SPORTS
The YouTube-Sports Mating Rituals
If you want to understand YouTube’s sports ambitions, stop thinking about the platform as another ESPN or Netflix, and see it for what it is: Google’s video gatekeeper.
John Ourand
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April 21, 2025
They Might Be Giants…
A frank conversation about the future of Major League Baseball fandom with San Francisco Giants C.E.O. Larry Baer and Fox senior V.P. of strategy and analytics Ben Valenta.
John Ourand
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April 17, 2025
The Netflix-Sports Cat & Mouse Game
Sports needs Netflix exponentially more than Netflix needs sports. But with holiday NFL games, Women’s World Cup soccer, and a flirtation with the NBA, Netflix’s heart is growing fonder. And Rob Manfred is waiting by the phone.
F1 and Done
Liberty Media’s sales pitch for Formula One’s U.S. media rights has thus far fallen flat due to the asking price, the sport’s time zone problems, and viewership numbers that lag behind social media enthusiasm and a broader cultural hype machine.
John Ourand
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April 14, 2025
The General Theory of McAfee
UTA’s Jerry Silbowitz candidly breaks down the evolving playbook for building lucrative, long-term, non-leaky sports media careers.
John Ourand
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April 10, 2025
An R.S.N. Vulture Awaits…
The bankruptcy of Diamond Sports was supposed to touch off a fire sale for local sports rights. Two years later, local broadcasters are still waiting to pounce.
Damn the Torpedo Bats
Major League Baseball is facing a complex streaming challenge: The league’s social audience is growing while the once-reliable R.S.N. business is collapsing, and cable partner ESPN is going away (at least for now). It seems like a good time to get creative.
John Ourand
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April 7, 2025
There’s Something About Gary
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is on a hot streak: the innovative 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in February, a new $7.7 billion media rights deal in Canada, and forthcoming sublicense negotiation. Here, he chats candidly about his travels through the platform realignment.
Julia Alexander
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April 4, 2025
The NFL’s War on Christmas
This Christmas, the NFL will host three games, further encroaching on the NBA’s own five-game holiday tradition. Is this the latest tactic in a cold war against the NBA, or is a monster day of sports-streaming and couch-surfing big enough for both leagues?
John Ourand
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April 1, 2025
An N.Y.-Philly Grudge Match for the Ages
The battle between the Yankees’ YES Network and Comcast is about to go nuclear, and it might even feature a Trump angle that no one saw coming.
John Ourand
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March 28, 2025
The Oracle of Omaha
Now that he’s finally liberated from the Ari-verse, Patrick Whitesell and his new Silver Lake–backed $250 million investment platform are making moves, starting with an investment in a certain telegenic former QB’s production company.
Julia Alexander
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March 24, 2025
Peacock’s R.S.N. Vulcan Chess
Peacock executives, like their counterparts at ESPN, seemingly want to find out if streaming can be television again by investing in local sports fandoms. If the early streaming wars were a race to see who could disrupt TV fastest, this next phase is a marathon to see who can reinvent it first.
John Ourand
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March 21, 2025
DraftKings’ Content Bet Goes Bust
It’s a familiar story, old as time: A platform company decides it wants to take a whirl in the media business, hires up, brings in a big executive… and then decides it doesn’t want to be in the media business after all.
John Ourand
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March 17, 2025
Are You Ready for Some Fox Reunion?
Two years out from broadcasting the Super Bowl, ESPN is yet again shaking up its truck—this time bringing in Fox hired gun Artie Kempner in a happy reunion with Troy and Buck. Coincidence?
John Ourand
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March 14, 2025
Norby After McAfee
When veteran ESPN producer Norby Williamson took over production at Main Street Sports early this year, he had no intention of maintaining the R.S.N.s’ status quo. Today, he rolled out his plan for sports-specific production silos while recruiting four execs from Bristol. But can it all possibly work?
John Ourand
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March 10, 2025
Bend It Like Berman, Part II
NWSL’s Jessica Berman returns to talk about her priorities for the 13th season: broadcast discoverability, cultural relevance, and the star power of the Triple Espresso. Not necessarily in that order.
John Ourand
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March 7, 2025
Exiles on Main Street
As ESPN’s relationship with MLB continues to fray, Bristol executives are cozying up to Main Street Sports on a deal that will help the network stay close to the game that it has carried for the past 35 years. But the deal isn’t quite the “end around” that some have suggested.