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NFL Dance Partners & Legacy Media War Cries

Super-analyst Michael Nathanson offers a candid view of the sports rights dialectic taking place between the legacy media companies, who need these games more than ever, and the hyperscalers with all the money in the universe.

NFL
"The question I have is what these packages look like in the future. The NFL could create an A package and a B package, based solely on the quality of games. It would have more Chiefs and Bills games in the A package. But broadcasters like the packages the way they are; that’s where their station footprint is," says Michael Nathanson. Photo: Dustin Bradford/Getty Images
John Ourand
September 29, 2025

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It’s been a rough decade-plus for legacy media companies for all the obvious reasons: accelerated cord-cutting, increasingly expensive rights, a plethora of new consumer options, the rise of user-generated content, etcetera, etcetera. Oh, and the fact that their hyperscaled competitors are so disproportionately large. To wit: This year, Alphabet, the parent company of YouTube TV, plans to spend around $85 billion in capex. That’s the equivalent of about four Paramounts; nearly two WBDs; or close to three Fox Corps (Must be nice…!) Of course, there is nothing to stop these companies from eating up the sports media marketplace, too. Amazon has already replaced TNT as an NBA partner. Netflix outbid Fox for the Women’s World Cup.