Sports Streaming for All: Mike Kohler, CCO for HomeTeam Network - Sports Business Conversations

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Sports Streaming for All: Mike Kohler, CCO for HomeTeam Network

Episode 106 • 18th August 2026 • Sports Business Conversations • ADC Partners

00:00

Dave Almy

Mike Kohler. We got to start with the move to home team network. Right. Because you spent a lot of time on the multimedia rights side. Right. Decades at learfield at their NCAA business. And then before that you were at ISP Sports and IMG College where we first met. So you're on the media side now with Home Team network. So I just want to hear from you. Tell me about the transition. When you go from someplace in a world where you inhabit for so long, what did you see in the streaming world that made you think, this is the new opportunity like. And what was that transition like?

00:35

Mike Kohler

Yeah, I, I think, look, everyone kind of welcomes an off ramp for what you're doing. In hindsight, I probably should have done it sooner now that I know what I know.

00:49

Dave Almy

So everything becomes clearer when you have the background behind you.

00:53

Mike Kohler

You know, it. The journey with home team, it's interesting. It started almost four years ago. Casual breakfast indianapolis with some friends who was an investor, two co founders of the company, and the guy who's now the CEO said, hey, can we take you to breakfast, pick your brain about media rights? And I said, sure. And so we had a great conversation.

01:15

Dave Almy

Did you think something was going to come of it or was just kind of like, this is informational, whatever.

01:19

Mike Kohler

Yeah, just informational. And then I think probably two years before I exited learfield, I was ready for a new challenge and had a conversation and a friend said, hey, what about home team? And I said, hey, I'm, you know, I'm looking to take a risk. I'm looking for some ownership, some of those things. And it checked the box and I probably had 35 to 40 individual meetings with the CEO before I came on board. So a lot of pre game, they vetted me hard. I vetted them pretty hard.

01:54

Dave Almy

Do you feel like that was balanced? Like, do you feel like that was like sort of. Was there a point where you thought, oh, I really kind of want this now and want to get through this?

02:02

Mike Kohler

You know, you don't know what you don't know, Dave. I mean, when you.

02:05

Dave Almy

That's a long list for me, caller. Yeah.

02:07

Mike Kohler

When you spend 27 years kind of in the same space. Yeah, right. And you have the, this idea of jumping out of that. And after, you know, extensive conversations, obviously, I realized I could really make a huge impact. Obviously. It was right about that time where it was announced that streaming overtook linear viewership rights, which I thought was an interesting kind of apex. With everything shaken out and then just the more I dug in, I mean, honestly, the more I was excited about it and the more I knew I could jump in and grow this thing. And that's exactly kind of what's happened.

02:42

Dave Almy

All right, so for people who are not clear about or have not yet heard about home team network, let's do the 101. So like, what the hell are you a B2B production platform, streaming app rights holder? You know, where do you fit in this ecosystem?

02:59

Mike Kohler

So single platform for live sports.

03:02

Dave Almy

Okay. You know the nice elevator pitch right there, Kohler.

03:05

Mike Kohler

Yeah. The problem that we are solving is, hey, a 10 to 15, $50,000 production truck isn't for everyone, especially the sports that really need that level of production. Right. So we are first and foremost a streaming platform with full, we're a full slate. So when you think about distribution, we have, we're on Roku, we're on Firestick, we're on Apple tv, we're on Google Play. Easy to find, easy to find. And then obviously we're developing processes to automate production via AI tools. So you got a streaming platform, you got production, you got scoring, you got stats, you got AI highlights, and you got post production distribution all one platform. And we're serving all sides of the market, from premium sports properties to youth,.

03:57

Dave Almy

All across the board.

03:58

Mike Kohler

All across the board on the same platform.

04:00

Dave Almy

So you talk about like making this. I think you and I have had discussions about this previously. Like, you know, this is about trying to take something that can be very complex and try to make it as, you know, to overuse the phrase turnkey as possible for non high level media rights driven professional sports. Like we're talking about multiple cameras per stadium. Like you talk AI switching live graphics. Excuse me, so what does that look like on your end? Is there still the need for people on the Saturday night to have 30 games going on at a given time or how is it fully automated now?

04:38

Mike Kohler

No, we definitely have people, but they're remote. Okay, so everything's remote, production, remotely operated. I think that's really where the value proposition is for the leagues and the entities. And it kind of blows people's mind the fact that you can produce a broadcast and we actually have a term for it's called broadcast in a box. And you know, the ability to produce a high quality broadcast without having a single employee on site obviously is a little bit of a disruptor in the space, but. But based on the type of clients that we are attracting and kind of reeling in, it's definitely proof of concept.

05:13

Dave Almy

Well, it's also really interesting because you look at everything that a lot of the organization, we'll talk about some of the teams and organizations and leagues that you're doing. But like a lot of it has been high school sports and sort of that amateur level athletics. Right. You who get involved with these kinds of sports and organize them and things like that. Media capability is not high on their list of capability and skill set. Right. It's something they know because they want to be able to broaden the appeal of their sport and broaden the reach of it. But you know, you can. This can apply to anything, right? This can apply to finance, it can all apply to marketing, communications. Broadcast is one of those big things. So that idea of broadcast in a box when you can talk to people, what's their response?

05:51

Dave Almy

When you can demystify when a potential client sees it demystified like that,.

05:59

Mike Kohler

Man, they are pumped. I guess that's the best way to describe it is the fact that we have the ability to take that off their plate. And that's a lot of it, to be honest with you, is obviously teams and leagues and federations are dedicating resources to producing this. And the fact that you can say, hey, maybe that person can create short, long form content for you or storytelling. Let us take the broadcast off your plate and make it turnkey. So it really, you know, it's a resource. Play a lot of it. Right. It's an easy thing to do. We're getting really good at it. We're not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but the technology is just advancing so quickly from week to week. It's just creating a great viewing experience.

06:43

Dave Almy

I mean that is kind of amazing. You say week to week and that is kind of the cadence now with the tools that are now available. What's coming down the pipeline as you think about your customers and how they use the technology to increase broadcast capabilities and things like, as you look down your development pipeline, what are the things that get you excited to be able to share with people in the next few months? Because you're going to break it all here.

07:07

Mike Kohler

Yeah, it's really that Apple application layer of, you know, the video, right. It's, it's. What do you do with it? Well, okay, let's generate highlights, right? Which, which we have a product that we recently launched that we're working with a lot of our minor league baseball teams on that can clip live highlights immediately. And that goes to Their social media manager, they can get out right away. We have a coaching insight tool that we'll be rolling out here shortly. That, that obviously is a film breakdown that plays with some other competitors as well. So the product pipeline is pretty robust moving forward and we're continuing to see just this demand for it is probably the best way to describe it.

07:54

Dave Almy

Well, it also has come from very fan facing to begin with. Right. I mean this is a great opportunity for people who to be able to see the sports that they care about that might not receive the kind of attention. But now you're talking about opening up new verticals with like coaching platform. This is getting out of the fans hands per se, but taking what I'm assuming are millions of data points on a weekly basis to now put those in coaches hands.

08:17

Mike Kohler

Yes, absolutely. I mean a lot of this originates from me being a parent of a student athlete and just remembering kind of what that was like. You know, there would be a drive home from Atlanta to back to Indianapolis and see my daughter clipping highlights, you know, on a phone that would take three or four hours. And then obviously she would put that on social media and hope and pray that some coach would come back and send her a message saying hey, we want to bring you in for a visit. So I always kind of remember what it felt like to kind of be a parent in that chair. And then as you obviously engage with coaches, knowing coaches are busy with their time, so if you can develop a tool that helps them resource their time better, you're in a much favorable position.

09:04

Dave Almy

Do you think that time as a parent gives you an again to have followed your daughter who's now playing softball at Emory?

09:10

Mike Kohler

Right. Yes.

09:12

Dave Almy

Who to have that perspective like you have sort of lived that world or is it, or is that dangerous to have that sort of focus group of one?

09:21

Mike Kohler

No, because I think, look, you know, the interesting thing is the camaraderie. I mean, I think you were a dad of a student athlete too, right? I mean there's a certain camaraderie there that we all have and we remember the rigors and the challenges of trying to be recruited. And it doesn't matter if it's division one, division two, division three. Right. Not only the amount of money that you invest in that, but the amount of time traveling, being in a car. So it's always helpful for me because I think I can remember of, you know, the panic sometimes where like, well, we need to stream the game.

09:56

Dave Almy

Yeah.

09:56

Mike Kohler

How are we going to stream the game. You're going to give up your phone to do that. So I always kind of keep that perspective. It helps me kind of arc articulate the value proposition as we talk to clients.

10:08

Dave Almy

Yep. So. So in the last few months, this has been a particularly successful period of time for home team network. Right. Because there's a lot of deals that have come down the pipeline. A lot of baseball, Frontier League, Atlantic League, Prospect League, Legacy League. Right. That's a pretty intentional pattern. So. So what is it about those leagues and sports that are so compelling? And why was this the right time now for home team to start partnering with those?

10:39

Mike Kohler

e fact last year we did about: 1300

11:12

Dave Almy

But it's a. I'm not an economics guy, but that's positive growth. Mike Kohler.

11:16

Mike Kohler

Yes. And it's a great training ground to train our AI models, to be very honest with you. So we're excited. Baseball is a great story for us. And obviously we've added some college properties, Butler University baseball and softball and women's lacrosse are on our network as well. And we have some other big announcements coming in the coming months, which you're.

11:37

Dave Almy

Going to make right now. So go ahead. No, just go ahead. I know, I know you're busting at the scenes, Kohler.

11:43

Mike Kohler

I would love to, but the clients, you know, you got to let the clients do that.

11:48

Dave Almy

okay, Minor League Baseball,: 4500

12:36

Dave Almy

There's so many sports leagues and new sports are coming online at any given moment. So sort of the direction, like, how do you move vertically through that pyramid and also horizontally with all the new things coming online? That's an easy question right there.

12:50

Mike Kohler

Yeah, I think about the context of that related to flag football a little bit, to be honest with you. Right. Flag football, we do a ton of grassroots. We have a great relationship with USA Football, which is obviously behind, you know, the. The flag football and the Olympics. So we're doing all their sports. Obviously, we've. We've added some other partnerships. Oakley Icon alliance has been a broadcast partner of the Fiesta Bowl, Fiesta Sports foundation, rather. We just recently did their college flag event. So you're seeing flag football kind of in the same way, right. It was very much a grassroots game. Now you're seeing Division 1 schools add. You're seeing bow games trying to create events. You're seeing, you know, consumer brands digging in. In that space. So I like. Yeah. And demand.

13:36

Mike Kohler

And I like the fact that we can go up and actually we can go down and go broader. And I think we've, you know, we've had some casual conversations with. With the NCAA about kind of what they're going to do with flag football in the future. So we feel like we're kind of on that rocket ship a little bit, and we got on at the right time. The other, you know, as you talk about other competitors, you know, at the highest level, you know, we're distributing content to them already. Right. I mean, we're sending games to linear outlets. We're sending games to ESPN already. So I just continue to see more of that in the future.

14:14

Dave Almy

Now, your learfield background and your multimedia rights background, that's all college property rights, right. And, you know, athletic departments and conferences and rights holders, their relationship with media. So now you're the one calling on the league commissioners, right? You're on that. Not outside, not that Learfield's inside, but you know what I mean? There's a little bit of a difference between this. How different is the sell for you in how it was in multimedia rights to where you find yourself in media now?

14:45

Mike Kohler

It's easier. It's much easier.

14:48

Dave Almy

You think about it a little bit or.

14:50

Mike Kohler

Yeah, no, but I do. And I think part of it is, you know, I. Again, the. The context of being in college athletics for 27 years, right. Is everyone is coming to athletic directors right now. I'll use that as an example with some kind of new revenue generation tool.

15:08

Dave Almy

They know where the pressures are.

15:10

Mike Kohler

Very few people are coming to athletic directors with an expense reducing solution. Right. So first and foremost, that's why I think, at least on that side, that's been very well received, you know, and again, you know, this with revenue sharing, someone's got to pay the piper with that. And so that I think we filled a nice void with some of these Olympic sports which were we're happy to work with. Obviously those are the sports that kind of, we feel like deserve a higher level of production. So we've been able to kind of fill in the void. They're nice. I think the other thing too with other professional leagues is, you know, the learfield model of paying, you know, back in the day guaranteed rights fees.

15:54

Dave Almy

And you're always making those quaint old days.

15:58

Mike Kohler

And if you know anything about my background, Dave, I worked at some challenging institutions that were maybe not right sized from a media rights standpoint, but it was.

16:09

Dave Almy

Some of those old deals were pretty amazing.

16:10

Mike Kohler

Yes, yes. But I think what you're finding on the guaranteed right side is just because of a media company is going to pay a rights fee, that doesn't mean that the institution is going to invest in production. Right. And so I think what we're finding is we're able to kind of out, not outbid, but we're able to beat some competition because of our technology slate, to be honest with you, I'm interested in.

16:33

Dave Almy

So let's talk about competition for a while because there's a lot out there that's going on, not just the competitors in your adjacent spaces, but I mean there's a lot of demand and trying to get people's eyeballs on their products. So what do you worry about in terms of competitions? Or is it like the NFHS networks kind of stuff? Is it the ESPN pluses? Where is your attention as far as competitors go and how does it influence your decision making on the commercial capacity?

17:10

Mike Kohler

At least, at least so far what I would say is I haven't really found, apples to apples, a true competitor. Now we compete in certain segments, sure, no doubt with certain products. But we've kind of built this thing to be a full, you know, slate solution, soup to nuts for whether it's the flag football team and in Oakland or whether it's a professional soccer team overseas like that. That's the way this thing is wired. I think from a futuristic standpoint. I mean, I think our technology is something that could be licensed for rights holders kind of in the future because we are so much more efficient with how we do things. I mean, we're cloud based right there. Allows us to be much more nimble with what we do.

17:59

Dave Almy

Yeah. Legacy media is going to be keeping an eye on that one. Let's talk about scale for a second. And I want to talk about, particularly in terms of partnerships and in advertisers because Spire, let's use this example, Spire Academy in Ohio, they just announced one of the largest corporate partnerships deals in the history of high school sports. $6 Million for uniform patches and I think some naming of a performance facility when you see that and the numbers associated. And knowing that you've got deep roots in high school sports for home team network, how does that change the calculus for you in looking at home team network, knowing that brands and businesses are now like playing at that level with amateur sports?

18:45

Mike Kohler

Yeah. Hopefully that the guy that, the person that sold that got a nice sales commission on that because that's a nice, that's a pretty sweet chunk of change. I equate it, like when you think about ROI on that $6 million, right. It's. We find there to be. Everyone wants the championship game, right? Everyone wants to broadcast the championship game. But what about everything in the regular season? What about everything else? And I think that's kind of where I think we've actually filled the void first and foremost. But, but that's really important to, you know, the company that invested in that jersey patch. Right. I mean, they need to get eyeballs across the entire season, not just the championship game.

19:28

Mike Kohler

We all know there's, you know, what the CFP ratings are, the final four ratings are, but oftentimes, you know, the who broadcasting, the women's nit, right. What kind of eyeballs are those getting, for example? So I think we feel uniquely positioned with an ROI like that we can just provide more eyeballs and more importantly, we can be a distribution partner as well, if there's an opportunity to do so.

19:55

Dave Almy

So I'm wondering, like, if you could think about again, your previous history in multimedia rights. What's carried over the most for you in this new role? Like what has been the. Well that you go back to and what have you. The partner to that is, what have you had to unlearn?

20:12

Mike Kohler

I think relationships still matter. I mean, it's interesting. I spoke at a Atlanta business symposium a couple months ago at Emory. And you know, my preaching to the students that were in the audience was, you know, take the time to get in front of people face to face, person to person, to build those relationships, because those are key. I mean, look, I'm. I'm in my mid-50s, right?

20:39

Dave Almy

You don't look day over.

20:40

Mike Kohler

I know I used to have. I used to have hair. But, you know, I want to be an athletic director, right. I mean, I got in the space, you know, at 26, and now I have a lot of friends that are ads, right? And we all kind of started together, so.

20:56

Dave Almy

And you wouldn't trade your current job for any of theirs for all the tea in China?

21:00

Mike Kohler

No, but I've been able to just, you know, pick up the phone and say, hey, here's what I'm doing. And, you know, it's been a very easy way to reconnect with people. I think that my biggest piece of advice that I think I learned was obviously there was a huge tendency to overpay for rights when I first started. And frankly, my advice to our board was like. And our CEO was like, hey, let's not play in that space. Let's differentiate ourselves based on the technology suite that we have. And so far that is proven out. And look, we have competition and we lose deals because we're. We're just not in that position.

21:40

Mike Kohler

We're going to write a big check for a league, necessarily, but we feel like we can out tech our competitor, and ultimately the league's going to end up unhappy and they're going to come back to us and say, how can we work with you?

21:53

Dave Almy

It's such an interesting balance, right? Because you spend the money to get the attractive league that you believe is going to help you grow your business. But now your money that you would have used to develop a better product is now tied up with that league. That's. It's a finite resource that you have to deal with and being able to balance that. And, you know, you and I have both been involved in multimedia rights in the past, and we've seen those deals and the millstone that some of them can become around your neck. So, like, that ability to have the courage to say no to opportunities helps you stay nimble, helps you be able to develop the product.

22:31

Mike Kohler

And what I had to, I guess, unlearn a little bit is, you know, we're a startup, right? So you have to be smart about how you deploy your resources. And, you know, the. The area that I applaud us. I mean, we invest a lot of resources in AI engineering and AI developers, and they're the ones that are bringing the pod to the Market and again, week to week. Right? Week to week. The advancements are astonishing and it's so cool to see and just, you know, I'm the guy out there kind of telling the story for the company a lot of times, but it's money well spent.

23:10

Dave Almy

I don't think it's just such a overtrodden expression to say, oh, AI is changing everything. But I mean, it's fundamental. I had John Stewart from Fast Break AI. They do all the league scheduling via AI. They took a process that was months long and turned into a few hours. He sold his original business to Oracle, no, excuse me, to Salesforce before the pandemic. And he said he had about 150 engineers working on any given time. The current product that he has is being built with AI. He's got seven engineers working on it and he's doing scheduling for 50 of the major professional sports leagues across the country. So that's one look at it. But those kinds of changes are manifest everywhere, particularly for startup companies like home team network. You're watching it happen in real time.

24:00

Mike Kohler

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's like I said, week to week, the advancements are crazy, but.

24:08

Dave Almy

It does give you that ability to have an idea and say, maybe going back to the long drives in the car, but wouldn't it be great if. And then have those deployed in such a short span of time? It does create it very nimble. But from your standpoint as a commercial officer, it does create unique challenges if you're continuing to roll out new capabilities. So how do you stay on top of that and how do you communicate that most importantly to your existing partners so that they know that these are out there?

24:37

Mike Kohler

Yeah, obviously, you know, streaming has kind of been the tip of the spear in production. I mean, that's really how we at least right now kind of approach the business as the new products kind of roll off the shelf. Obviously you build trust because people are happy with your product and again, goes back to that relationship. Right. I mean, I can remember you and Andy doing training, you know, talking about conceptual selling. Right. And obviously this is a little bit of that, like, hey, what if I can do this for you? What if I had a product that could save your sids, you know, so much time to do that. Right. So you think about that kind of stuff. I mean, a lot of it, you know, obviously my sales roots originated with ISP and with IMG and with learfield and they were great.

25:26

Mike Kohler

And they were great. And that's been super Helpful here with home team.

25:30

Dave Almy

o quickly. Think about spring: 2028

26:12

Mike Kohler

to change an industry. So in: 2028

27:06

Mike Kohler

I mean, that's really what I'm kind of paying attention to.

27:09

Dave Almy

I'm with Mike Kohler. He's the chief commercial officer for home team network. Mike, I want to say thanks for spending the time, but before I let you go, I have to put you in the light. It's just something that we have to do before we wrap things up. Series of questions. First thing that comes to your mind. Michael, are you ready?

27:23

Mike Kohler

I'm ready.

27:24

Dave Almy

All right, well, we'll see. Like we've talked about, your daughter played travel softball, spent a lot of time traveling with her. Best short story of a road trip that went awry. This is why it's called the lightning round, Mike. It's not called the gentle waves lapping against the shore round.

27:44

Mike Kohler

Well, I can remember there's a big softball tournament in Colorado called the Sparkler. Right. There's roughly about a thousand teams that go out there. Oh, my God. Yeah, we, we had a nice little run. We, were nine and one for the weekend. I think our last game ended at 12, but our flight out of Denver wasn't until 10. So dad me thought it was a good idea to. Hey, let's go to the airport early. And so I dropped off the rental car and I realized you can't check in your luggage for four hours before your flight. We were there six hours before, so it's not the most exciting thing, but it's the one my wife and daughter give me the most crap.

28:26

Dave Almy

That is such a dad thing.

28:27

Mike Kohler

We'll get to the airport. Six hours. It was such a dad move.

28:31

Dave Almy

Don't worry, we'll find a steak restaurant.

28:34

Mike Kohler

Such my personality too. So, yeah, that's, that was, that was not one of my finest moments.

28:38

Dave Almy

Wait a minute. Make sure everybody's shoes are tied before we get out of the car. I don't want anybody stumbling. No, I, I, I, I, I can talk about it because I've lived it. All right. You and I once skied sublaps at Powder Mountain together. Where are we going next?

28:53

Mike Kohler

Well, I was going to say Switzerland, but someone beat me to it.

28:58

Dave Almy

There was no Switzerland involved in my travels. I was next door. I was next door in Austria.

29:03

Mike Kohler

Okay, okay, so Switzerland. Austria for me is kind of like on the list. I just, after, you know, obviously kind of not having a great experience with the lack of snow in general this year. I just need to go someplace next year with some snow.

29:17

Dave Almy

All right, so you and I are going to have an entirely different separate podcast conversation about skiing in Europe. That's going to happen. All right.

29:25

Mike Kohler

Yeah.

29:25

Dave Almy

You are a Southern California native, but you've transplanted to the Midwest. What's the biggest adjustment?

29:34

Mike Kohler

I think just in general, people are super friendly. I know that's a stereotype, but Midwest living is, is a real thing. Not saying that California people are rude. Shut up, Mike.

29:47

Dave Almy

Anyway, moving on. Okay, so you are also a longtime soccer player and aficionado. Now we're recording this mid late May, who's going to win the World Cup.

30:04

Mike Kohler

It's really tough to root against Spain. I just think, I'm not telling, I'm.

30:08

Dave Almy

Not telling you to root against them.

30:10

Mike Kohler

They're stacked. I think Jamal obviously is a ringer and then some, but they just, they play a style of, you know, 80 to 90% possession per game. They're really tough to beat.

30:22

Dave Almy

Well, we're going to play this back for you after the cup is done. We'll see how you did. Last and certainly not least, give a shout out to a friend or mentor who's influenced you along the way. Who would you like to. Who would you like to notice?

30:34

Mike Kohler

I would probably, you know, our mutual friend, Solly Fulp, continues to be just obviously great friend. We're going to Alaska fishing again this summer. It's our second time. But he continues to be just a great friend and great advocate for what I do. And I enjoy spending time with him.

30:52

Dave Almy

It's amazing how many times his name comes up. The great Solly Fulp, Mike Kohler. Thanks for the time. I appreciate it, Dave.