Business

Is Peyton Manning’s Sports Media Company Omaha Productions The Next Billion Dollar Company?

Published

2 years ago

October 19, 2023

In September 2020, sports media executives Jamie Horowitz and Josh Pyatt boarded a plane from Los Angeles to Denver with a very specific goal. They wanted to ask former NFL quarterback and Hall of Famer Peyton Manning to launch his own media production company.

Jamie Horowitz, former VP at ESPN and president at Fox Sports, is responsible for developing some of the most popular sports programs today, including Undisputed, First Take, and SportsNation. He had played an instrumental role in the rise of sports media personalities Colin Cowherd, Stephen A Smith, and Shannon Sharpe. Pyatt had been the agent that helped LeBron James and Kobe Bryant build their massive media companies.

Horowitz believed that Manning had a point of view on the world that sounded like a company’s mission statement – Manning wanted to uplift and unify people (that did end up the mission statement and is on the website).

Horowitz and Pyatt were some of the more successful players in sports media, yet Manning wasn’t convinced at first. He had dedicated his life to being the best football player he could be. He didn’t know anything about running a production company.

“From what everyone had told me, he wasn’t interested,” said Pyatt.

But “everyone” didn’t deter Pyatt and Horowitz.

Manning did his research and eventually decided to try his hand at leading a media company. And to the surprise of basically no one, in a matter of months, the new company, named Omaha Productions after Manning’s famed audible call, had become one of the world’s fastest-growing media properties.

In its first 3 years, the programming developed by Omaha Productions has represented a departure from traditional sports media. Instead of men in suits discussing stats in fancy studios, Omaha makes more casual television. Shows like ManningCast feature Peyton and Eli mostly in quarterzips and they broadcast from a garage and a basement. Omaha’s most successful show on Netflix – Quarterback – documents NFL star players on the gridiron but also playing with their kids and taking out the trash. Omaha Productions content seems to work particularly well for a new generation – the average viewer of ManningCast is six years younger than the average Monday Night Football viewer (Netflix wouldnt disclose the demographics on Quarterback).

The unscripted and unfiltered style of Omaha programming seems to have been inspired by shows that Jamie Horowitz has been developing on NBC, ESPN, FOX, and DAZN for over 20 years. Horowitz is credited with reimagining sports TV in the 2000s by producing shows that feature big personalities and spirited talk — a style of programming that’s become the norm on TV today. Horowitz has guided Omaha to make shows where the on-camera talent is the key to the show and often the executive producer.

Earlier this year, Horowitz and Manning added a 3rd partner to Omaha when Peter Chernin’s North Road company invested in Omaha. Chernin has had a magic touch with a variety of media companies and connected quickly with Manning and Horowitz. The partnership was intended to supercharge the growth of Omaha and drive more scripted content deals.

In his recent newsletter Huddle Up, sports business expert Joe Pompliano recognized how Omaha Productions was shifting viewer trends and predicted that it could soon become a dominant player in sports media.

“I don’t see any reason why Omaha can’t be a $1 billion-plus company,” Pompliano wrote. “Streaming services are acquiring unscripted sports content at a premium and Omaha’s close relationship with ESPN provides them with a unique advantage.”

The combination of Manning and Horowitz, guided by the leadership of Pyatt, and the partnership of Peter Chernin makes us believe that Omaha Productions’ meteoric rise is only the beginning for the brand — and that a $1 billion valuation may be around the corner.

Business

Scaling Success: Why Smart Habits Beat Growth Hacks in Modern eCommerce

Published

1 month ago

July 26, 2025

Matthew Wiles

There’s a romanticized image of the eCommerce founder: a daring risk-taker chasing the next big idea, fueled by late-night caffeine and last-minute inspiration. But the reality behind scaled, sustainable brands tells a different story. Success in digital commerce doesn’t come from chaos or clever hacks. It comes from habits. Repetitive, structured, often unglamorous habits.

Change, a digital platform created by eCommerce strategist Ryan, builds its entire philosophy around this truth. Through education, mentorship, and infrastructure, Change helps founders shift from scrambling for quick wins to building strong systems that grow with them. The company doesn’t just offer software. It provides the foundation for digital trade, particularly for those in the B2B space.

The Habits That Build Momentum

At the heart of Change’s philosophy are five core habits Ryan considers non-negotiable. These aren’t buzzwords; they’re the foundation of sustainable growth.

First, obsess over data. Successful founders replace guesswork with metrics. They don’t rely on gut feelings. They measure performance and iterate.

Second, know your customer deeply. Not just what they buy, but why they buy. The most resilient brands build emotional loyalty, not just transactional volume.

Third, test fast. Algorithms shift. Consumer behavior changes. High-performing teams don’t resist this; they test weekly, sometimes daily, and adapt.

Fourth, manage time like a CEO. Every decision has a cost. Prioritizing high-impact actions isn’t optional; it’s survival.

Fifth, stay connected to mentorship and learning. The digital market moves quickly. The remaining founders are the ones who keep learning, never assuming they know it all.

Turning Habits into Infrastructure

What begins as personal discipline must eventually evolve into a team structure. Change teaches founders how to scale their systems, not just their sales.

Tools are essential for starting, think Notion for documentation, Asana for project management, Mixpanel or PostHog for analytics, and Loom for async communication. But tools alone don’t create momentum.

Teams need Monday metric check-ins, weekly test cycles, customer insight reviews, just to name a few. Founders set the tone by modeling behavior. It’s the rituals that matter, then, they turn it into company culture.

Ryan puts it simply: “We’re not just building tools; we’re building infrastructure for digital trade.”

Avoiding the Common Traps

Even with structure, the path isn’t always smooth. Some founders over-focus on short-term results, chasing vanity metrics or shiny tactics that feel productive but don’t move the needle.

Others fall into micromanagement, drowning in dashboards instead of building intuition. Discipline should sharpen clarity, not create rigidity. Flexibility is part of the process. Knowing when to pivot is just as important as knowing when to persist.

Scaling Through Self-Replication

In the end, eCommerce scale isn’t just about growing a business. It’s about repeating successful systems at every level. When founders internalize high-performance habits, they turn them into processes, then culture, then legacy.

Growth doesn’t require more motivation. It requires more precision. More consistency. Your calendar, not your to-do list, is your business plan.

In a space dominated by noise and novelty, Change and its founder are quietly reshaping the conversation. They aren’t chasing trends but building resilience, one habit at a time.