Sports leagues once regularly went after fans who posted highlights (or lowlights) online without special permission. Now, brands beyond sports are paying amateur editors by the view to upload slices of longer-form videos on individual accounts.
Welcome to "the clipping economy."
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As user-generated content platforms soak up more watch time, entertainers are turning to armies of so-called clippers to convert shows, songs and interviews into bite-sized videos. Media companies, meanwhile, have adjusted to satiate short-form cravings too. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video recently launched vertical video feeds within their apps to spotlight their own clips. The New York Times ' watch tab offers a similar experience. Peacock, meanwhile, is now pumping out unscripted Bravo " microdramas ." A March YouGov poll found that 70% of 16-to-24-year-olds watch clips from shows or movies on social media instead of the full version.
"Clips are no longer the byproduct of the main product—they're the main product," business analyst Ed Elson recently wrote. "There's only one path back for legacy media: They have to win the clip economy."
ESPN, however, doesn't need to pivot. It's already on top.
The longtime worldwide leader in sports recently eclipsed 100 billion views on YouTube while maintaining the largest U.S. brand account on TikTok with nearly 58 million followers and over 5 billion likes. You've never needed to explain the value of highlights to ESPN, which also accepted some time ago that new generations of fans wouldn't necessarily go to the company's TV channels for news and entertainment. Instead, ESPN would have to take the news and entertainment to the viewers.
ESPN staffers watch each of its premier shows with a specific eye toward moments that could perform well on YouTube, either as vertical snippets, short horizontal clips or longer segment uploads. (Other employees monitor the same shows while thinking about other platforms.) Each episode of First Take with Stephen A. Smith often generates 8+ YouTube clips. With Inside the NBA , editors stay up until 2 a.m., compiling a best-of video for morning-after viewers.
"We're trying to hit as many formats as possible and as many content lengths as possible," ESPN senior director for YouTube and studio show social Jeremy Fitch said. "We challenge ourselves every single day to have that depth—if you're only going to watch ESPN for 60 seconds, what is that experience? If you're only going to watch for 10-15 minutes, what's that experience?"
On Wednesday night, ESPN uploaded a one-minute highlight from the Pistons-Cavaliers game (2,000 views as of Thursday), a five-minute recap of the overtime finish (19,000 views) and a 16-minute portion of Inside the NBA 's Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley breaking down the game ( 465,000 views).
Other ESPNers optimize each clip, fine-tuning titles, descriptions and thumbnails, which themselves have the capability to go viral. It is part of someone's job to give Scott Van Pelt YouTube face .
Since 2005, ESPN has launched 19 separate channels on the platform, catering to sport-specific viewers. Pat McAfee's daily addition in 2023 boosted its reach. Mike Foss, having long collaborated on The Pat McAfee Show and ESPN's studio programs, was recently promoted to executive vice president, with oversight of ESPN's news operation.
ESPN included McAfee's YouTube NFL Draft show in its audience measurement when it announced that it averaged 13.2 million viewers for coverage of night one this year, the latest sign that Google's video hub is increasingly viewed as another channel within ESPN's arsenal.
As YouTube has invested in its lean-back offerings designed for TV viewers, ESPN has brought more longform and live content to the platform, including live streams of elite youth basketball, flag football and volleyball competitions.
"We have a lot of live sports behind the paywall and that will always be the case," Fitch said. "We're really just trying to give a little bit of a taste of, 'If you subscribe to the ESPN app, here's what you could get tenfold,' and YouTube is a front door to that."
ESPN has prioritized expanding its young audience; on YouTube, 80% of its viewers are 13-to-44 years old, the company said. Some of them are diehard ESPN watchers who might want to catch up on a studio show they missed or find a clip to share with friends. Others might be drawn to check out the network's own app, which added a Verts feed last year, or more traditional offerings. ESPN boasted 14% viewership increases on its daily studio viewership (as in the actual shows) through the first quarter of 2026.
But much of ESPN's YouTube programming is also designed for people to whom ESPN might be a YouTube channel with a TV presence rather than the other way around. The company says its YouTube-derived revenue increased 50% year-over-year in 2025.
"The goal for ESPN's YouTube page is not a marketing arm," Fitch said. "The goal is it's a content arm."
Here, clips come first.
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