John Ourand • December 10, 2024

The Zaz Shocker & The Reinsdorf Mess

News and notes on the latest deal intrigue consuming the sports media industrial complex: Brian Roberts’ surprisingly generous deal for Zaslav’s cable networks and the simmering R.S.N. warfare in the Second City.

John Ourand • December 6, 2024

Stephen A. Backs Up the Brink’s Truck

The true value of Stephen A. Smith’s soon-to-be historic ESPN deal isn’t the $20 million annual salary or the half-decade term. Rather, it’s what’s not included.

John Ourand • December 3, 2024

Stream Weavers

As they play chicken with their valuable sports content, legacy media companies are projecting out customer behavior, the future of A.V.O.D.s, cash management, and the decline of cable. Michael Nathanson tries to game it all out.

Baratunde Thurston • November 25, 2024

BradyGPT

A head-spinning conversation with Puck’s John Ourand about how A.I. is personalizing live sports, supercharging prop betting, and helping broadcasters go global. Could A.I. commentators be next?

William D. Cohan • November 24, 2024

The Legend of the Celtics L.B.O.

The true story of how Wyc Grousbeck, perhaps the least well-capitalized owner in sports, had the chutzpah to buy the Celtics in one of the greatest deals in modern sports history.

John Ourand • November 22, 2024

About That Tyson-Paul Netflix Number…

The broadcast guys are calling bullshit on Netflix’s Tyson-Paul ratings. But Nielsen isn’t unbiased, either. Alas, as streaming reorients the industry toward self-reported data, the only constant is that nobody’s numbers really add up.

John Ourand • November 19, 2024

The Shape of Silberwasser

A candid chat with TNT Sports chairman and C.E.O. Luis Silberwasser on losing the NBA, winning back some concessions in the afterbidding market, and the mediaco’s realistic expectations for their accumulating grab bag of new rights—Roland Garros, Mountain West football, NASCAR, etcetera.

John Ourand • November 15, 2024

Is the NFL Falling Hard for Amazon?

For the first time, a streaming service outdrew one of the NFL’s top TV partners in same-week viewership. Now, TV execs are grumbling that the NFL is setting up a future rights battle by giving streamers a taste of potential glory with the choicest matchups.

John Ourand • November 12, 2024

Will Zaz’s Prayers Be Answered?

Media C.E.O.s are hoping against hope that Trump 2.0 will usher in a new M&A permission structure allowing them to, among other things, finally offload those linear TV assets they should have bailed on 10 years ago, like Rupert did. But, as LightShed Partners’ Rich Greenfield argues, nothing is easy and everything takes forever.

John Ourand • November 8, 2024

Republicans Buy ESPN Subscriptions, Too

During his six years in Bristol, chairman Jimmy Pitaro has carefully pivoted ESPN away from a network that condones political expression to a business-friendly safe space for sports. And he’s not changing his tune now.

Eriq Gardner • November 5, 2024

The NBA-Amazon Prenup Contains a Legal Time Bomb

Courtside seating for C.E.O. Andy Jassy is just the cherry atop a highly redacted 35-page contract that gives Amazon the right to adopt future technologies for broadcasting basketball games—a mistake similar to the one the league made with TNT in failing to anticipate streaming. Isn’t that what the lawyers are for?

John Ourand • October 31, 2024

Dude, Where’s My NASCAR

How America’s homegrown motorsport is branching out: to new countries, new venues, and most importantly, more broadcast partners. NASCAR president Steve Phelps explains how they plan to grow without pissing off their faithful. (Michael Jordan is another story.)

John Ourand • October 28, 2024

ESPN’s Streaming Squeeze

TV distributors are struggling to play hardball with the likes of ESPN, Peacock, and Paramount+ as sports programmers move their best content to streaming. But distribution executives also realize how much ESPN needs affiliate fees to compete against the deep-pocketed tech streamers that are piling into this space. And they’ve got their own ideas for how to use that leverage to their advantage.

John Ourand • October 24, 2024

Late Night With Jason Kelce?

As ESPN wrestles with attracting younger audiences away from YouTube and TikTok, and fortifying its forthcoming streamer, Jimmy Pitaro is talking to Jason Kelce about helming his own late night show—a decidedly last-decade solution to a very modern dilemma.

John Ourand • October 21, 2024

A Serious Manfred

A candid chat with the commish about Major League Baseball’s evolving local media predicament, its strategy of pooling games, and the challenges inherent in iterating a national pastime.