Starting in April, Pac-12 Conference football players will be able to commentate on and earn money from their game highlights through Curastory, a media technology company that helps athletes monetize the videos they post to social media platforms.

Curastory is partnering with Tempus Ex Machina, Inc., a data and video technology company that struck a deal with the Pac-12 last year. Tempus Ex this past summer partnered with Twitter and name, image and likeness (NIL) marketplace Opendorse, allowing Pac-12 football players to share their highlights via Twitter and make money through pre-roll advertising.

The Curastory deal will begin with spring football games in April and continue into next football season. Curastory hopes that athletes from other Pac-12 sports will be able to use the platform later this year, as well.

Tiffany Kelly, Curastory’s founder and chief executive, describes Curastory as a “media enablement tool” for video creators. Pac-12 players will be able to access their video highlights from games via the Curastory platform. Tempus Ex’s cameras and technology are in all Pac-12 stadiums.

The players can commentate on the highlights, click one button on Curastory and distribute the videos to their YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and other social media channels. The previous Tempus Ex deal with Twitter did not allow the players to commentate on their highlights or post the videos on other social media channels.

“They’re going to walk us through what went on in their head as they’re making the play, making jokes and things like that,” Kelly said. “It’s basically like mic’d up content. It’s reactionary content.”

Curastory also has partnerships with companies that are looking to advertise their products or services, so players can read scripts promoting those companies and edit them into their videos. Companies usually pay a certain amount of money per 1,000 impressions that the videos receive.

Kelly said the Pac-12 players will receive 50% of the advertising revenue they generate, while Curastory, Tempus Ex and the Pac-12 will split the remaining 50%. That differs from Curastory’s other deals with athletes, fitness instructors and others who use Curastory and earn 70% of the revenue.

“This is the first deal like this we’ve ever done,” Kelly said. “It’s a landmark media rights deal with this footage being available for student athletes to commentate on. If all goes well, this opens up for additional conferences and additional leagues.”

Kelly worked as a sports analytics associate with ESPN before leaving the company in January 2019 with the goal of launching her own company. A few months later, she began hearing and reading about the push for college athletes to profit from their NIL.

“That really in my mind cemented the creator economy and individual content creators and niche media companies of two to three people really having power now and audiences wanting to consume content more from those individuals than media conglomerates,” Kelly said. “That’s when I realized how big of a market this actually was and that’s when I started on this journey of figuring out what Curastory needed to be.”

Besides college athletes, Curastory also courts professional athletes as well as fitness professionals who have large social media followings and want to make money from their videos.

Curastory has secured $3.3 million of funding since its inception, according to Kelly, who added the company expects to generate $9 million in revenue this year. The company’s investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Techstars and Elysian Park Ventures, the private investment arm of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ ownership group.

In September, Curastory also received a $100,000 cash grant from the Google GOOG for Startups Black Founders Fund initiative.