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Breaking News from the Bench to the Bleachers
Last month arrived the news that the Department of Justice is examining the NFL and MLB – and one might presume other sports leagues – for potential antitrust violations in how their teams collectively sell and structure media deals. This is the next logical step in the percolating frustration of many sports fans over their…
Mark your calendars. Or don’t, because the date might change. The NFL schedule release, which has landed in the second week of May for the past five or six years running, could come a week later than usual in 2026. NFL VP of broadcast planning Mike North appeared on the It’s Always Game Day in…
We are a week and a half into the NBA playoffs, and the league continues to see strong viewership numbers. Through 27 telecasts, the 2026 NBA playoffs are the most viewed since 1993. As of Sunday, the NBA is averaging 3.84 million viewers for first-round playoff games on ABC, NBC, ESPN, and Prime Video. That’s…
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As we approach the end of April, reports on the NFL’s ongoing negotiations for new media rights deals have slowed considerably. We’ve certainly gotten plenty of headlines about challenges the NFL might face from the federal government, or smaller rights deals the league might strike with the likes of YouTube. But when it comes to…
The 2025-2026 NBA regular season is complete, and the NBA Playoffs are underway. Pretty soon, we’ll crown this season’s championship team. Before that, you have the chance to crown the championship announcing team. We want your perspectives on how the various local TV broadcast booths did this season. It’s a particularly interesting year, as we’ve…
The WNBA is stepping into a new era in 2026, and the numbers back it up. The league announced a record-setting 216-game schedule, paired with its most expansive national broadcast lineup to date. This marks the first season under a newly structured media rights agreement, one designed to push the league’s visibility to new heights, […] The post WNBA unveils record 216-game schedule with massive TV reach appeared first on ClutchPoints.
Despite NBC president Jon Miller recently discussing interest his network fielded from streaming services looking to buy the upcoming Big Ten Championship game, it appears as if the network didn’t have much choice in the matter. According to a report by college football insider Brett McMurphy of On3, “NBC had no authority to keep Fox…
This season marks the first of the WNBA's new rights deal.
As the NFL faces bombardment from seemingly every corner of Washington over its migration of more games to streaming, the league made its first reported response last Friday. According to a report by Joe Flint in The Wall Street Journal, the NFL met with senior officials at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday to justify…
Just as politicians in Washington, D.C. are determining whether professional sports leagues like the NFL or MLB should be able to continue selling media rights collectively, many power brokers in college athletics are advocating for collegiate sports to receive the same special treatment as the pros. As it stands, the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL…
The next World Baseball Classic won’t be sold separately, according to Sports Media Watch. Rights to the 2028 tournament will be negotiated alongside MLB’s broader media rights talks. Every national contract the league currently holds — Fox, ESPN, NBC, Netflix, Apple, TBS — expires that same year, and rather than negotiate WBC rights separately, the…
This originally appeared in Friday’s edition of The A Block, Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter with the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis. Sign up here and be the first to know everything going on in the sports media world. Lawmakers and appointed officials in our nation’s capital have kicked the anti-NFL sentiment into overdrive…
Brian Windhorst thinks the NBA's lucrative media rights deal is decaying the player popularity and star merit.
NASCAR got a 40% rights fee bump in its latest TV deal. The cost? Fewer people actually watching the races. The recent Cup Series race at Bristol on FS1 averaged just 1.945 million viewers. According to Braylon Breeze of RaceDay Report, that is the first time a Fox Sports race has averaged fewer than 2…
Mike Breen recently voiced his frustration over the new media rights deal, which stipulates that national networks will exclusively broadcast the first round of the playoffs
The league’s new TV deals introduce a stark reality.
[Editor’s note: Welcome to Athlon Sports’ poll of the day, where we ask readers to weigh in on the biggest topic of the day. Thanks for voting, and be sure to sound off in the comment section.] There was a report in the Wall Street Journal Thursday that the Department of Justice is investigating ...
Fox wants in on the NFL’s five-game standalone package for the 2026 season. According to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, YouTube, Netflix, and Fox are all in play for the mini-slate, which the NFL has been shopping as it renegotiates its broader media rights landscape. The league has presented bidders with a menu of more…
The first formal investigation into the longstanding antitrust exemption granted to the NFL under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 is officially upon us. On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice has begun examining potential anticompetitive practices by the NFL in how it sells its media rights. Under the exemption granted…
Spurred on by a change-of-ownership clause in its broadcast rights deal with CBS, the NFL is trying to redo several of its agreements with other networks ahead of the 2026 season. The league could see around a 50 percent uptick in revenue from Paramount-owned CBS, and those talks reportedly have strong momentum. But as seen…
Washington’s growing scrutiny of the league is deeply layered.
The WNBA is full-steam ahead for the 2026 season after finally inking a new collective bargaining agreement last month. Fans will be in for an overhaul of the viewing experience this year, as NBC and Prime Video join the league’s assemblage of partners as an extension of the NBA’s new 11-year media rights package. The…
We’ve written at length about what the NFL’s quest to renegotiate its media rights deals this offseason means for the sports world. Networks are preparing to “rebalance” their sports portfolios in order to afford the NFL’s new asking price. Leagues are now trying to beat the NFL to market in hopes of securing their slice…
