SPORTS
ESPN’s One True MLB Outcome
The network is betting its $550 million link-up with MLB.TV will attract a host of new users to its ESPN Unlimited app—and point in the direction of its future as a bundler.
John Ourand
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February 23, 2026
The NHL Gold Medal Hangover
The U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team’s exhilarating gold medal victory may be dampened by an inconvenient truth for the NHL: Olympic success hasn’t usually translated into ratings and attendance gains.
John Ourand
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February 19, 2026
The NFL Media Rights Industrial Complex
As analysts scramble to calculate estimates for the NFL’s market-busting media rights, the league must consider the long-term viability of its linear TV partners—and whether sky-high, cutthroat negotiations could amount to a mortal wound.
The NHL’s ‘Heated Rivalry’ Fever
Between the Winter Olympics and ‘Heated Rivalry,’ hockey is suddenly back in the zeitgeist. But with NHL rights locked up in the U.S. through 2028, the league is under pressure to capitalize on the excitement before a potential NFL rights shake-up consumes all the industry oxygen.
John Ourand
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February 12, 2026
Inside the NBA’s Tankonomics
With a number of teams tanking and the usual load-management mishegas, the NBA regular season is veering into spring training territory just as the league is trying to justify its multibillion-dollar value to media partners. As one executive recently put it, “The majority of the value of these media deals is centered around the postseason.”
Goodell’s Bidding War Begins…
The big question plaguing sports media executives who descended on the Bay Area last week: How much will the networks have to pay to maintain their NFL packages when the league opts out of its deals in the fall and the trillion-dollar streamers push their chips into the middle of the table?
Julia Alexander
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February 9, 2026
An NFL World Domination Reality Check
Not content to preside over the most-watched sport in the U.S., Roger Goodell is preparing for an aggressive international expansion. But can America’s new national pastime truly go global?
John Ourand
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February 5, 2026
The NFL’s Big Chill
By moving up the timeline of its rights negotiations to this year, the NFL has thrown the entire sports market into chaos, as secondary leagues (and they’re all secondary to the Shield) scramble to make new deals while the networks prepare to dig deeper than ever.
Peacock’s “Legendary February” Litmus Test
NBC is expecting droves of new subscribers ahead of a trifecta of major sports events: the Super Bowl, Winter Olympics, and the NBA All-Star Game. Now it just needs to keep them.
John Ourand
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February 2, 2026
Requiem for an R.S.N. Dream
Main Street Sports’s wind-down this spring will cap the slow-motion decline of a certain type of local sports deal. As teams look to their respective leagues for safety, and the market resets, is there any future for the regional sports model?
John Ourand
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January 29, 2026
Exile From Main Street
The embattled R.S.N. Main Street Sports owns local rights to 29 teams across three leagues, but it’s running out of money and options in its quest to stay afloat. Despite whispers of a mystery investor, a Monday deadline is looming, and leagues and executives are set to flee.
Paramount’s Early Knockout
By most metrics, the UFC’s Paramount+ debut was an unqualified success, even as diehard fans complained about the abundance of post-P.P.V. advertising. How can David Ellison & Co. build on the momentum?
John Ourand & Dylan Byers
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January 26, 2026
The WaPo Extinction Event
The Washington Post cuts, which could affect as many as 300 employees, according to sources, are the culmination of a two-year effort by C.E.O. Will Lewis to fundamentally transform the paper and reverse hundreds of millions in annual losses. In that effort, Lewis has decided to focus the Post’s editorial investment on a few core coverage areas—national security, politics, etcetera—and not sports.
John Ourand & Eriq Gardner
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January 22, 2026
The People v. Darian Mensah
Assessing Duke’s epic lawsuit and a full slate of other football-related cases approaching their day in court with Eriq Gardner, Puck’s resident legal expert.
NBC’s Golden Ratio
A partnership with Nippon TV will give NBC access to new technology meant to optimize its sports content for younger audiences. It’s a timely play—but one that also belies Peacock’s larger problem with viewer engagement.
John Ourand
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January 15, 2026
The ESPYs White Party
ESPN is moving the ESPYs, its moribund 33-year-old awards franchise, to New York, sandwiched between MLB’s All-Star Game and Michael Rubin’s Fanatics Fest. It’s a savvy play.
Dish, Disney & The Micropayment Dilemma
The legal battle between Disney and Dish Network over Sling TV’s “Day Pass” belies a much more pressing question facing networks and distributors: How do you engage diehard and casual sports fans in an era of unlimited choice?