- The CW has found a solution for the streaming of its sports content, striking a four-year deal with ESPN that will see over 800 hours of content added to the ESPN Unlimited tier of the company’s app this summer.
- On the latest episode of the SBJ Sports Media Podcast, Josh Carpenter and I break down Disney’s decision — for now — not to spin off ESPN.
- NBC’s drew a preliminary audience of 19.6 million viewers for the Kentucky Derby, marking the race’s best audience since 1983 on ABC.
- DAZN confirmed to SBJ’s Tom Friend that it wants to house the NBA’s local broadcast streaming hub — whether the league launches it next season or beyond — in what could become a billion-dollar bidding war that also ropes in Amazon and YouTube. This comes on the heels of DAZN’s acquisition of ViewLift.
- ESPN EVP and Executive Editor/Sports News and Entertainment David Roberts will retire at the end of August after 22 years with the company. Sources confirmed to SBJ that ESPN SVP/Sports Studio and Entertainment Mike Foss, an SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree in 2025, is expected to take on a bigger role.
- Draymond Green will be making three appearances on “Inside the NBA” on ESPN, filling in for Kenny Smith starting on Wednesday. Green is repped on the media side by WIN Sports’ Josh Pyatt.
- My colleague Adam Stern was at the Miami Grand Prix over the wekeend, and noted Apple’s Eddy Cue during a panel re-asserted his contention — without any offering any empirical evidence — that F1 viewership is up on Apple TV compared to last year on ESPN. “The ratings were way up over where they last year on linear for the first three races significantly,” said Cue. Meanwhile, a number of folks on X had a good laugh at this stream of the race from a Florida highway traffic camera.
- Tubi has rolled out a new docuseries dubbed “Destination World Cup 2026″ that follows USMNT MF Weston McKennie, Wales MF Harry Wilson and Spain D Marc Cucurella.
- Delta Air Lines has a new deal with the Fox One platform ahead of the World Cup that will give Delta SkyMiles members a 24-hour complimentary trial to Fox One via the Delta Sync service.
- UFL viewership at midpoint of the regular season was up 3%, with games through Week 5 across Fox, ABC, ESPN, FS1 and NFL Network averaging 631,000 viewers.
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