Welcome back to The Varsity, my twice-weekly private email on the money and egos that lubricate the sports media trade. Happy Bally Sports R.S.N.s Return to Comcast Day to all who celebrate! Also, you know the drill: Stop forwarding this email or be prepared to hear Marchand’s spiel about adding Bikram yoga to the ’28 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Many of the most significant au courant storylines from The Varsity's cinematic universe—from the Warner Bros. Discovery suit against the NBA to the Sunday Ticket class action judgment against the NFL—seem to be winding their way through the legal system. So make sure you read my partner Eriq Gardner’s forthcoming piece in tonight’s issue of What I’m Hearing. Eriq goes deep into FuboTV’s lawsuit against Venu, the NFLPA’s arbitration loss to Panini (and the six degrees of separation with Michael Rubin), and the stunning reversal of that $4.7 billion NFL verdict. (Sign up here.)

Also, for those inclined: Katie Strang and Dan Robson have written the definitive story of Sportsnet’s decision to fire Jeff Marek, the popular hockey analyst. “Marek had come under scrutiny from the NHL during the first round of the draft for allegedly revealing to a friend which players teams were drafting moments before those picks were publicly announced,” they write. “The NHL shared concerns about the situation with the Nevada Gaming Control Board, which probed further.”

I’ve previously explored some of the complications stemming from the emergent role that legalized gaming plays in today’s sports media ecosystem. By and large, the challenges have been small and irregular, such as the NBA’s Jontay Porter saga earlier this year. And, in virtually all cases, leagues and organizations have been unsurprisingly careful and thoughtful and swift to act decisively after trouble arises. So I’m hardly surprised that Sportsnet didn’t miss a beat. After all, those leagues and mediacos know that regulated gaming is core to their future economic growth, and they aren’t going to let bad apples spoil it.

Let’s get to it…

This is a late-breaking story that hit as we were about to hit send on this email. As noted above, keep your eyes out for Eriq Gardner’s email that will come later tonight. I, of course, will have much more on this in Monday’s Varsity. It probably goes without saying, but this is a massive win for Roger Goodell and the NFL. (Sign up for What I’m Hearing here.)

1. A Norby succession update: Norby Williamson left ESPN back in April, shortly after the Pat McAfee spat, following a 40-year career that led him to become one of the network’s most powerful behind-the-scenes executives. And in the intervening months, Burke Magnus, ESPN’s president of content, has been diligent about trying to find a successor: someone who will fit into the business’ famously competitive culture, contentedly live in Bristol, and have the acumen for ESPN’s strategic initiatives and a high tolerance for talent bullshit—a master grinfucker, you might say, with production chops. (ESPN will produce its first Super Bowl in two decades in 2027.)

   Now, the Norby sweepstakes are entering their final throes as Magnus has winnowed the field down to a handful of candidates. One name that keeps getting mentioned is Jim Bell, who spent three decades at NBC producing everything from Today and the Tonight Show to the Olympics and World Cup. A well-known executive with plenty of experience and relationships, Bell would make sense for ESPN. Internally, I’m hearing a lot about Mark Gross, senior vice president of production at the network, who has the credentials for the job. A year ago, Gross added NFL studio and event production to his already full plate. But I’m told at least one other internal candidate is in the mix.

   Magnus also had set his sights on Amy Rosenfeld, a senior production executive at NBC who had spent 15 years at ESPN. Rosenfeld is well-liked in Bristol and has an impeccable resume. But because of her close relationship with Molly Solomon, combined with her passion for the Olympics, Rosenfeld pulled herself out of consideration. Executives that have kicked the tires at one time or another also include: former Turner Sports head Lenny Daniels, Amazon Prime’s Jared Stacy, and Fox Sports’ Brad Zager.

2. NFL Draft auction: Late last week, ESPN, Fox, and YouTube TV submitted multi-year bids for the rights to carry the NFL Draft starting in 2026. Brian Rolapp and Hans Schoeder are handling negotiations for the NFL, and they are expecting this rights process to accelerate quickly, with more bidders piling in within the next week or two. NBC and Amazon, in particular, have expressed interest.

   ESPN, which has carried every draft since 1980 and turned it into a thing, is clearly the front-runner. Under its stewardship, the first night of the Draft hasn’t dipped below 10 million viewers since 2018. (The first night, which is now exclusively devoted to the first round, averaged 12.1 million viewers this year.) It’s also become a legit civic event. Thanks to the rejuvenation of the Lions and a quarterback-heavy first round, nearly 800,000 people showed up this year to the event at Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit.

3. Spulu news: We now know that the price for Venu, the Fox-Disney-WBD sports streamer that we still refer to here as Spulu, is $42.99 per month for the first year. So when will the service launch? I’m told that Venu will officially come to market in just a couple of weeks, right in time for college football season.

   Venu’s marketing push will be based around the notion that ESPN, Fox, and WBD channels feature most sports, and users can supplement a Venu subscription by buying NBC and CBS programming through Peacock and Paramount+ separately… and still pay less than they would for, say, YouTube TV or DirecTV Stream. (One potential complexifier, of course, is that a New York federal court will consider granting an injunction to block the launch, as part of FuboTV’s lawsuit against Spulu.)

4. A NBA non-update update: I’ve already reported that David Zaslav caught Adam Silver and Bill Koenig by surprise when he started targeting Amazon’s “C” package of games instead of the NBC’s “B” package—the one that WBD had previously bid on during the exclusive negotiating window. Silver and Koenig also were surprised because all of WBD’s face-to-face negotiations were focused on the “B” package. A final reason for that surprise: the NBA crafted Amazon’s package as a streaming-only package. That’s important because both ESPN and NBC cut their deals based on the idea that they would be the only two linear partners. Anyway, you know all this.

   So in the extremely unlikely event that a judge rules in favor of WBD, opening the door for TNT to carry games, both ESPN and NBC likely would seek remedies that lower their rights fees considerably since another linear TV channel would push down ad rates in the market. In Monday’s Varsity, I reported that ESPN and NBC could open up their deals if the NBA tried to create a fourth package. Conversely, it turns out, they could also open up their deals if Amazon’s games go to any linear network.

5. A Best Damn revival: Remember The Best Damn Sports Show Period, which was once supposed to be Fox Sports’ voluble answer to SportsCenter? Fox canceled the show way back in 2009—I broke that story for SBJ—so I was intrigued when I received an email from Laura Marcus, who once worked in talent relations at Fox Sports. Marcus set up a reunion panel of the show for Fanatics Fest, which will be held in NYC Aug. 18. Tom Arnold, John Salley, Michael Irvin, Chris Rose, Jalen Rose, and C.C. Sabathia have all committed to show up and share memories. It sounds like a hoot!

Even as NBC’s portfolio grew to include cable channels and, eventually, streaming, the network would go to great lengths to fill primetime with the most popular games. If an event happened earlier in the day, NBC wouldn’t mention it until its primetime telecast started. Most famously, Ebersol spent years lobbying Chinese officials to hold the swimming competition at the 2008 Games in the morning so that it would be available live on primetime in the U.S.

Of course, this plan made less and less sense as viewers followed results live on the Internet, minimizing the importance of those prime time packages. Exacerbating matters, of course, was the fact that recent Olympics took place half a world away—in South Korea, China, and Japan—creating a yawning lag between when a competition occurred and when it landed on NBC’s air during prime time. Throw in Covid complications and cheating scandals, and you can understand why so many executives looked to Paris as a barometer of Olympic health.

The story around this year’s games has been far more positive, of course. NBC already has set a revenue record around its ad sales for the game—eclipsing $1.25 billion, a number that is expected to grow. My partner Dylan Byers has wisely pointed out that the reality of this revenue growth and incredibly positive P.R.—stemming from great ratings, the resurgence of Simone Biles, and the ubiquity of Snoop Dogg—covers over the extraordinary capital expenses: $7.6 billion in fees to broadcast the games through 2032, 1,200 employees, 150-plus commentators, and 250,000 feet of fiber cables, and another 1,800 staffers and the 115,000-square-foot “sports integration facility and warehouse” broadcast center back in Connecticut. But one less heralded note of optimism, and one that portends well for the Games and the industry, is that NBC appears to have finally broken with the old Ebersolian programming mandate and figured out how to broadcast the Olympics in the always-on, social media, phone-addicted era without diluting their majesty or alienating viewers.

Solomon referenced the gymnastics competition, where the U.S. womens’ team won gold and the U.S. men won bronze. Four simultaneous gymnastics events presented a production challenge, but Solomon’s team documented the competition live during the day. Then they spent hours in production trying to package it to make sense for the viewers in prime time. “Sitting through Molly’s team’s production meeting the other day on gymnastics, they’re building, really, two shows at once,” said Mark Lazarus, the chairman of the NBCU media group. “One they’ll follow live, and one they’re going to create for prime time. It’s really a complex piece of work.”

Solomon also has leaned hard into featuring celebrities during NBC’s presentation. Sure, Snoop Dogg has been all over, but Peyton Manning and Kelly Clarkson added some star power to the Opening Ceremony. NBC’s production regularly includes crowd shots of famous people watching the Games, which complies with Solomon’s mantra that the Olympics are more than just a sports event. “It’s a global event,” she said. You can be sure this instinct will be on overdrive when the Games head to Los Angeles in 2028.

These theories would be one-and-done if NBC didn’t have statistics that show that they are working. Viewership during the live daytime hours has been higher than expected. NBC’s primetime numbers also are delivering. For example, NBC drew 12.7 million viewers to watch Team USA win gold in women’s gymnastics on early Tuesday afternoon, a phenomenal number. It drew a combined 34.7 million viewers for the late afternoon and primetime that same day, easily beating anything else on TV. Critically, advertisers have also been happy, too.

More Zaz concession options: “I’ve seen the suggestion that WBD may wind up with WNBA games, but I can’t see the NBA giving WBD anything. Plus, given the WNBA’s limited inventory, would there be enough to go around? The WNBA should continue with ION for the Friday Night games, which seem to be a hit and it would reward Scripps for their investment in shoulder WNBA programming.” —A different Puck subscriber

On Zaz historical precedents: “You wrote about Roone Arledge suing the NBA more than 50 years ago. But isn’t USA Network’s lawsuit against the WWF back in 2000 a better comp?” —An amateur sports media historian

[Ed note: LightShed’s Rich Greenfield had an interesting note on that USA-WWF lawsuit from a quarter-century ago.]