The SpringHill Company, founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, and Fulwell 73 — founded by Ben Winston, James Corden, Leo Pearlman, Ben Turner and Gabe Turner — have officially inked a deal to merge their companies, creating a powerhouse player in unscripted, live and branded entertainment content.
But the production megadeal was a year in the making, after being first broached in the parking lot of Los Angeles Italian spot Antico Nuovo.
The meeting “had nothing to do with TV or entertainment,” Carter recalls, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter ahead of Monday’s official announcement.
“Literally nothing to do with TV and entertainment,” Winston added. “We were meeting about a sports thing that we were maybe getting involved in. And in the parking lot, as we were getting into our cars, we started talking about the future of entertainment and where SpringHill was and where Fulwell was. And here we are, a year later.”
The deal will see SpringHill — which has a robust branded content business, and is behind programming like The Playbook for Netflix and The Crossover for Disney+, as well as films like Space Jam: A New Legacy — partner with Fulwell, which produces the Grammy Awards, concert specials from the likes of Adele and Elton John, as well as The Kardashians for Hulu and the ESPN docuseries Clutch: The NBA Playoffs.
Backers of the companies include Fenway Sports Group, RedBird Capital Partners, UC Investments, Nike, Epic Games, Main Street Advisors and Eldridge Industries. Existing investors will pour $40 million into the combined venture to power “growth initiatives.”
SpringHill last raised cash in 2021 at a $725 million valuation; the combined valuation of the companies is not clear. The merger is expected to close in Q4 of this year. THR had previously reported that the companies were in talks to merge.
Winston says that all seven principals will remain with the company (yes, that includes James and Corden, who have high-profile jobs outside the production ventures) and are “going to work incredibly hard on day one to make this a huge success.”
Carter and Pearlman will serve as co-CEOs of the combined company, which does not yet have a name.
“We believe we will be the best in live and one of the best in unscripted, focusing on sports and formats and others,” Carter says. “And though both of us have done a little bit in scripted TV and film — and we will continue to do that — we really believe coming together, we can be the biggest and the best in those two categories while still building the others.”
“I think in this industry right now, if we stand still, we’ll be left behind,” says Winston. “And I think what SpringHill has done incredibly well is they have such an impact in the commercial sector, in the branding sector, they have channels that talk direct to consumers, and so there is just enough overlap between our businesses, but yet at the same time, we do different things. So when we come together, we have scale on day one, we immediately become, I think, the leader in unscripted entertainment, from live, docs, formats, music, entertainment, sports, and we add a huge branded entertainment, direct-to-consumer, commercial side, brand consultancy firm. That means we can really make an impact.”
Sports and live event-style programming are two big pieces of that puzzle. Both companies are in each space, with both docuseries and live shows. And both areas are poised for growth as streamers and TV networks look to pair their increasingly expensive sports rights with companion programming, and seek to develop live, must-see programming for viewers and subscribers.
“Sports is a space that’s going to continue to grow and maybe have even more of an impact, because consumers and viewers can’t get enough of it, how it’s delivered, where it’s delivered, both live and unscripted, and the content around it is going to keep changing and adapting,” Carter says. “As we come together, it’s going to play a major part. If you look at the NBA, there’s two shows on the air right now that are about the NBA [Starting 5 and Clutch], both [are from] our companies, so we’re actually heavily into sports, and now we can go even further into it, and with our brand Uninterrupted, will be able to do it directly through talent, but also on the entertainment side, in and around live and unscripted productions.”
The same approach would come to live programming.
“I think whatever content you make, you want it to make a noise and you want it to resonate within culture,” Winston said, noting Fulwell’s work on the Olympics closing ceremonies, which teed up Los Angeles 2028. “The Grammys, that we produce, has gone up 30 percent year-on-year in its ratings. But actually, you can’t just look at the ratings of the show on CBS. You also have to look at the billion-and-a-half impressions that we got that night and where those views are coming from. And so I think it’s not just about it being live. It’s not just about doing well in the live space. It’s also crucially about where audiences are and meeting them where they are, and not expecting them just to come to one platform.”
The executives say that combining their firms will build a “true scale company that really sits at the top of the funnel in these categories,” Carter says, one that can be a player on both TV screens and phones. And they add that they have spent months figuring out the right corporate structure for a combined entity to best take advantage of that scale.
The deal “means that we have a real chance now to own IP, to be involved with where this content is consumed,” Winston says. “There’s no question that we’re looking at where the industry is today and creating a global entity with scale on day one that can have an impact in the market. There is huge ambition in the plans that we have, and they have been shaped by the way we think the industry is today.”