Team Whistle, a global media company that includes Whistle, New Form and Vertical Networks, has acquired Tiny Horse, a premiere marketing services firm focused on helping streamers, networks, producers and advertisers create and engage fans. Tiny Horse's key clients include Amazon, AT&T/WarnerMedia, Disney, FOX, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Pepsi, P&G, ViacomCBS and Walmart. The company's OTT advertising sales group, Palomino, will also become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Team Whistle.
The deal greatly expands Team Whistle's capabilities to provide a unique suite of solutions to its brand, distributor and league partners at a time when the company is experiencing unprecedented growth, viewership and engagement. Since early March, Team Whistle's weekly network viewership is up over 50%, generating 4.2 billion global video views per month. Watch time has also increased by 25% during this period.
"With the pace of media transformation happening at an accelerated rate throughout COVID-19, acquiring Tiny Horse further positions us to lead through this time of tremendous change by combining our premium IP and massive activatable audiences with superior marketing and customer acquisition capabilities," said Michael Cohen, president of Team Whistle. "Through organic growth and the Tiny Horse acquisition, Team Whistle is on track to more than double revenue in 2020."
Team Whistle has built and grown its portfolio of positive and relatable content for young audiences with programming spanning sports, entertainment and gaming distributed across social, audio and OTT channels. With the acquisitions of New Form and Vertical Networks in 2019, Team Whistle bolstered its portfolio of IP, studio and interactive capabilities, including the addition of men's lifestyle channel Brother. As a result, premium shows were delivered featuring Dwayne Wade, Steph Curry, Dude Perfect, FaZe Clan, Nina Garcia, Emily Mortimer, Don Cheadle, Catherine Hardwicke and more.
Tiny Horse's management and current investors – including Elizabeth Koch, award-winning publisher, producer, and founder of Unlikely Collaborators – will become Team Whistle shareholders alongside NBC/Sky Sports, Discovery, ITV, Liberty Global, Snap, WndrCo, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Elizabeth Murdoch and CAA. Since launching in 2014, Team Whistle has raised over $100 million.
"We have a long history of working with Team Whistle on numerous fronts," said Kyle Young, managing partner and co-founder of Tiny Horse. "We're excited about the larger opportunities for our combined sales, marketing and production teams to not only deepen the relationship between Team Whistle's global audience and existing IP, but also offer this expertise and network to help streamers, brands and talent do the same."
Kyle Young will become president of Tiny Horse and an EVP at Team Whistle, reporting to Michael Cohen. Fellow Tiny Horse co-founders Melanie Capacia Johnson and Owen Leimbach will continue as head of development & production and head of strategy & innovation, respectively, reporting to Young. Benjamin Simon, general manager and co-founder of Palomino, will continue to serve as head of sales and brand partnerships of Palomino, also reporting to Young. Tiny Horse co-founder Jonathan Reynaga is departing the company to pursue independent projects.
"Connecting premium entertainment channels to hard-to-reach Gen Z and Millennial media consumers is our specialty," said Owen Leimbach, co-founder of Tiny Horse. "With Team Whistle we will be able to target the two largest areas of streaming media spend, content and marketing."
“As the media sales arm of Tiny Horse, Palomino Media Group is thrilled to join Team Whistle,” said Ben Simon, general manager and head of sales. “Team Whistle’s impressive roster of sports and entertainment assets is a tremendous opportunity for advertisers to reach modern audiences in a brand-safe way at unprecedented scale. We look forward to introducing our brand and agency partners to the many new, targeted advertising opportunities created by joining Team Whistle.”
"We're excited to welcome aboard such a talented group of people who share our vision and have a similarly driven, collaborative and inclusive culture," said John West, Team Whistle's founder and CEO. "I'm excited to market our combined capabilities."
About Team Whistle
Team Whistle – comprising Whistle, New Form and Vertical Networks – is a global media company that's changing the sports and entertainment game. We create and distribute engaging content experiences for today's audiences, always playing in the positive and resonating with what's relatable. Our premium scripted, unscripted and interactive shows, podcasts, music and merchandise are available on the social, audio and streaming platforms that matter most. For brands, sports leagues and media companies, we help them activate and engage consumers across the content ecosystem. To learn more, visit https://teamwhistle.com/.
About Tiny Horse
Tiny Horse is an award-winning marketing and entertainment company that creates, amplifies and distributes highly engaging programming and audiences across streaming, linear and social channels. With a grounding in traditional editorial, production, marketing and sales, they tell stories coordinated in a mosaic across many platforms to engage audiences whenever and wherever they may find themselves viewing and engaging with stories. For more information visit https://tinyhorse.com/.
