Adam Silver Is the Winner in the Battle for the NBA’s Rights Future

Thus, as the cable-tv-dominated status quo crumbles, pro sports will develop a new playbook, centered around better telling player stories. Players will also have more opportunity to tell and sell these stories themselves, direct-to-consumer:

Media companies will increasingly have to choose what to own and what to co-pilot. Not every new venture needs to exist as an O&O product, nor does it have to exist within a centralized environment. Licensing out characters to various retailers, or allowing small merchants to use beloved characters in their own designs sought out by different c... See more

While some leagues are more diversified than the NFL, the major predicament faced by traditional sports leagues is the same: big media pays for big sports because of big advertising. Big advertising in 2020 has more places to put it's money than ever before, and American consumers are increasingly spending their entertainment time with streaming se... See more

Smith plays in a different lane than traditional sports journalists, and ESPN’s highest-profile reporters say Smith is the best at what he does.

“Booker could just come out on social media or anywhere else and be like, ‘No, that’s just not true,’ and then you have the back and forth,” Van Pelt said. “The back and forth then becomes its own content.”