JAWA BARAT — Gary Neville mengungkap bahwa The Overlap lahir bukan dari riset pasar, melainkan dari kesadaran dirinya kurang mahir mewawancarai narasumber saat masih bertugas di Sky Sports. Kanal YouTube yang ia bangun bersama tim produksi Buzz 16 itu kini menjadi salah satu program wawancara olahraga paling berpengaruh di Inggris.
Mantan bek Manchester United dan Timnas Inggris itu resmi menggantung sepatu pada 2011, lalu langsung menekuni dunia komentar sepak bola. Setelah sepuluh tahun menganalisis pertandingan untuk Sky Sports, Neville mendirikan kanal YouTube The Overlap pada 2021.
Sejak awal, kanal itu tidak dirancang sebagai proyek bisnis. Neville menyebut dorongan utamanya justru datang dari kebutuhan pribadi untuk memperbaiki kemampuan wawancara yang ia nilai kurang.
Neville mengaku sering gugup ketika harus bertanya kepada manajer yang datang ke studio. Ia merasa pertanyaan yang ia ajukan kepada para tamu tidak cukup tajam dibanding rekan-rekannya sesama pengamat.
"There was no gap in the market," kata Neville kepada FourFourTwo. "There was just a gap in my head of something that I was missing. It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but there'd be times at Sky when managers would come into the studio, there'd be Dave or Kelly, Carra and me, we'd ask them questions and I thought 'I'm really bad at this'."
Kesadaran itu mendorongnya mengambil arah berbeda dari arus konten pendek yang tengah menjamur. Alih-alih mengejar klip 60 sampai 90 detik untuk TikTok dan Instagram, Neville memilih format wawancara panjang.
"Lots of people were pushing me to do more bitesize content, 60 to 90 seconds, to fit TikTok and Instagram," ujarnya. "I didn't want to do that, but I thought there was an opportunity to do two things – get better at interviewing people and keep traditional long-form interviews. So I just started walking with people. On a beach, on a golf course, and I just talked to them – a good conversation about football, boxing or whatever."
Format berjalan sambil berbincang itu menjadi ciri khas The Overlap. Neville menegaskan dirinya tidak mengejar label podcast karena tidak menikmati wawancara jarak jauh yang dilakukan secara terpisah.
"It was never about podcasts. I don't listen to podcasts, it was about becoming a better interviewer and creating an interesting television programme," tuturnya. "We do sometimes get described as a podcast, but to me it's a visual thing. I've done podcasts where you do them remotely – you can be at home, the other people can be in their homes, and I don't get it. I don't feel it. I've got to be sat there with people to bounce off them, to feel their energy, to feel their enthusiasm."
Di balik layar, The Overlap digarap tim yang dipimpin salah satu pendiri Scott Melvin. Melvin sebelumnya 17 tahun menjadi produser senior di Sky Sports untuk program Super Sunday dan Monday Night Football. Sebagian besar kru punya latar belakang televisi, termasuk yang pernah bekerja untuk Sky dan BBC.
"It's always a risk when you start something from scratch," kata Melvin. "We started the production company first, Buzz 16, then The Overlap grew out of that. What started off as a side hustle has become this thing we never expected it to be. We've all learned as we've gone along, but we didn't start it as a business, it started off as Gary just having some fun on YouTube."
Melvin menyebut Sky Bet sebagai mitra yang bergabung sejak awal dan masih berperan penting hingga kini. Titik balik datang ketika program Stick to Football diluncurkan, format diskusi lima orang di sekitar meja.
"Sky Bet came on board very early, were brilliant with us and are still a really important partner for us now. Then we started Stick to Football, which was the turning point. Again it was a bit of a punt because let's be honest, it wasn't a particularly revolutionary idea – let's get five people around a table and talk about football. But the difference was the people," ujar Melvin.
Sepanjang lima tahun berjalan, The Overlap telah menghadirkan nama-nama besar lintas cabang olahraga, mulai dari Harry Kane dan Wayne Rooney hingga Anthony Joshua serta Dina Asher-Smith. Neville menyebut perjalanan itu sebagai pengalaman yang ia banggakan.
"What has happened since then has been a great journey – it's a team I love working with and I'm incredibly proud to be a part of. We never thought of it as a business, we just wanted to create something that people loved and would come back to watch every week," kata Neville.