Why the best sports docs aren’t really about sport

“What is the Future for Sport Documentary?” is a regular panel question, with talk of a tough market squeezed by CoVid, advertiser downturn, a lack of commissioning and streamer consolidation.

Sports documentary has become a highly competitive space which now sees the best film-makers and biggest celebrities regularly involved.

With tighter budgets and margins, how does a relatively small, film-maker led, independent production company not only plan to survive, but set up to thrive?

We set up Noah Media Group eight years ago, going from a Cannes Premiere for our first film, Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans, to a Netflix global hit in 2019 with 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible and last year being named Production Company of the Year at the Broadcast Sport Awards.

So far in 2024 we have been BAFTA nominated for our Hatton film and have our first company Emmy nomination.  

Yet the commercial landscape is not what it was.

We find ourselves in a period of change, facing tough decisions on how to set ourselves up for the future.

The very top independent production companies are becoming as much brands as they are content producers. And so, we’ve decided to clearly identify and double down on our core principles to stand out in this space and move with the changing market.

14 Peaks is an extraordinary story pushing human limits. Our films Finding Jack Charlton, Ricky Hatton and Bobby Robson: More than a Manager are about extraordinary people with stories beyond their sport.

These two pillars are at the core of our business – extraordinary people and extraordinary stories – so we have focused our development team to find and bring the most extraordinary human stories to the market.

We want to be known as the place to go for stories that lift the spirit and illustrate the power of self-belief, wrapped around incredible human endeavour.

The best sports documentaries aren’t really about sport. Sport is merely the arena.  The human interest is the driving force that allows stories to truly transcend.

Our team has a slate of incredible, inspirational films that will be landing in the next year.

Using our own technology to help discover and assess the opportunity of each project, we are building a slate of global stories that focus on the human psyche and its need to push the boundaries of what’s possible.

We believe most companies will be assessing and adapting to give themselves the very best chance of success in this challenging period.

Our strategy has been to assess what ‘sport documentary’ really means at this point in time. It is a genre that features many types of documentary by many inspiring companies.

We intend to focus on truly Extraordinary Stories, something we believe that we can uniquely deliver.

 John McKenna is CEO of Noah Media Group