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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

📺 Fox has revealed the launch date and pricing for its Fox One streaming service as it finally enters the digital game, having focused on its linear networks.

🎙️The Athletic is adding Pablo Torre Finds Out and The Sports Gossip Show under its podcast umbrella.

🎸 Country singer Zach Bryan burned a Barstool Sports flag, reigniting his issues with the platform after a public breakup with Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

5 Questions for the ESPN-NFL Media deal

The ESPN-NFL Media deal was finally announced on Tuesday night ahead of Disney’s August earnings call. As had been widely reported, ESPN acquired NFL Network and RedZone Channel in exchange for a 10% equity stake in the network.

So what does it all mean? What’s next? Where do we go from here? This is what we will be watching in the weeks, months, and years to come.

1) Friend or foe? - ESPN has always walked a tightrope balancing their journalistic responsibility and their business interests. With the NFL as an equity partner, that tightrope hasn’t just gotten smaller, it’s completely disappeared. Will the way ESPN covers the NFL change at all moving forward? Or will ESPN be expected to protect the shield? One thing is for certain, don’t expect a Playmakers revival anytime soon.

2) Daily coverage - ESPN already devotes most of their daily coverage to the NFL, even during the offseason. Free agency, draft, training camp, schedule release, it’s all covered scrupuously. But will we see the NFL come to dominate the airwaves even more on the ESPN family of networks moving forward… if that’s even possible?

3) DTC dreams - ESPN is making this deal with their new direct-to-consumer platform front and center in their minds. What remains to be seen is just how heavily the NFL will be involved on the new platform and what specifically will be featured beyond NFL Network. The bigger the NFL library, the more appealing it will certainly be for fans.

4) Monday Night Football - An equity relationship between ESPN and the NFL may be most valuable for the sports network when it comes to future rights deals. It wasn’t that long ago that ESPN and the NFL’s relationship was in danger and Monday Night Football was given a slate of clunkers. Now that ESPN has invested millions in overhauling talent and presentation, it has a much better schedule and even flex capabilities. Will the NFL do even more to load up the MNF schedule in future years given it has a direct financial stake in the property? And maybe most importantly, will ESPN be given favored nation status in rights negotiations moving forward? With a possible reworking of the TV deals coming in 2029, ESPN may have a significant leg up on their competition.

5) Crossing over - NFL Network has seen a reduction in live programming given the challenges facing everyone in the television business. A relationship with ESPN can certainly help the league network find its footing again. But how much crossover will we see between the two networks, especially when they may be duplicating efforts at the NFL Draft and other high profile NFL events? Surely the first order of business has to be reuniting Peter Schrager and Kyle Brandt.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

Nothing wrong with a mother showing up with her son on an interview with NFL Network… right? Maybe?

Our lives are much, much, much, much richer for having John Kruk in them.

Eat your heart out Adam Schefter, George Kittle is here to break some news about the NFL banning smelling salts.

🔦 IN THE SPOTLIGHT ☀️

It’s been more than a year since one of the best sportswriters of his generation, Zach Lowe, actually wrote about sports. While the sports media may have pivoted to video a long time ago, does the written word still actually matter… anywhere?

🗣️ NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

"The vibes of it are very strange for me, and I'm not really sure what Tom was trying to portray with this." - The reviews are in for Tom Brady’s Built in Birmingham (including from Seton O’Connor at The Dan Patrick Show) and it’s not clear why he thought any of this was a good idea.

“The questions were never that great. The interactions were a little bit clunky and awkward. And then you’d sometimes have people ask questions and you’d have characters in-character not trying to break kayfabe and it just made for an awkward dance.” - Ariel Helwani isn’t going to miss WWE PLE press conferences, even if it gives the company a way to not address Brock Lesnar’s controversial return.

“Like you do me. Like you owe me 5,900. You basically told me, ‘I’mma pay you when I get ready.” - Shannon Sharpe to Chad Johnson, who apparently owes him money. Maybe a gig on First Take would help.

🔥THE CLOSER🔥

A PGA Tour renaissance?

It’s a good news and bad news in the golfing world this week when it comes to their media relationships and rights deals.

First, the bad - the USGA is struggling to gain a new media rights partner and is projecting a significant loss in revenue from its next TV deal in 2027. That may not come as a surprise as much like the current NCAA deal with ESPN, the USGA contract is one that’s top heavy. It contains the US Open but also all the various amateur tournaments under the USGA umbrella. While some of those more niche events may be a tougher sell, the US Open should still be an attractive property for networks.

And that’s proven by the second point. This week CBS announced that its PGA Tour ratings were up a whopping 17% versus last year for their best season since 2018.

Of course, CBS was helped dramatically by Rory McIlroy winning The Masters to complete the career grand slam and Scottie Scheffler winning the PGA Championship. But the growth was consistent throughout the season. CBS announced that 14 of 19 final rounds saw year-over-year growth.

The rebound was much needed after last year’s declines and the overall worries about the state of the game with the ongoing cloud over the PGA Tour that is LIV Golf. It’s not only important for that reason, but for the fact that there is an established #1 golfer in Scottie Scheffler who can take the baton from Tiger Woods. There are still questions out there, but for now, the PGA Tour can be encouraged looking forward knowing they have a much stronger hand to play than last year at this time.