THE LATEST ARTICLES
NEWSLETTERS
NFL
John Ourand August 21, 2025
When the opening day cheers subside for ESPN’s new streamer, some of the distributors who helped build the poky cable channel into a sports juggernaut may worry they’ll end up with Venu by another name.
Bryce Harper MLB
John Ourand August 18, 2025
Baseball is facing a generational challenge amid labor unrest, the salary cap debate, Rob Manfred’s search for a new rights deal, and an industry-wide reckoning with the death of the R.S.N.s. ESPN baseball insider Jeff Passan has a few thoughts on how it might all shake out…
david berson
John Ourand August 14, 2025
After a quiet decade of bidding activity—passing on the NBA, NHL, NASCAR, etcetera—CBS Sports president David Berson is ready to spend his Ellisonbucks. UFC was just the opening statement.
UFC
John Ourand August 11, 2025
A couple days into his new gig, David Ellison announced his transformational $7.7 billion UFC deal. Sure, it won’t make Paramount+ profitable, but it will turn the service into a major player—as MLB and the NFL are likely taking note.


nfl chiefs buccs tom brady patrick mahomes
John Ourand August 7, 2025
There may not have been a lot of suitors for the NFL’s media assets, but Disney found a way to get what it needed while the league preserved its optionality.
Jimmy Pitaro
John Ourand August 4, 2025
Disney’s much-anticipated earnings call this Wednesday may finally reveal Burbank’s plans for the future of ESPN—Flagship, the NFL deal, and the balance between managing cord-cutting and building the next frontier.
Mikel Arriola
John Ourand July 31, 2025
Relative affordability—$250 million, anyone?—and some timely rule changes have opened up the market for Mexican soccer clubs to U.S. investors.
Jeff Shell
John Ourand July 28, 2025
The questions and enigmas following Skydance’s finally approved acquisition of Paramount Global don’t seem to extend to CBS Sports, a no-drama zone amid a network in existential crisis. That’s largely because of David Berson’s even-keeled leadership, and Jeff Shell and David Ellison believe they can build around his CBS Sports


nfl washington commanders
John Ourand July 24, 2025
The NFL is finally close to a deal with ESPN that would give the league an equity stake in the network, and offer ESPN total control over NFL Network and NFL RedZone. I know regular readers of The Varsity have been reading that sentence for the past 18 months now. But, really, the two sides are closer than ever.
Patrick Mahomes NFL
John Ourand July 21, 2025
A candid conversation with Michael Nathanson, the exalted media analyst and MoffettNathanson namesake, who offers some scintillating hypotheses and observations about the NFL’s next auction winners, ESPN’s economics, and Apple’s sports media portfolio.
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