Team Whistle, a global media and entertainment company that includes Whistle, Tiny Horse, New Form, and Vertical Networks, announced their OTT channel Whistle TV is coming to Roku in partnership with Cinedigm. The Roku Channel, the home of free and premium entertainment on the Roku platform, is the latest to offer Whistle TV’s sports lifestyle and entertainment network, expanding their distribution that currently includes Peacock, Samsung TV Plus, Vizio SmartCast, and Sinclair Broadcast Group’s STIRR.

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Whistle TV is a free ad-supported sports and entertainment digital network featuring Whistle original shows and premium library content from studios, networks, and leagues across the industry. Whistle TV offers ad-supported content around the clock focusing on original shows and episodic series featuring popular influencers. It also features niche sports programming as well as inspirational movies and documentaries with viewership reaching approximately 51 million households.

“Whistle TV fills a void in the market by combining brand-safe sports, entertainment, and lifestyle content for young viewers,” said Griffin Gmelich, EVP of OTT and Content at Team Whistle. “Our OTT channel expands the reach of Team Whistle’s content to new viewers in the formats and on the platforms they like best. The Roku Channel is a great home for our content to reach a new audience of fans.”

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Featuring more than 1,500 hours of content that is relatable, positive, and brand-safe, Whistle TV’s programming focuses on four key content verticals:

• Whistle Originals – Whistle’s premium original programming exclusive to the channel including original series No Days Off, My Hustle, Dunk League and Bad Jokes.
• Niche Leagues – Full games, matches, and related series that serve an underutilized community of engaged fans across a variety of sports. Initial partners include NCAA, Red Bull, World Arm Wrestling, and Glory Kickboxing.
• Feature Length Movies & Docu-Series – Inspirational sports movies and series from studios, festivals, and key distribution companies. Examples include The Modern Game, Wrestling with Life, and Destination Team USA.
• Premium Influencers – Long-form content from some of the top global sports entertainers, including Dude Perfect, Harlem Globetrotters, F2Freestylers, and more.

“We’re thrilled to add Whistle TV to our portfolio of channels. We are strong believers in their strategy of providing a high-quality programming slate to a young demographic hungry for sports-centric content,” said Tony Huidor, General Manager of Digital Networks. “We are excited about the opportunity to join their high-quality content programming with Cinedigm’s expertise in OTT distribution. We look forward to bringing their content to a much larger audience and further serving the needs of our ad partners.”

Team Whistle has built and grown its portfolio of positive and relatable content for young audiences with programming spanning sports, entertainment, and gaming distributed across social, audio, and now, video streaming platforms. With the recent acquisitions of New Form and Vertical Networks in 2019 and most recently Tiny Horse in 2020, Team Whistle bolstered its portfolio of IP and studio, interactive, advertising, and marketing services capabilities.

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