The Sports Media Podcast

The podcast discusses streaming problems with YouTubeTV and Bally Sports' app, predicts the NBA's next rights deal, talks about MLB's successful season despite World Series ratings, and explores MLS post-season run on AppleTV+. There is also a discussion about sports media listening tour, high costs of streaming services like Bally Sports, blackouts, territorial rights, and the future of sports media.

DirecTV's top content executive Rob Thun discusses the future of sports media and the problems with regional sports networks. Fox's Joe Davis talks about preparing for the World Series and the impact of the pitch clock. They also discuss the challenges of calling games in different stadiums and the changing landscape of sports broadcasting.

As rumors about ESPN’s streaming plans continue to swirl around, hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand separate fact from fiction. They look at the types of companies that would be interested in taking an ownership stake in ESPN and discuss the timing for when ESPN takes its main network – the mothership – direct-to-consumer. Other topics have the hosts handicapping expected winners in the rights negotiations happening with the NBA, NASCAR and College Football Play. They discuss Marchand’s report of Pat McAfee paying guests and offer a review of the MLB playoffs so far. Marchand and Ourand offer a tribute to the retiring NHL analyst Barry Melrose. And they talk about Chris LaPlaca, ESPN’s long-time communications executive who announced his retirement this week.

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