Teton Ridge
Deirdre Lester
At one point during my conversation with Deirdre Lester, I suggest, very seriously, that she might share certain prophetic qualities with Nostradamus, the famous French seer who made more than a few accurate predictions.
You see, Lester’s made a habit of getting in on the ground floor of sports media innovations. Whether it was the emergence of video highlights when she worked at ESPN, the live streaming of professional baseball games when she worked at MLB Advanced Media, or sports podcasting when she was the chief revenue officer at Barstool Sports, she routinely wagers on cutting-edge trends that become mainstays of sports media.
That said, in a sign of humility, Lester doesn’t see her capabilities as oracle-like but, rather, the result of a simple equation. As she puts it, when a media company is seeing success in a particular space, “we recognize the growth trajectory, and we just pour gasoline on that fire.” And pouring gasoline on the fire is precisely what Lester is doing in the realm of Western sports and lifestyle.
In late 2023, Lester became the CEO of Teton Ridge, a Western sports and entertainment company. It was an opportunity she described as very intriguing.
“I looked at the Western space and saw it as the last frontier of sports in terms of being innovated around,” Lester says. “Western is always going to be about history, culture, and heritage. But, in the media space, you need to innovate to reach that next generation of fans while capturing the whole lifestyle around Western sports.”
Clad in cowboy boots and denim, you’d be shocked to learn that Lester was born, raised, and continues to live in the concrete jungle of the New York tri-state area — though she frequently offices out of The Cowboy Channel’s mission-like headquarters off E. Exchange Avenue, which has become the de facto home of Teton Ridge after their recent acquisition of the TV network.
But Lester isn’t someone who merely jumped on the “Yellowstone” bandwagon and started sporting pearl snaps after watching Beth Dutton in Season 5. She isn’t leaning into a fad.
“I love it,” Lester says of the Western lifestyle. “I do think I fit in, and that's not to toot my own horn, but I've truly embraced the Western lifestyle. I don't own or ride a horse, yet, but I see and really respect and appreciate the lifestyle that this is.
“You go to a rodeo, you have grandparents, parents, high school kids, multi-generational families, and you get more entrenched. There's this lifelong love for this sport and this lifestyle, and when you see all these people who are drawn to it, it's very compelling.”
A few months after Lester took the reins, Teton Ridge announced the expansion of television programming of The American Rodeo Championship, which the company purchased in 2021. This March, the FOX Sports family of networks will broadcast the two-day Arlington event, with the final round airing live on FOX. Yes, rodeo on network TV.
“People think of [rodeo] as a niche sport, and then you get behind the numbers and you realize it's not a niche sport,” Lester says. “If it is, it's a very large niche, and it's actually all very popular. So, we're looking to elevate everything we do and take it to that next level.”
Expanding the company’s portfolio, Lester then led Teton Ridge’s acquisition of The Cowboy Channel, which includes The Cowgirl Channel and The Cowboy Channel+, a streaming and on-demand service. With the purchase, Teton Ridge also secured The Cowboy Channel’s exclusive licensing agreement with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) and its more than 600 sanctioned rodeos, which includes the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. In the world of Western sports, The Cowboy Channel is akin to one of Lester's previous employers, ESPN — no broadcaster has more clout and capital.
To Lester, the opportunities The Cowboy Channel provides are nearly infinite. With new and improved programming, the potential to introduce live stats and gambling, and the channel’s expansion to more streaming services, the world of rodeo is poised to hit the mainstream. And combining this acquisition with Teton Ridge’s other properties — Cowboys & Indians magazine, Pro Fantasy Rodeo, film and TV production company Teton Ridge Entertainment, just to name a few — it’s clear Lester has the company on a trajectory to dominate the Western content space.
And where better to dominate such a space than where the West begins?
“You can expect Teton Ridge and The Cowboy Channel to be mainstays in the Fort Worth area,” Lester says, silencing any notion the company might find a new HQ. “In particular, we think in the Stockyards since this is sort of the home of all things Western. It's a very on-brand place for us.”