growth and reaching an audience and trying to help them understand what this brand did for me so that what it can do for you, that's not a one show endeavor. That's where I think you start crossing back into that's an advertisement.

28:31

Borna Nazari

And I think a reason that I'm working with these hyper localized, team focused creators are, you know, they're not the biggest channels, they don't have 10 million subscribers. So they're more open to working with these brands on an extra basis and developing that trust and community. Whereas on the contrary, and I still work with some big shows, but some of these, I mean, some brands will give a show, let's say 40, $50,000 for one media buy spot, and that's it. And it's, and it's usually, I'm not going to say all the time, but it may not go well, but there, that's it. Then it's done right. So it's kind of, at least with these ones, you can say, hey, they're going to pay you for four spots, but let's do seven and let's just build. Let's show them.

29:19

Dave Almy

Show them how it works. Back to that idea of partnership. Here's what I want to do to help you achieve what you're trying to do. So I'm wondering also, like you talked about it earlier, you used to be the only guy in the space, particularly for the padres. Now you've got a bunch of other folks who maybe see your success, try to replicate it on their own. That's great. Everybody's growing and everybody's taking it. Things like that. But is there pressure given how dynamic sports is right now, given how dynamic content is right now, new opportunities in media? Is the pressure to innovate overwhelming with the business?

29:56

Borna Nazari

Let's start with that. Of course I need to innovate and we're working on a few things, but at the end of the day, a lot of these entities are my clients entities, and they're innovating on theirselves and they understand this is a very news oriented business is a very day by day oriented business. So I would say the landscape innovates on its own. For example, head coach of the Jets Robert Sala fired a few weeks back, that right there is the jets community innovating with that news and understanding what's next. And so I think the innovation of the digital media sports landscape is parallel to the news cycle and the changes of the landscape from a partnership spaces that's more of a longer term innovation and really help educating brands.

30:40

Borna Nazari

For myself, I would be, if I wasn't doing hog media and I was just focusing on my YouTube channel, I would say I would be a little bit more focused on the innovation aspect of it, but it's kind of taken a little bit of a back scene. It's more of a enjoyment and more of a thing that I do, and I'm happy to see other people grow and help them out in the space. Right. But if in an alternate universe, if I wasn't doing hog media 100%, I'd be focused on innovating. I'd be trying to have analytics portion of my show, I'd be trying to get a little edge of what people aren't doing in the YouTube space. But, yeah, I'm one person.

31:14

Dave Almy

So it's only so many hours in the day.

31:20

Borna Nazari

I have friends asking me. I said, they say, why aren't you doing this? It would be great for you this year. Yeah. So you want to do it for me?

31:26

Dave Almy

Yeah, exactly. That's what a great idea. Like, do we now in charge of that?

31:29

Borna Nazari

I'll give you a piece. Do it. Never mind.

31:32

Dave Almy

So you're working with over a hundred different creators across the country.

31:38

Borna Nazari

150, getting close to 200. I don't know how I do it right, so.

31:43

Dave Almy

But I'm assuming, like, you're starting to get inbound stuff too. Like people asking you, hey, how do I become part of hog media? So this is snowballing. It's becoming its own, for lack of a better term, broadcast network associated with a lot of this type of stuff. So as you look in the next, this is the hardest part, right? This next six months, twelve months, 18 months. Where does hog media head and what does that look like to you as you continue to find success in this?

32:13

Borna Nazari

It's a great question. And the beauty of the question is, I think there's a lot of, there's a lot to unpack there, and that's what any business owner wants. So I would say from a straight partnerships perspective, we're kind of at the point where outside, excluding our large, very large clients, that we negotiate individually on behalf of our nav. Our partnership's navigation focus has turned from, hey, let's go partner all these individual creators, the brands, to, hey, let's go partner with brands of. To activate across our entire network, the platform, because all these people have the same DNA in different geographic markets. So I kind of transitioned to the point of going from individual to XYZ to brand X. Here's what we do, here's what we're all about. Here's why you should work with us from a partnerships perspective.

33:05

Dave Almy

Now, from a, for those listening, born as audio. Got a little crazy right there because he's so excited. His hands are flying all over the place and he's holding his microphone. Want everybody to let you know it's not a technical glitch. That is a guest glitch. Nobody's perfect, but the future is exciting, so you can't hold on. You gotta move around.

33:24

Borna Nazari

And then from a, you know, other business basis and we can talk about a little bit, but regional sports. I mean, what is the future of regional sports? That's.

33:35

Dave Almy

Boy, if you can answer that question, you'll have a lot of people knock.

33:37

Borna Nazari

You'll have a lot of people knocking on the door. And it impacts me tremendously, because another big reason why this YouTube channel started taking off is let's take a look at the San Diego Padres. They don't have a local tv network anymore. They used to be part of bally sports networks. They went under. The team lost $70 million of revenue per year. The MLB now has their rights. Breaking news. As of a few weeks ago, ten more teams are in that boat. A team like the Texas Rangers are starting their own network versus other teams are going back to the MLB rights. Why? What's going on? You know, I mean, I can go 2 hours talking about this stuff. I mean, this is what I study.

34:15

Borna Nazari

But when you think about it on the basis it's this, you go watch a tv, you go watch a local tv network that airs the Padres. There's 24 hours in a day, Dave, 3 hours. Okay, you have the game 30 minutes. You have the pregame show 30 minutes after you have the post game show. What the heck are they airing for the other 20 hours?

34:33

Dave Almy

It's a lot of infrastructure to replay old games again and old highlights. Take a look at the NFL Tony Gwynne documentaries.

34:40

Borna Nazari

Look at the NFL Network. It's the same problem they're having. That's why prime video comes in. They're not a local RSN. They have digital streaming services. They don't need a 24 hours seven RSN. That's not to say they don't want surrounding content for years to come. That's where we're gonna come in and try and, you know, do some stuff.

34:57

Dave Almy

It's an exciting time. And like I said at the top of this, such a dynamic industry, and it's, these are always the best conversations, right? Because, you know, what starts off as I need something to scream into the wind so I can work off some of this stuff becomes, because you've on, there's, on this journey of discovery, Lorna, you kind of understand intrinsically. That's what, that's what the audience, that's the people who wear true fandom is related to. That's the kind of things that they buy into, and that's what you've been able to hook on.

35:29

Borna Nazari

David. I'll talk to presidents, executives at these local RSN networks. They have no idea what's going on. They have no idea what's happening. And granted, I don't either. I mean, no one knows what is going to happen in the next three to five years. But what I do know is we need a central hub for people that are going to be able to consume sports content and content all the time, but in not a traditional, localized way. That's the not million dollar question. The billion dollar question. Right. And there's a lot of good pieces here, but, you know, some questions that arise that make it challenging. Hey, these individual, team like faces of fandom, they're independent. They don't always say the best things about players and teams and coaches. Would that be able to fit in an RSN model associated with the team? Right.

36:23

Borna Nazari

Maybe not. So there's a lot of moving parts that make it challenging, but then you can say, well, then tell them to not do that. Well, we don't want to censor their content. That goes against the whole idea of relatability and authenticity. Welcome to struggles. That's the beauty of life.

36:37

Dave Almy

Yeah, I'm with born and Azari. He's the CEO and founder of Hog Media. You know, the future is just wild when you think about what's gone on in media. I hate to use the word disruption, but what we're doing is we're looking at a real time disruption of an industry. And you're right on the fighting lines of it. It's a fascinating discussion. So I want to thank you for the time today, but before I let you go, I have to put you into the lightning round. These are a series of questions. You have not been prepped on the content associated with them. Just give me the first answer that you comes to mind. Are you ready?

37:19

Borna Nazari

Born ready.

37:21

Dave Almy

That's a big statement. All right. You are, I think, as we've established, clearly a huge Padres fan. Who is on your Padres Mount Rushmore. Four names.

37:33

Borna Nazari

Okay. Tony Gwynn, clearly. Trevor Hoffman.

37:39

Dave Almy

Clearly. It's a tough, lightning round question. Right?

37:46

Borna Nazari

Speaker three. As much as he struggles in the postseason, I have to say Manny Machado for, you know, what he's done already on Mount Rushmore, Padres. And Dave Winfield.

38:00

Dave Almy

Okay, yeah, good. Good one at the end there. All right, you're San Diego native. What's the best place to get sushi in San Diego?

38:06

Borna Nazari

Sushi otae. Very, very sushi.

38:09

Dave Almy

Oh, top, elite.

38:11

Borna Nazari

Elite sushi in San Diego. Good luck getting a reservation, ladies and gentlemen, on Mission Bay Drive, you got to go a few weeks in advance, but you want some incredible, authentic sushi. Sushi ota.

38:22

Dave Almy

My stomach just crumbled. You did your undergrad at UCLA. Thoughts on them in the Big ten?

38:28

Borna Nazari

Well, you tell me. It doesn't take an expert to talk about their thoughts in the Big ten. One and five. Clobbered by Penn State, clobbered by LSU. To be expected. Losing the Minnesota.

38:38

Dave Almy

Pathetic.

38:38

Borna Nazari

The UCLA Bruins. It's going to take a lot of time for them, but a bit of an adjustment from a business perspective, it's fantastic, and I think they'll be fine. In the basketball world.

38:48

Dave Almy

You played volleyball for Francis park high school and won the human backboard award as the team's best defensive player. How many of those returns ended up going off your noggin?

38:59

Borna Nazari

Too many. Sometimes rumbling and stumbling. But I I will say this. Volleyball is a, another idea and showcase of community and how important that was for my human building experience. Amazing experience.

39:14

Dave Almy

re recording this just as the: 2024

39:21

Borna Nazari

Pain.

39:23

Dave Almy

I know. Look, I hate to end this way, but. All right, give me your predictions.

39:27

Borna Nazari

Dodgers going to win it all?

39:29

Dave Almy

They're going to win. I don't win at all.

39:30

Borna Nazari

Yeah. Dodgers are going to take care of the Mets in five. Yankees are going to beat the Guardians in seven. Dodgers over the Yankees in six. Dodgers Potters were the two best teams in baseball.

39:44

Dave Almy

Well, a Dodgers Yankees World Series nightmare for this Red Sox fan and this Padres fan, but I'm assuming Major League Baseball is thrilled to death about the whole thing.

39:55

Borna Nazari

They'll be printing paper over at the Fox Corporation.

39:59

Dave Almy

Born of man. Appreciate the time.

40:00

Borna Nazari

Thanks for your time, David.