SPORTS & MEDIA
The McAfee Economic Miracle
Athlete-owned sports media companies, and video podcasts in particular, have become legit competitors to the mainstream sports media ecosystem in the fragmented, omni-channel media universe. But have we reached Peak McAfee?
John Ourand
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October 13, 2025
Cody Campbell’s Season of Magical Thinking
The billionaire oilman, former jock, and Texas Tech trustee has been on a mission to allow conference executives to pool their college football rights and sell them off like Powerball tickets to the streamers. Herewith, the blowback to the blowback.
Dylan Byers
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October 10, 2025
Bari Poppins
With the week’s short-order wrangling of two former secretaries of State, Bari Weiss is already proving she can get things done at CBS News. But her management of layoffs and resurrecting the ‘Evening News’ will be the next tests in her very new assignment.
Dylan Byers
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October 8, 2025
Bari, Bari, Quite Contrary
The overwrought media reaction to Weiss’s first days at CBS News would seem to validate the Ellison thesis for putting her in charge. But there’s plenty of cautious optimism inside the newsroom, too. “Having a new force come in isn’t the worst thing,” said one source. “Anyone who is acting like CBS News internally is aghast is not capturing the actual mood.”
Can EA Sports Get in the Game?
All the headlines about the Saudis taking Electronic Arts private have obscured its true $55 billion opportunity. As sports becomes more gamified, could the video game maker start streaming live sports?
John Ourand
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October 6, 2025
The Miseducation of Cody Campbell
The former NFL player and billionaire Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell struck a nerve with his radical proposal to overhaul the Sports Broadcasting Act. But is there actually some logic to his quixotic plan?
Dylan Byers
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October 3, 2025
You Only Live Weiss
After David Ellison’s yearlong courtship, Free Press founder Bari Weiss will finally begin leading CBS News on Monday. But can an editor who rose on her center-right-ish criticism of the mainstream media find her way now that she’s once again a part of it?
John Ourand
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October 2, 2025
YouTube TV’s Manifest Destiny
News and notes on the platform’s recently announced temporary deal to semi-ingest NBCU.
Dylan Byers
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October 1, 2025
Paramount’s Tech Makeover & Kushner’s Saudi Game
David Ellison is evangelizing superior tech—Oracle-powered, naturally—as a way to transform his newly acquired Paramount into a 21st century world-beater with a better product and next-gen algorithms. Easier said than done…
Don’t Mess With the Mohan
What would ordinarily be a traditional carriage dispute between YouTube TV and NBCU is threatening to spiral into something more consequential and novel, with both sides planting their flags.
John Ourand
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September 29, 2025
NFL Dance Partners & Legacy Media War Cries
Super-analyst Michael Nathanson offers a candid view of the sports rights dialectic taking place between the legacy media companies, who need these games more than ever, and the hyperscalers with all the money in the universe.
Dylan Byers
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September 26, 2025
Walden, Revisited
The Kimmel maelstrom touched all corners of the known media universe. But for the Toscana crowd, one question rose above the rest: Did it shake up the Iger succession race?
John Ourand
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September 25, 2025
The NFL’s Premature Exhortations
The league and its broadcast partners are weighing early renegotiations of their billion-dollar media deals, with a possible 18th game and new streaming packages on the table.
Dylan Byers
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September 24, 2025
Baribucks
Bari Weiss, the Times defector turned Free Press founder, is now poised to cash a giant check from David Ellison and seize the reins at CBS News, sending staffers running for the smelling salts.
The ESPN of the Affair
A month after the launch of ESPN Unlimited, what does the early data say about the platform’s prospects for long-term success? And what does “success” even mean?
John Ourand
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September 22, 2025
Netflix’s Trojan Horse
The sports media world erupted last month when word leaked that Netflix was looking at ways to stream the Notre Dame–USC game—despite the fact that Notre Dame is under contract with NBC, and USC’s rights are tied up with the Big Ten. The saga, more than anything, spotlighted Netflix’s aggressive plan to “eventize” sports.
Dylan Byers & Julia Alexander
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September 19, 2025
There’s Something About Meredith
A defiantly optimistic conversation with Meredith Kopit Levien, C.E.O. of The New York Times Company, on buying The Athletic, the possibility of a Times-powered A.I., and why it’s still all about the news.