RDA seeks to meet content demand with Whacked Out Sports deal

UK-based media-rights agency RDA has secured exclusive global distribution rights to Whacked Out Sports, said to be the world’s largest independently-owned sports clips catalogue, amid the lack of live sports action due to Covid-19.

The deal excludes Whacked Out Sports’ home market of the US. The programme library was amassed by sports television producer Mark O’Brien’s Mighty Oak Entertainment and features over 10,000 clips with music licensed in perpetuity. It is available for all areas of distribution.

In October, former MGM Television president John Bryan and entrepreneur and KDOC–TV (Los Angeles) owner Bert Ellis, Jr. purchased 50 per cent of Mighty Oak Entertainment from O’Brien.

Bryan and Ellis joined the company as president and chairman, respectively. Mighty Oak Entertainment was founded in 2005 by O’Brien. Its major hit, Whacked Out Sports, is the second-longest running clip series in US broadcast history next to America’s Funniest Home Videos.

Commenting on the RDA deal, Bryan said: “Sports is a global and universal vertical of entertainment and we’re delighted to work with RDA to bring this catalogue to broadcasters and media throughout the world. To have an evergreen library, free of rights issues is a powerful position to be in, since demand for this content is increasing in the worldwide marketplace.”