Neville rivals Lineker media empire after The Overlap buys out YouTuber Goldbridge
Gary Neville is continuing to follow fellow former footballer Gary Lineker’s media empire-building after his network, The Overlap, acquired Manchester United YouTuber Mark Goldbridge’s fan channels.
The deal, reported to be worth seven figures, sees ex-United and England defender turned pundit Neville join forces with Goldbridge, a 47-year-old former police officer who has become the biggest independent creator of online content about the Old Trafford Club.
Goldbridge – real name Brent Di Cesare – boasts a combined audience of 3.7m across his two YouTube channels, The United Stand and That’s Football, which this season picked up rights to show some live games from Germany’s top division, the Bundesliga.
It follows media giant Global’s majority takeover of The Overlap earlier this year, a move which saw Neville, 51, remain as co-chair and executive director of the company with a remit to identify acquisition targets.
“We are building what we believe will become one of the most exciting independent football communities in the world – one that gives fans direct, personality-led content,” said Neville.
“The United Stand and That’s Football are two of the best-known football channels on YouTube, and our intention is to develop them into the most compelling Manchester United and football news channels in the market.”
The Overlap and Goalhanger stables compared
The Overlap has mushroomed from a single YouTube channel into a network of sports shows headed by the flagship Stick To Football, which Neville presents with regular guests Jamie Carragher, Roy Keane, Ian Wright and Jill Scott.
It also includes The Overlap Interviews, featuring longer chats with personalities from sport, business and politics, and the Stick To Cricket and Stick To Rugby spin-offs. Together the shows generated 2.2bn views last year, or 38m per month.
Former England, Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona striker Lineker’s own media empire, Goalhanger, is home to popular podcasts including The Rest Is Football, The Rest Is Politics and The Rest Is History.
It has also acquired cult titles such as Football Cliches and last year sold a minority stake to The Chernin Group. Its stable of shows generated an estimated 500m downloads or listens last year.
Lineker, 65, is now focusing solely on his Goalhanger business following the end of his decades-long stint as presenter of the BBC Match of the Day and has agreed a deal with Netflix to present Stick To Football on the streaming giant during this summer’s World Cup.