Behind the Scenes, Slang and Millions of Views: Understand How Podcasts Invaded Sport

As Washington the Braveheart takes a seat in the chair, he looks at the plate full of cold cuts, jam, bottles of water and soda on the table.

“There’s everything I like here. All that’s missing is the whiskey.”

The answer was immediate.

“There is. Do you want?”

Minutes later, the former striker has a shot of Johnny Walker Double Black in his glass.

Like Washington, Tchê Tchê, from Atlético-MG, was so comfortable that he told his version for the first time of the fight with Fernando Diniz when both were at São Paulo.

Sportsmen have become an inexhaustible source for the podcast market. Comfortable to talk about any subject and tell new stories, sometimes with expletives and slang, athletes go to programs like Flow Sport Club and Podpah and give interviews that can last three hours, reaching millions of people.

“One thing we hear a lot, when it’s over, is the guest saying he’s going to tell another player to come here too. They’re very comfortable and say what they want,” says Mitico, one of the two presenters of Podpah, one of the most popular podcasts. ears of the country.

It was where Tchê Tchê explained his discussion with Fernando Diniz, at last year’s Brazilian Nationals.

“It was a mess that made me feel bad and that’s why I haven’t spoken until today. I think this is the right place to talk. It will be the first and last time I mention the subject. You won’t see me talk anywhere else. prepared for me to say here that it’s a hot spot”, said the steering wheel about the episode in which the coach called him “little leg” and “masquerade”.

Podpah is not just a sports podcast, although this is one of the bets. The channel’s highest-viewed episode, which has 4.32 million subscribers, was with MC Kevin, who would later die from falling off a hotel balcony. It had 12 million hits. The channel’s biggest football audience was with former player and TV presenter Neto: 3.1 million hits.

Sports guests have become such a relevant lode that Flow, the channel that started the podcast fever in Brazil, started to have a program dedicated to sports.

“The big secret is how the conversation is conducted. It’s a chat, not an interview. There’s no agenda. The guy is open to say what he wants. The players already know how the conversation is going to be. They know we don’t have the intention to put no one against the wall. And many are fans. They are happy to be invited,” says Igor, one of the presenters of Flow and Flow Sport Club. Together, the two podcasts have 3.74 million subscribers.

Flow is more than a program. It’s an enterprise. Installed in a two-story house in Vila Prudente, on the east side of São Paulo, it produces or gives space in its five studios to other podcasts. Like those made by FC Diez, content producer for Conmebol at Libertadores, which recorded their programs there.

“Sometimes the TV just wants a sentence, the press wants a headline. Athletes come here and are calmer, relax. We just want to talk. There is no defined script”, adds Davy Jones, also presenter of Flow Sport Clube.

Top scorer from Athletico, Fluminense, São Paulo and the Brazilian national team, Washington never seemed bothered during the almost two hours of conversation at Flow. He told amusing stories, such as when his interpreter passed out during the catheterization the attacker had to undergo in Turkey.

He almost cried as he told the backstage of his resignation as CBF leader. He also said he wanted to return to politics.

“Today the player understands that he can reach more people. In a podcast like that, you have openness, talk about different subjects. This may not happen when talking to the traditional press. Even due to the issue of time, you are more comfortable in the podcast and interviewer explores more intimate things,” says Washington.

Timing can be an important issue. In the book “Radio Pirata: rock, libertá, transgressione e nuovi linguagi radiofonici” (Radio Pirata: rock, liberty, transgression and new radio languages, in Italian, unpublished in Brazil), author Andrea Borgnino cites the phenomenon of pirate radios in Italy in the mid-20th century, when anonymous people managed to put backyard stations on the air.

This soon began to worry the country’s authorities. In the first 10 minutes, people talked about football, family and told jokes. Over time, they loosened up and began to speak ill of the government.

“Oral culture is very strong in Brazil. It always has been. What I see in the podcast is a simple language, much from everyday life, from conversations about football, sports, everyday life. As if it were a bar chat” , says Luciano Maluly, professor of sports journalism and radio at USP’s School of Communications and Art.

“Nowadays, few people still write. We record, send audio. People are not reading and there is a lack of attention. This makes this oral culture even stronger”, he adds.

The entertainment and language components cannot be overlooked. When acting, the former midfielder Douglas, with passages for Corinthians, Grêmio and national team, was never one to give interviews. At Podpah, he spent two hours telling behind-the-scenes stories of the parties given by Ronaldo when they both played for Corinthians.

He gave a justification that presenters are used to hearing: his daughters are fans of the show and asked him to go. On Thursday (3), Ronaldo himself went to Flow, Stayed for two and a half hours.

“It’s a natural movement. It’s a matter of time for the traditional media to adapt. As we are very new in this market, it’s possible that the guys [atletas] have understood that we are different”, thinks Igor, from Flow.

The two podcasts traveled to Uruguay and made live shows from Montevideo in the days before the Libertadores final between Palmeiras and Flamengo. Podpah had 100,000 hits on its live. To save time, the Flow team chartered a jet.

“I have journalist friends and they always talk to me exalting us, saying that what we do is important. They say that we are not aware of how big we are now and that we are changing communication. I think we have no idea, but it’s good” , enjoys Igão, also host of ​Podpah.