Negotiations for the College Football Playoff’s media rights negotiations have starts, and pod hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand break down the media companies that will be involved and the likely winners once the CFP expands to add at least four more games. The hosts discuss the NFL’s request to have TV networks run ads for Taylor Swift’s upcoming movie and preview what to expect this week when Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs play on Thursday. As the NBA preps for a media rights negotiation, Marchand and Ourand look into what leagues can do to make their regular season games more valuable. This week’s episode sees the return of Karp’s Korner, as SBJ’s ratings guru Austin Karp breaks down MLB’s regular season ratings, provides an update on MLB’s post-season ratings and previews what to expect with MLB’s World Series ratings. Karp provides the reasons why national numbers are lagging local viewership trends in the sport.

Sean McManus, longtime CBS Sports chairman, talks about his career, working for legendary executives, and the NFL deal that changed CBS's fortunes. He also discusses the current state of sports media, including digital streaming and new sports rights deals. The hosts discuss alternate telecasts, Taylor Swift's influence on TV ratings, and recent sports news including ESPN parting ways with Van Gundy and Jackson.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred talks about the future of local media, blackouts, Apple, Peacock, ESPN, Yankees TV, sports gambling, different pitch clock, Orioles in Baltimore, and the A's in Oakland. Also discussed: retiring CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus and Taylor Swift.

A bunch of breaking news this week dominate this week’s topics, from Bob Iger’s decision to simulcast most of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” games on ESPN and ESPN New York’s decision to relinquish its 98.7 FM signal next year to Warner Bros. Discovery plan to launch a live sports add-on tier via its Max streaming service and the XFL and USFL’s plan to merge spring football leagues. Hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand have reported on all these stories and dissect why they are happening and explain how these moves will alter the sports media landscape. Now that we’re through two weeks of the 2023 NFL season, Marchand and Ourand dive into the biggest sports media storylines that have emerged, including YouTubeTV’s debut with “NFL Sunday Ticket,” the potential for “NFL RedZone” to cut into YouTubeTV’s subscriber numbers and the massive audience Amazon Prime brought to its first “Thursday Night Football” game of the season. Marchand and Ourand also tackle the impact Colorado coach Deion Sanders already has had on the college football landscape. Other topics include rights negotiation updates for the NBA, NASCAR, UFC and WWE. And Ourand pays homage to a week’s worth of great Orioles calls by MASN’s Kevin Brown.

Just hours before the first “Monday Night Football” game of the season, Disney and Charter reached a deal to restore ABC and ESPN on Spectrum cable systems. Disney’s Justin Connolly was one of the key executives on that deal, and he joins the pod’s first “Inside the News” segment. Connolly discusses what last weekend was like as the two sides had round-the-clock discussions to close the deal. Other topics include why the deal works for ESPN, whether this deal provides a blueprint for other distributors, what implications this deal has on ESPN’s planned direct-to-consumer service and how this deal will affect ESPN’s aggressiveness in acquiring sports rights. Following the interview, hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand offer their opinions on the deal and discuss the NFL’s first week of the 2023 regular season.ESPN analyst Marcus Spears joins as The Big Get and entertainingly outlines his progression from the NFL to ESPN. Spears talks about his new deal to stay at ESPN and the other opportunities that cropped up as he went through the negotiating process. Other topics include the media challenges involved with playing for bigger market teams; his influences in sports media; and an animated discussion of Paul Finebaum’s hairstyle.

All Disney networks, including ESPN, went dark on Charter’s Spectrum cable systems on Aug. 31, affecting close to15 million subscribers. Pod hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand discuss how ESPN and Charter got to this point and predict what should happen next. The outcome of this deal has tentacles well beyond just ESPN and Charter. It has big ramifications for the entire sports business. Just a couple of days before the start of the NFL’s regular season, Marchand and Ourand identify the NFL media story lines they will be following most closely this season. And they discuss Chris Fowler’s Instagram video explaining why he made several mistakes announcing a recent college football game. Fox Sports’ top NFL broadcast booth of Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen join the pod as The Big Get this week. The duo tell stories from last season when they replaced Joe Buck and Troy Aikman as the top crew. And they talk about the specter of another season calling games with Tom Brady waiting in the wings to take over as Fox’s top NFL analyst for the 2024-25 season. Marchand brings out his Brady Meter for this conversation. Burkhardt and Olsen also discuss some of the biggest sports media stories, including the current state of college athletics.Topics1:16 Who's Up/Who's Down5:58 ESPN-Charter24:10 NFL Preview26:12 Fowler's Flubs29:05 The Big Get: Kevin Burkhardt & Greg Olsen

Changes to the college football television landscape is the top topic on this week’s show, the hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand discussing the new Big Ten deals that take effect this season on CBS, Fox and NBC. The co-hosts discuss everything from the analysts that will be used on these games to Peacock’s role in streaming games. The hosts then turn their attention to the free-agency frenzy that had Stephen A. Smith’s “First Take” show compete with Skip Bayless’ “Undisputed.” The TV networks’ ratings dispute with the NFL, Nielsen and Amazon is one of the biggest topics in sports media today, and Marchand and Ourand talk about why the TV networks are so publicly at odds over Nielsen’s plan to incorporate first-party data from Amazon into its “Thursday Night Football” ratings report. The hosts then turn their attention to Warner Bros. Discovery Sports’ plan to get out of the regional sports network business. As always, Marchand and Ourand offer their picks on Who’s Up and Who’s Down for the week. This week, those picks include Patrick Crumb, Kevin Connors, Rob Manfred and Tony Romo. The hosts debut a new segment this week: the MandO Mailbag.1:46 Who’s Up/Who’s Down8:10 College Football Kickoff15:08 “First Take” v “Undisputed”21:01 Networks vs NFL vs Amazon on ratings27:05 WBD Sports leaves RSN business31:27 MandO Mailbag35:03 The Big Get: Mark Ingram II

Fantasy guru Matthew Berry joins the pod this week just a week after news broke that he raised $2 million for his Fantasy Life with an all-star roster of investors including everyone from Casey Wasserman and Tony Khan to Josh Allen and Joe Burrow. Berry discusses his move from ESPN to NBC and how he rode the rise of fantasy sports to create a career. A student of the sports media business, Berry opined on his thoughts of where the business is headed and how today’s sports media stars can amass audiences. Hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand discuss the biggest sports media news of the day: ESPN’s decision to part ways with Lee Fitting, the executive behind the massive success of College GameDay. Fitting oversaw the production behind all college and pro football at the network. Marchand and Ourand discuss daytime studio changes at ESPN and Fox shows “First Take” and “Undisputed.” The two hosts also highlight reader feedback from their regular disagreement over Amazon’s and Apple’s interest in sports media.Time stamps1:28 Who’s Up/Who’s Down5:07 ESPN and Lee Fitting7:54 The Fox and ESPN talent battle14:56 Apple and Amazon23:00 The Big Get: Matthew Berry

Less than two weeks after Arizona, Arizona State and Utah bolted the Pac-12 for the Big 12, Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark joins the show to explain how it all went down. Yormark details the Big 12’s media rights deals for ESPN and Fox Sports and the rationale behind his decision to renew those deals early. Yormark outlines his vision when he started at the conference a year ago and how closely the events of the past few months aligned with his plans. He spoke about his relationships in the business, including a recent phone call with his Pac 12 counterpart George Kliavkoff. And he makes his case for college basketball to be valued more by networks. As this marks the 100th episode of the Marchand & Ourand Sports Media Podcast, hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand discuss the top five sports media stories over the past 100 weeks, including changes at ESPN, the emergence of Amazon and Apple in the sports media business, the wild media success of the NFL, the pending media success of the NBA and the implosion of regional sports networks. Marchand and Ourand give their Who’s Up and Who’s Down over the past 100 episodes in sports media.TIME STAMPS1:48 Who’s Up/Who’s Down8:57 ESPN in transition15:11 Amazon v Apple22:50 NFL Media gains30:45 NBA Media future33:39 RSN implosion40:53 The Big Get: Brett Yormark

Media implications from the Pac-12’s demise make up the biggest topic in this week’s Marchand & Ourand Sports Media podcast, with hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand talking about Pac-12 missteps over the past 12 months, why some university presidents did not like the Apple deal and the changing media marketplace when it comes to sports rights. Marchand and Ourand identify the three main culprits responsible for the Pac-12’s demise. Conversation turned to the College Football Playoff, which currently is negotiating a new rights deal, and NBA, which will start negotiating in earnest early next year. This leads to a discussion of the overall market and why television companies and streamers are driving harder bargains on sports rights than they have in the past. Marchand and Ourand also discuss the plight of Orioles announcer Kevin Brown, who has not called the team’s games in two weeks. The hosts outline reasons why the team decided to keep their top announcer on the bench for two weeks and offer their opinions on the escalating situation.