Close to 100 creators are walking around the US Open with official media credentials this year, almost twice the 54 accredited in 2025.

A creator credential would have sounded like a contradiction a few years ago. Now creators covering the tournament can use media facilities, attend press conferences and ask players questions.

They come from tennis, fashion, food, health and lifestyle. Some look like conventional sports reporters. Others definitely don’t.

The early audience figures are impressive. During Fan Week, official US Open social channels generated 711 million interactions, up 276% from 2025, according to the USTA . Its digital platforms recorded 42.3 million page views, a 35% increase.

Television had a good opening too. ESPN’s opening-day coverage averaged 914,000 viewers across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, up 13% year over year and the network’s largest US Open opening-day audience.

The USTA hasn’t isolated the contribution made by this year’s credentialed creators. Its only specific result comes from last year, when the first creator cohort generated more than 5.5 million social engagements.

Still, social reach and television audiences are growing at the same event because creators are now pushing beyond coverage and into the business of distributing live sport.

A media credential is only the beginning

The US Open introduced its creator credential in 2025 after years of internal discussion. Jeanmarie Daly, the USTA’s director of media operations, told Front Office Sports that traditional media and creators “reach different audiences in different ways.”

You can see the lines blurring in real time. This year, the USTA has introduced a credential category for social media teams working inside traditional publishers. Podcasts are being accredited too, including Andy Roddick’s Served, which is recording from Flushing Meadows.

The experiment has already produced some tension. During Naomi Osaka’s opening match, the chair umpire briefly stopped play while people in a hospitality suite moved around and took photographs using a light. Axios connected the incident to a wider debate about influencer behavior, although the people involved haven’t been identified as credentialed creators.

That episode might sound trivial, but it gets at something sports organizations will have to work through. A credential comes with expectations. Creators may work differently from reporters, but they’re entering spaces built around established professional rules.

FIFA made a similar move during the 2026 World Cup. It gave selected TikTok and YouTube creators access to press conferences, training sessions and behind-the-scenes material. Some could also work with FIFA’s archive.

Live action remained tightly controlled. Official media partners could stream the first 10 minutes of every match on YouTube, selected matches in full and parts of matches through TikTok. CazéTV sat at the far end of that scale, carrying all 104 matches in Brazil.

Creators as broadcast affiliates

Barrick Prince, founder of Creator Sports Network, explains this in simple terms “The creators themselves weren’t influencers, they were actually distribution mechanisms,”

His company licenses live sports feeds and makes them available through creators on YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and other platforms. The creator adds commentary and carries the event to the audience they have already built. “We look at our creators like affiliate television stations,” Prince told me.

That comparison goes back to how American network television was built. ABC, CBS and NBC grew through hundreds of local affiliates. Each station carried the network’s programming into its own geographic market.

Prince believes creators can play a similar role, organized around interests and communities rather than postcodes. “Now the affiliate channels already exist. they’re already being owned and operated by creators,” he said.

CazéTV has shown what the top end can look like. The Brazilian channel carried 22 matches during the 2022 World Cup. Four years later, it had all 104. YouTube said its stream of Brazil against Japan passed 20 million concurrent viewers.

Prince believes its success came from putting the creator, conversation and licensed match together. “The real exponential unlock here is doing it all on one screen,” he said. “Essentially what it’s created is a virtual couch,” Prince added. “But CazéTV can fit ten million people on his couch.”

The virtual couch is a good description. Traditional broadcasters give everyone the same commentary. Creator distribution lets viewers choose who they want sitting beside them.

The economics will decide how far this goes

Prince describes Creator Sports Network as a broadcaster rather than an influencer agency. “We are a broadcast network. And broadcast networks primarily make money by selling ad inventory,” he said.

CSN negotiates with rights holders, recruits creators and sells sponsorship inside the streams. Prince said creators receive talent fees, while rights holders can receive a minimum guarantee or share of revenue, depending on the agreement.

One of those partners is Polymarket. The relationship points to another possible source of revenue for creator-led broadcasts. Prediction markets depend on interest in live outcomes, while affiliate publishers use a Polymarket promo code set-up to turn that interest into new accounts. A creator stream could bring the match, commentary, sponsorship and customer acquisition into the same live session.

CSN says 81% of its audience is between 18 and 34 and more than 2,000 creators have joined its network.

Cannibalization is the uncomfortable bit. The contracts funding major sports depend on scarcity and exclusivity. Creator streams could reach people who wouldn’t otherwise watch. They could also give existing fans a free route around a paid broadcaster.

That probably explains why many early deals involve international territories, smaller leagues, alternative feeds or games outside premium television packages. Esports has used co-streaming for years, often with strict rules governing the feed, screen layout and sponsor visibility.

A creator can control the channel and community while the rights holder keeps most of the commercial power.

Prince is convinced the model will spread. “I think that every single broadcast network in the world and every single sports property in the world has a live creator distribution strategy,” he said.

The stations have already been built. They have names, audiences and recognizable voices. Sports organizations are now deciding what those stations are allowed to carry.

The US Open has started with the media pass. The bigger business begins when a league hands over the feed.