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UC Berkeley Opens On-Campus Twitch Studio for Student-Athlete Streaming

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In brief

UC Berkeley has opened a professional Twitch streaming studio on its athletics campus, the first of several planned facilities built by StreamU, a platform run by TheLinkU in partnership with Twitch. The studio lets Cal student-athletes produce livestreamed content — from workouts to game-day coverage — to build audiences and pursue name, image and likeness (NIL) income.

StreamU, a college athletics livestreaming network operated by the NIL platform TheLinkU in partnership with Twitch, opened its first on-campus content studio at the University of California, Berkeley in October 2026, according to Sports Video Group and NetInfluencer. The facility gives Cal's varsity athletes a dedicated space to produce streams for the school's channel on Twitch.

What the studio offers

The studio was built with UnlimitedIRL as technology partner and uses professional-grade equipment from Canon, Sony and Blackmagic Design, according to Sports Video Group and NetInfluencer. It includes a multi-camera setup with professional lighting and audio run through a Blackmagic video switcher, a PlayStation 5 gaming lounge, and a portable Sony FX3 camera paired with a LiveU encoder so athletes can stream from locations around campus.

Cal's StreamU channel is expected to carry roughly 10 hours of programming per week, including athlete workouts, teammate challenges, gaming sessions, cooking contests, campus tours, watch parties and game-day coverage, the same two outlets reported.

Every athlete has a story worth streaming, and the barrier shouldn't be technical.

— Taylor Webb, UnlimitedIRL Chief of Operations, quoted by Sports Video Group

Why Cal is doing this now

Cal Athletic Director Ron Rivera said providing student-athletes with resources and infrastructure to tell their stories and build NIL value is a significant priority for the department, according to Hoodline and NetInfluencer.

Hoodline reported that Cal Athletics posted a $24 million operating deficit in the 2024-25 fiscal year, with expenses of about $165 million against $153 million in revenue. The outlet also cited Forbes for a figure showing Division I athletes received nearly $1.8 billion in direct revenue-sharing payouts in the 2025-26 academic year under the House v. NCAA settlement. California was the first state to guarantee athletes NIL rights, through the Fair Pay to Play Act, which Governor Gavin Newsom signed in September 2019, Hoodline noted.

Tubefilter reported that schools are increasingly framing content-creation infrastructure as a recruiting tool rather than relying only on facility upgrades, citing the case of former Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, who went undrafted and turned to streaming afterward as an example of why athletes now value creator skills.

Who is behind StreamU

TheLinkU, the NIL platform behind StreamU, was founded in 2022 by Austin Elrod, according to NetInfluencer. Landon Goesling serves as StreamU's chief revenue officer. Tubefilter noted that its reporting found no direct statement from Twitch itself on the studio or on what financial stake, if any, the platform holds in the arrangement.

Hoodline reported that how streaming revenue would be divided among athletes, the university and StreamU's partners has not been disclosed.

Where else StreamU is expanding

StreamU campus studio rollout
SchoolStatus (as of Oct. 2026)
University of California, BerkeleyStudio open, first in the network
University of ArkansasPlanned
Texas A&M UniversityPlanned
Baylor UniversityPlanned
University of HoustonPlanned

The planned expansion schools were listed identically across Sports Video Group, Hoodline and NetInfluencer reporting.

Questions

What is StreamU?
StreamU is a college athletics livestreaming network run by the NIL platform TheLinkU in partnership with Twitch, designed to help student-athletes create content and pursue name, image and likeness opportunities, according to Sports Video Group.
Which school got the first StreamU studio?
The University of California, Berkeley opened the first on-campus StreamU studio in October 2026, with additional studios planned at the University of Arkansas, Texas A&M, Baylor and the University of Houston.
How will student-athletes make money from the studio?
The studio gives athletes professional equipment to produce Twitch content aimed at building audiences and NIL value, but Hoodline reported that the exact revenue split between athletes, the university and StreamU's partners has not been disclosed.
What equipment is in the studio?
According to Sports Video Group and NetInfluencer, the facility has Canon and Sony cameras, professional lighting and audio, a Blackmagic Design video switcher, a PlayStation 5 gaming lounge, and a portable Sony FX3 camera with a LiveU encoder for mobile streaming.
Why is this happening now?
Cal's athletic director said building NIL infrastructure is a department priority, and Hoodline linked the move to Cal Athletics' reported $24 million deficit and the roughly $1.8 billion in athlete revenue-sharing — a Forbes figure the outlet cited — being distributed across Division I schools in 2025-26.

Sources

  1. Sports Video Group — Cal Opens On-Campus Twitch Studio for Student-Athletes Through StreamU
  2. Hoodline — Cal Opens On-Campus Twitch Studio, Betting on Streaming to Boost Athlete Pay
  3. NetInfluencer — UC Berkeley Opens On-Campus Twitch Studio For Student-Athlete Content
  4. Tubefilter — Cal's Twitch Studio for Student-Athletes Shows That Creator Content Is the New Recruiting Hack

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