John Ourand • February 22, 2024

As Goodell as It Gets

A morality tale about the time that the newly expanded College Football Playoff thought it could program its games during a Saturday slot that the NFL has dominated for years. Nice try, kids!

John Ourand • February 20, 2024

The Sports Bundle Holy Wars Have Begun

Spulu wasn’t just a way for frenemies Disney, Fox, and WBD to join forces to solve a consumer problem. It was also a warning shot at Paramount and Comcast.

John Ourand • February 15, 2024

The Mysteries of Indianapolis

All the dish and dealflow talk emanating from the heartland as All-Star weekend sets in: the NBA rights permutations, the Diamond deal, and much more.

John Ourand • February 13, 2024

The NFL’s Lawyers Aren’t Subscribing to the ESPN-Fox-WBD Super Sports Streamer

I learned this weekend in Vegas that the league is having its lawyers examine its contracts with ESPN and Fox to see if it has an out.

John Ourand • February 13, 2024

McManus in the Arena

A quick Super Bowl Sunday touch-base with the outgoing leader of CBS Sports, Sean McManus, and his handpicked successor, David Berson.

John Ourand • February 8, 2024

Sports Media’s Three-Headed Monster

Here in Vegas, on the protracted eve of the Super Bowl, everyone is talking about the Disney-Fox-WBD deal and what it means. Is this a cable killer? An experiment? And who is really in charge? The only consensus is that everyone is pissed that they weren’t looped in sooner.

Julia Alexander • January 31, 2024

Are We Living In a Sports Content Bubble?

Conventional wisdom, spurred on by Netflix, suggests that it is smarter to invest in sports-adjacent documentary content than exorbitant and ephemeral sports rights packages. But, obviously, it’s much more complicated.

John Ourand • January 30, 2024

The Orioles Prepare for Private Equity Control

The Angelos family is selling the team to two P.E. billionaires, David Rubenstein and Mike Arougheti, for $1.725 billion.

Julia Alexander • November 29, 2023

Amazon’s NFL Retail Therapy Experiment

What Prime’s $100 million bet on a Black Friday game portends for the future of live sports on streaming.

Julia Alexander • October 24, 2023

Is the NFL on YouTube the Future of Sports?

YouTube TV’s investment in the Sunday Ticket bundle seems like merely the first step in Alphabet’s larger opportunity of turning the one-time hub of cat videos into the future home for all video—on mobile, sure, but also TV.

Julia Alexander • August 22, 2023

Apple’s Messi Complex

Is a streamer’s money better spent on live sports or on creating new TV series and films? For Apple, it may be a unique value prop.

Theodore Schleifer • April 4, 2023

Gaming the Bezos-NFL Silent Auction

Is Jeff Bezos really sitting out the chance to land the most coveted job in Washington? Or has he found a way to circumvent the public campaign process for the Commanders entirely?

Julia Alexander • January 11, 2023

The Amazon Sports Bundling Fallacy

Why would Amazon, which has the most appealing bundle on the planet, spin out sports? Especially when a cleaner option could exist within its own digital walls.

Julia Alexander • November 30, 2022

The Sports-Streaming Mess Is Just Starting

The World Cup was supposed to promise soccer fans a plethora of streaming options. Instead, it demonstrates just how far the industry has to go to nail live sports.

Dylan Byers • May 13, 2022

The Tom Brady Conundrum

Is Tom Brady worth nearly $400 million as a broadcaster? The critics say no. But, they also concede, what is Fox without the N.F.L.—and, ergo, without him?