Eriq Gardner • October 8, 2024

The Sad Case of Jack Nicklaus vs. “Jack Nicklaus”

Fifteen years after signing away his life rights to a business partner, golfing legend Jack Nicklaus is fighting a messy, potentially precedent-setting legal war to reclaim his name and image—including from an A.I. double.

John Ourand • October 8, 2024

ESPN & MLB Prepare for Couples Counseling

ESPN, understandably miffed by the league’s much cheaper deals with other platforms, wants it both ways—to decrease the cost of its current rights package and also get its mitts on local broadcasts to power its forthcoming streaming service. Can both sides coexist happily?

John Ourand • October 4, 2024

No R.S.N. in Sight

The latest news, notes, and twists in the Diamond Sports telenovela.

John Ourand • September 30, 2024

Stickman

Gary Bettman, now in his fourth decade running the NHL, has seen it all—labor headaches, expansion, media existentialism, and more. Here, he talks candidly about the league’s distribution strategy, the decaying R.S.N. picture, new markets, and technological changes. Thankfully, he doesn’t make any puck jokes.

John Ourand • September 27, 2024

Zucker’s Sir Charles Play

Sources tell me that Jeff Zucker is close to financing a new venture involving Charles Barkley’s production company—a move that would unite two third-act stars from different fields and add the latest piece to RedBird IMI’s evolving thesis.

John Ourand • September 24, 2024

Fox’s Friday Night Lights

As the Big Ten expanded, Fox tried to extend its successful noontime programming strategy to another traditionally uncompetitive dead zone: Friday nights. So far, it’s working.

John Ourand • September 20, 2024

Mahomes-Burrow vs. Harris-Trump

Early ratings suggest that, despite historical precedents, this election has zero hope of competing with the NFL for the hearts and minds of viewers. Welcome to America.

John Ourand • September 17, 2024

Post Malone

Everyone in the industry seems to think that cable cowboy John Malone, a WBD board member whose parentco owns a large minority stake in Charter, engineered a tidy affiliate package between his two entities. But what if the reality is a little more complex?

John Ourand • September 12, 2024

Caitlin Expectations

A candid conversation with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert on the league’s renaissance season and once-unthinkable $200 million per year media rights deal.

John Ourand • September 10, 2024

Full Nielsen

After enraging the sports media community last year by attempting to integrate Amazon’s numbers into its data, Nielsen will use some first-party data in its calculations for the NFL this season. But the devil is in the details.

John Ourand • September 6, 2024

Will NFL Media & ESPN Ever Tie the Knot?

The league’s three-year attempt to unload the entity, which controls the NFL Network and RedZone, is the latest casualty of the declining cable business.

John Ourand • September 4, 2024

The DirecTV Revenge Fantasy

News and notes on the existential fears—both real and imagined—of distribution executives as the future of the Venu sports streamer appears increasingly tenuous.

John Ourand • August 29, 2024

MLB’s Brewing Bidding War

I’m told that several of the world’s biggest media and technology companies—Amazon, Apple, Google/YouTube, and NBCUniversal—are checking in with MLB on a regular basis about the possibility of getting local rights as they come available.

John Ourand • August 27, 2024

Bend It Like Berman

National Women’s Soccer League commissioner Jessica Berman opens up about the league’s new partnerships, the soaring value of Angel City FC, expansion, and her long-term labor peace.

John Ourand • August 23, 2024

Bronfman’s Closing Pitch

A close reading of Edgar Bronfman Jr.’s leaked pitch deck for investors in his long-shot bid for Paramount Global.