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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

📺 RSNs in trouble (again). In a follow-up on last week’s news that DAZN was exploring a purchase of Main Street Sports Group (the parent company of what used to the Fox Sports regional networks), we have now learned that the company and its local sports networks could shutter in a matter of weeks if the DAZN sale fails.

🏈 Johnny Boxing. As Texas A&M hosted its first College Football Playoff game this weekend, both ESPN and Bleacher Report tapped Johnny Manziel to contribute to their broadcasts. Unfortunately, Manziel missed both opportunities after seemingly attending the Netflix boxing match in Miami the night before. Manziel has apologized, but declined to reveal the precise reasoning for his absence.

🖥️ Portnoy vs. Big Ten. In emails made public after a FOIA request by Front Office Sports, Ohio State officials called the addition of Barstool’s Dave Portnoy to the Fox Sports roster “disappointing” while suggesting he was banned from all Big Ten campuses for the network’s Big Noon Kickoff pregame show. Portnoy called the revelations “hilarious.”

🏈 Pat’s tease. Saturday on College GameDay, Pat McAfee hosted the final charity kicking contest of the season at Kyle Field in College Station. Two different times, McAfee teased that the competition might be over for good. The contest has generated millions in donations and giveaways to winning students across the country, but McAfee pays it all out of pocket.

🏒 Flyers suspension. The Philadelphia Flyers suspended radio play-by-play announcer Tim Saunders two games for an “inappropriate comment” he made live on air last week. Saunders could be heard, allegedly on the digital stream of the radio call, suggesting that someone “blow” him.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

The final destiny of regional sports networks

Less than a year after the Main Street Sports Group officially came out of bankruptcy, the owner of the majority of America’s regional sports networks is back in dire straits.

Sports Business Journal reported over the weekend that prior news about a potential acquisition of Main Street by British sports streaming company DAZN was actually a more concerning story that it initially seemed. If DAZN does not agree to terms with Main Street, the expectation (among league partners in the NBA, NHL and MLB) is the company will shut down by next spring.

Such a shutdown would be particularly foreboding for pro basketball and hockey teams that are in the middle of their seasons. The leagues, according to SBJ, believe Main Street (which operates the FanDuel Sports Networks) could actually fold as soon as January, leaving dozens of teams in a lurch during the stretch run. Main Street has reportedly already missed a payment to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Main Street’s dissolution would create a frenzy for leagues, which would work to bring streaming broadcasts to their platforms, and teams, which would scurry to strike new partnerships with local linear networks. The end-game for local sports consumption would, in effect, be accelerated to the present moment.

By now, every league has a backup plan. Whether on their own app or subscription service or an out-of-market platform like YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket, the actual transfer of broadcasts likely won’t be too much of an issue. There may be some hiccups, but games are already available on these platforms.

The bigger issue is the economics.

As SBJ reported, even the small-market San Antonio Spurs make nearly $30 million annually from Main Street. Taking pricing from the Phoenix Suns’ subscription service, viewers would pay roughly $110 a year to watch games online. The Spurs would need more than 270,000 subscribers in order to break even directly. Add in some money from a local TV partner and you shrink that target, but this math shows why teams are terrified. Local games are lucky to get near 270,000 viewers. Convincing that many people to pay yearly for the right to watch games is a daunting idea.

Television revenue accounts for a huge portion of league revenue and team payroll. Local rights fees make up a decent chunk of that. If Main Street’s dissolution disrupts this revenue stream more suddenly than expected, teams could very well be reeling as soon as next summer.

One could hope that, as with the legendary Paramount and Warner Bros. movie studios out in Hollywood, modern media companies could swoop in to help. MLB’s deal with ESPN for its MLB TV service is one example, as is Amazon’s deal to house NBA League Pass. However, these are both for out-of-market games.

Reimagining the distribution and finances of in-market local broadcasts is a far greater task, and one that everyone was hoping would not come this soon.

🎺 AROUND AA 🎺

The worst sports media story of 2025: The Mary Kate Cornett controversy and fallout

The final slate of our annual Awfulies went out late last week at Awful Announcing, awarding some of the best and worst in sports media from 2025.

We awarded the Worst Sports Media Story Of the Year to the coverage of Ole Miss student Mary Kate Cornett, who was falsely rumored to be having an illicit affair with her boyfriend's father. Talent at Barstool Sports as well as ESPN’s Pat McAfee brought the rumor to air, at which point Cornett and her father threatened legal action.

Dave Portnoy issued an immediate apology and clarification on behalf of Barstool, while McAfee took months before addressing the situation live on his show.

Click to read more on the saga and what it tells us about the new Sports Media Bro Industrial Complex and how it operates these days.

👏 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🗣️

• ESPN will continue to air the Heisman Trophy ceremony for the next six years under a new agreement that will keep the event on the only network it has ever appeared on. The most recent edition drew 4.3 million viewers.

• Dana White’s controversial and dangerous slap fighting promotion Power Slap drew 1 billion views per month in 2025, according to White. The promotion recently moved live cards to YouTube, where they draw as many as 10 million viewers apiece on top of 14 million followers on Instagram and TikTok combined.

• Local readers were in the dark as Georgetown head coach Ed Cooley threw a water bottle at a child in frustration after a loss. No Washington Post article could be found until more than 12 hours later. In the meantime, readers were given an AI-generated Associated Press story.

📣 NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

“As a fan, I want to see the other 11 teams that have a legitimate chance of winning a national championship. I think you and I, and Katie [George], having seen Notre Dame in person this year, I think you and I both feel that Notre Dame had a legitimate chance to compete for a national championship this year.” - ESPN’s Jesse Palmer, while calling Tulane-Ole Miss in the College Football Playoff

“I will continue to let everyone out there run with a fake narrative, and at the end of the day, perception always wins over reality. I love all of you who genuinely support me through good and bad, like you’ve done for years.” - Johnny Manziel, on Instagram, addressing his absence from Texas A&M’s CFP clash with Miami

“She loves sports, but she had an entertainment, pop culture personality that we thought really could appeal to our members. So as we do more sports content, or more unscripted content, or more entertainment content, she felt like she could fit in in many different places.” - Netflix sports exec Gabe Spitzer on newly hired host Elle Duncan

️‍🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

Netflix vs. YouTube in the battle of algos

In the aftermath of Netflix striking deals with numerous podcast production companies to exclusively distribute their video, one conversation with a top producer in the industry has stuck with me.

The Ringer, Barstool and iHeartMedia are going to make a heap of money to move video episodes off YouTube and onto Netflix. But they are also throwing a Hail Mary to fend off the strange evolution of the Google-owned platform.

As YouTube has grown as a television product and also a vertical video feed, the platform has changed how it works for top creators. Now geared more toward discovery, YouTube has seemingly grown more interested in driving audiences toward their new favorite creators than the ones they already love.

A top sports podcast producer estimated to me that the vast majority of viewers on YouTube of late have been “new,” meaning they are not subscribers but clicked a video in their feed that was delivered by YouTube’s algorithm. The fierce chase to catch TikTok by mimicking TikTok has begun to change YouTube completely.

Nearly all Netflix content, save for the “Continue Watching” tab, is put in front of viewers this way. Netflix suggests films, movies and comedy specials based upon a subscriber’s watch history. Podcasts will pour into that same slipstream.

So one way to look at this shift is that it is a competition between discovery systems. Whether it’s The Bill Simmons Podcast, Spittin’ Chiclets or John Middlekauff’s 3 and Out, the new slate of Netflix-exclusive video shows are fleeing one platform that has become built around an algorithm for another. If the advantage of serving a loyal fan base on YouTube has diminished, the loss of what that platform has to offer over Netflix has also diminished.

Perhaps other shows maintain a stronger recurring audience than the ones produced by the person I spoke with, but I have a feeling (also as a YouTube user) that they are not alone. If these shows are able to develop a new, untapped audience on Netflix, the experiment will have paid off — even beyond the hefty licensing pricetag.