NFL
John Ourand
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August 7, 2025
Footnotes on the ESPN-NFL Deal
There may not have been a lot of suitors for the NFL’s media assets, but Disney found a way to get what it needed while the league preserved its optionality.
John Ourand
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August 4, 2025
The ESPN Endgame
Disney’s much-anticipated earnings call this Wednesday may finally reveal Burbank’s plans for the future of ESPN—Flagship, the NFL deal, and the balance between managing cord-cutting and building the next frontier.
John Ourand
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July 28, 2025
Shell’s Bells
The questions and enigmas following Skydance’s finally approved acquisition of Paramount Global don’t seem to extend to CBS Sports, a no-drama zone amid a network in existential crisis. That’s largely because of David Berson’s even-keeled leadership, and Jeff Shell and David Ellison believe they can build around his CBS Sports
John Ourand
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July 24, 2025
The ESPN-NFL Media Deal Is Happening
The NFL is finally close to a deal with ESPN that would give the league an equity stake in the network, and offer ESPN total control over NFL Network and NFL RedZone. I know regular readers of The Varsity have been reading that sentence for the past 18 months now. But, really, the two sides are closer than ever.
John Ourand
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July 21, 2025
Stream Weaver
A candid conversation with Michael Nathanson, the exalted media analyst and MoffettNathanson namesake, who offers some scintillating hypotheses and observations about the NFL’s next auction winners, ESPN’s economics, and Apple’s sports media portfolio.
John Ourand
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July 7, 2025
The NFL-Skydance Billion-Dollar Question
Everyone in the sports-media industrial complex has been trying to game out the NFL’s strategy for exercising its change-of-control option in its CBS/Paramount deal. But the current idea gaining traction will throw everyone for a loop—especially the NHL and MLB.
Eriq Gardner
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June 24, 2025
A Warners ‘Matrix 5’ Battle & The NFL’s Sunday Ticket Showdown
News and notes from around the entertainment law universe: The looming battle over the F.C.C.’s ability to deregulate media ownership; the latest twists in the NFL’s ongoing antitrust drama over Sunday Ticket; and the lingering derivative rights questions following Alcon Entertainment’s deal to acquire Village Roadshow’s film library for $417.5 million.
John Ourand
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June 12, 2025
Rolapp Ditches His Bridesmaid Dress
It’s not easy being Roger Goodell’s number two. Now, Brian Rolapp, a longtime resident of the NFL commissioner shortlist, is at the precipice of taking a job with the PGA Tour, instead.
Size Doesn’t Matter: A Sports Streaming Morality Tale
Yesterday’s fine-tuned sports streaming-versus-broadcast math is rapidly becoming obsolete, with Amazon poised to take in billions more in ad revenue this year, Netflix targeting more than $3 billion, and streamers leaning into younger—albeit much smaller—audiences.