Want to know why ESPN hired Katie Feeney? Count the views.

Earlier this week, ESPN made a splash when it announced the hiring of Katie Feeney, a sports correspondent with more than seven million followers on TikTok. Feeney’s role at The Worldwide Leader in Sports will involve social media content in the “sports and lifestyle” categories, as well as contributions to series like College Gameday and Monday Night Countdown.

The deal completes the 22-year-old Feeney’s rapid rise to the top of the sports broadcasting world. While studying that subject in college, she began posting on TikTok and soon amassed her seven-digit follower count. A sideline gig with the Washington Commanders came next, as did collabs with major sports leagues like the MLB.

“From capturing Penn State games on the sidelines to now joining the biggest platform in sports, this journey has been incredible,” Feeney said in a statement. “I grew up watching SportsCenter with my family, and I’m proud to now be part of the storytelling that brings ESPN to millions of fans around the world.”

At ESPN, Feeney will join a growing number of contributors who cut their teeth in the world of short-form video. One of the network’s employees is Omar Raja, who parlayed his founding role in the House of Highlights brand into a sports reporting gig. Since joining ESPN in 2020, Raja has occasionally taken his YouTube channel to the top of our Tubefilter charts. In December 2023, for example, Raja got more than 250 million YouTube views in a single week.

ESPN wants a bigger bite of the short-form pie, so it has added Feeney to its stable. That reasoning, however, doesn’t tell the whole story. Creators will also play a big role as ESPN looks to capitalize on its sizable investment in gridiron football. Like YouTube, which snapped up the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package in December 2022, Disney-owned ESPN is set to broadcast more NFL action than ever before. A blockbuster media deal will give the NFL a 10% stake in ESPN in exchange for coveted assets like NFL RedZone.

YouTube’s plan to advertise its NFL package involved a lot of creator content, some of which came from Feeney. If ESPN wants to take a similar approach to its new broadcast slate, it now has creators in-house who can execute that strategy.