Travis and Jason Kelce, brothers and National Football League stars, have signed a three-year deal with Amazon.com Inc.’s Wondery for their podcast New Heights.
The arrangement, which goes into effect this month, allows Wondery to sell ads on the show’s video and audio feeds and distribute it globally. It includes the program’s back catalog.
“We love this show, and the fanbase that has grown with us over the last two seasons,” the Kelce brothers said in a statement. “We are going to create some groundbreaking moments together through this partnership.”
The deal is worth over $100 million, according to a person familiar with the arrangement who wasn’t authorized to speak about it publicly. A representative for the Kelce brothers didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ad-free versions of the show will be made available on Wondery+, Amazon’s subscription service. The deal gives Amazon the rights to develop, manufacture, license, and distribute all merchandise based on the program.
New Heights launched in 2022 as an outlet for the brothers to analyze football and the culture surrounding the sport. Listenership took off after Travis began dating singer Taylor Swift the following year. It was the 14th most popular podcast in the US last quarter, according to Edison Research.
Swift’s first appearance to see Travis at a Kansas City Chiefs game led to a 50% increase in viewership for the show. One month later, the brothers’ YouTube channel had grown by 350,000 subscribers, Mack Sovereign, chief content officer at Wave Sports + Entertainment, the media company that launched the show and will continue producing it, told Bloomberg News last year. Jason Kelce announced his retirement from the Philadelphia Eagles in March.
Though the podcast industry as a whole has seen a retrenchment over the past year and a half, nine-figure deals still are the norm for the biggest programs. Last week, SiriusXM Holdings Inc. signed a $100 million deal with Alex Cooper, host of Call Her Daddy. In January, the company inked a similarly sized agreement for SmartLess, and Spotify Technology SA renewed its deal with Joe Rogan in February.
