John Ourand • March 21, 2024

Ken Griffin and the $7.5 Billion Dolphins Deal That Wasn’t

Griffin’s bid for a minority stake in the team, which was foiled by a thwarted path to control, nevertheless creates a new high-water mark for the NFL and its “membership” of billionaires.

John Ourand • March 19, 2024

The Season of Pitaro Magical Thinking

News and notes on the topics percolating around arena corporate suites as March Madness beckons: the groundswell of support, no matter how fantastical, for Pitaro as the Iger succession process begins, and Pete Distad steps into Spulu.

John Ourand • March 15, 2024

College Football’s Final Fantasy

A group of 20-odd executives have banded together to unofficially explore the further migration of college football into a more professionalized and exploitable realm. It’s the latest micro-escalation in what increasingly seems like a foregone conclusion.

Julia Alexander • March 12, 2024

Netflix’s Live Sports Vulcan Chess

Rival executives have characterized the streamer’s recent live events as a sign of desperation—or simply P.R. stunts to jumpstart its ad revenue efforts. But this critique underestimates the Sarandos strategy and its ultimate ambition.

John Ourand • March 12, 2024

Goodell Vibrations

Is the NFL commissioner angling to add an 18th game to the schedule? And will the league’s media partners, which aren’t exactly sitting on mountains of cash, put up a fight?

John Ourand • March 4, 2024

Amazon’s $115M Local Sports Rescue Mission

Sure, Amazon’s lifeline investment in Diamond Sports left plenty of the industry’s top executives scratching their heads. But did Prime just gain an unassailable first-mover advantage in local sports streaming?

John Ourand • February 29, 2024

Blood Diamond

Yes, yes, Diamond is emerging from bankruptcy with that $115 million Amazon dowry, but the industry’s largest owner of regional sports networks has a whole new slew of problems to solve now.

John Ourand • February 26, 2024

MLB’s Pantsgate

News and notes on a shocking, stupid, and increasingly serious micro-scandal.

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.