Eric Weinberger. Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Variety Bill Simmons' media deal with HBO seems to be taking shape, and his latest hire shows just how big his presence is becoming.

What seemed to start out as a TV show and some occasional documentaries — with podcasts and a website being run by Simmons on the side — has now turned into a growing media empire.

According to Lesley Goldberg of The Hollywood Reporter, Simmons has hired Eric Weinberger to be president of the Bill Simmons Media Group and producer of his HBO talk show.

The key point here is that Weinberger was hired by Simmons, not HBO.

Weinberger had been an executive with the NFL Network since its launch in 2003 and was tasked with helping to create a number of studio shows. He also ran the network's NFL draft coverage. Previously, he worked for Fox Sports.

In addition to being an executive producer for the show, Weinberger will be responsible for building Simmons' new website and the already-launched podcast network, BSPN, the Bill Simmons Podcast Network.

Weinberger will be involved with developing other aspects of Simmons' new venture with HBO, including scripted and unscripted projects and digital content.

Simmons said of Weinberger's hire:

I can't wait to start working with Eric. He's a talented guy with an impeccable reputation, someone who is uniquely equipped to help me build an innovative multimedia company from scratch. We're both beyond excited to start brainstorming about my show and other HBO Sports projects as well. I know from experience that you're only as good as the people around you, and Eric is one of the very best.

While Simmons has already rolled out his podcast with great success, we're still waiting to find out more about the rest of his media deal with HBO.

He has a talk show coming and will seemingly produce sports documentaries, like ESPN's "30 for 30" series. He was said to be in talks with WWE on a documentary about Andre the Giant, but Simmons denied on his podcast that any deal had been made.

Simmons' new weekly show on HBO will launch in 2016.