Nov 10, 2025

Welcome back to The Varsity. I’m John Ourand, and, yes, I have been fielding phone calls from angry YouTube TV customers all week. No, I can’t help. And no, I don’t know when this dispute will end. And yes, like you, I was curious to hear what guest Bob Iger would say on ManningCast on ESPN2 tonight. Alas, he didn’t address YouTube TV at all…

🎧 Pod alert: While leading ESPN in the 1990s, Steve Bornstein sat across the negotiating table from then NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue. In 2003, Tagliabue spun the revolving door and hired Bornstein to negotiate those deals for the league, as well as build out NFL Media. Bornstein will be my guest on the Varsity podcast on Wednesday to discuss the legacy of Tagliabue, who died on Sunday at age 84, and the current state of sports media.

Buckle up, by the way: This will be The Varsity’s first video podcast! (No, Marchand, I don’t want your hair and makeup tips!) The show will run on Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET on NESN and SportsNet Pittsburgh, as well as NESN’s FAST channels and YouTube feeds. Yes, yes, after years of decrying the imminent demise of the R.S.N. business, we’re sticking our hands in it. Of course, The Varsity will always be available in audio form wherever you podcast.

In memoriam: The New York Times had the best Tagliabue obit I’ve read so far. And R.I.P. to NBA legend Lenny Wilkens, who got a proper sendoff in The Seattle Times.

In today’s issue, I’ve got news on CBS poaching a couple of high-profile executives from ESPN in advance of its takeover of UFC rights; the Big Ten’s capital investment chaos; and Julia Alexander weighs in on ESPN’s divorce from Penn Entertainment. Oh, and the latest on Disney’s battle with YouTube TV.

Okay, let’s get to it…

The Starting Five

CBS talent raid: CBS Sports has pocketed a couple of ESPN executives as it prepares to take over UFC rights: Matt Kenny will become vice president of programming, and Glenn Jacobs will join the network as vice president of production. Kenny had been with ESPN for more than 26 years, most recently as vice president of programming and acquisitions. Jacobs had been ESPN’s vice president of MMA production for the past seven years. “I’ve personally known—and been big fans of—both of them for over two decades,” CBS Sports’s David Berson told me. “They’re seasoned and well-respected leaders and executives who perfectly fit the CBS Sports culture, and have already hit the ground running.”
Big Ten, big money: Tony Petitti is trying to strong-arm USC and Michigan, two of his conference’s marquee schools, by moving forward on a November 21 vote to approve a $2.4 billion deal with UC Investments, a fund associated with the University of California pension system, without their support. As part of the deal, UC Investments would acquire a 10 percent position in a new for-profit entity, Big Ten Enterprises, and each school would receive an average upfront payment of $135 million. Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger has been all over the story. “If they don’t agree to the deal,” he wrote, “the schools may lose the additional capital as part of the landmark proposal and risk their future within the conference beyond 2036, the current end of the existing grant-of-rights agreement.” (The conference later played down Petitti’s move, noting that no vote has been scheduled.)

Of course, it seems unfathomable that the Big Ten, whose current media deal ends in 2030, would move ahead on a contract without Michigan and USC. But the truth is that this dispute merely illuminates the depths of the fissures within not only the broad canvas of college sports, but also the conferences themselves. Michigan, for instance, isn’t digging in on account of any sort of academic altruism. Instead, the university’s administration views the UC deal as a “payday loan” for less pecunious member schools. In the N.I.L. era, capitalism is alive and well within higher education.
“Roundball Rock” rolls: A Varsity subscriber emailed me over the weekend after he heard FS1 play “Roundball Rock,” NBC’s classic John Tesh–composed muzak anthem, in and out of breaks during an Arkansas–Michigan State basketball game. Could this possibly be? Last year, after NBC signed its $27 billion NBA media rights deal, the executives at 30 Rock made it clear that they wanted the song back on their air. What happened?

I checked in with NBC’s Greg Hughes, who cleared up this mystery. Fox actually has a license on the song and has used “Roundball Rock” for Big East, Big Ten, and Big 12 college basketball games since 2018. The network has one year left on its deal. “Fox has an exclusive deal for ‘Roundball Rock’ and had to allow NBC to use the song,” Hughes confirmed. “They graciously agreed to do so.”
ESPN’s new bet: Few were surprised after the news broke last week that ESPN would end its 10-year, $2 billion sports betting partnership with Penn Entertainment after just two years in favor of a new arrangement with DraftKings. This is Penn’s second disappointment in the space. The company entered the sports betting landscape via the $550 million, two-step acquisition of Barstool Sports, which commenced in 2020 and closed in 2023. A couple years later, it sold the rowdy enterprise back to Barstool founder Dave Portnoy for $1. This time around, Penn C.E.O. Jay Snowden hoped that ESPN’s extraordinary brand value would secure a bigger slice of the online betting market. Alas, ESPN Bet only ever ended up capturing a measly 3 percent in the U.S.

My partner Julia Alexander offered a brief autopsy of the deal during a recent episode of The Grill Room. “DraftKings and FanDuel account for 75 to 80 percent of [market share]. … What ESPN realized is, if they’re going to commit to betting, they have to do it with a partner like DraftKings,” Julia said. “I think that’s all this is. It’s, We’re in it to win it, and we’re not going to win it with Penn.”
NWSL expansion numbers: The National Women’s Soccer League has awarded its 17th franchise to Atlanta, marking a watershed moment with a record-breaking $165 million expansion, per The Athletic. That’s a stunning leap in franchise valuation—more than 50 percent higher than the $110 million Denver Summit FC deal this season, and over $100 million more than recent expansion teams Bay FC and Boston Legacy.

The new team will be owned and operated by Arthur Blank’s AMB Sports + Entertainment—the group behind the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta United FC, and their collective home turf, Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The city’s status is surging in the sport’s economy: It’s about to become home to the U.S. Soccer Federation’s new headquarters and training center, also backed by Blank, and will be one of the featured host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The new Atlanta franchise is expected to take the field following that tournament.

And now, on to the main event…

Monday Night Stalemate

As the YouTube TV–ESPN standoff stretches into another week, it’s increasingly clear that the old rule of carriage dispute leverage is shifting. The question is no longer how long YouTube TV can hold out, but how long Disney can sit on its hands.

John Ourand

The good news is that Disney and YouTube are talking—and will remain talking—right up until this evening’s Eagles–Packers Monday Night Football game from wintry Lambeau Field. They’ve already been talking for some time. The two sides remained in contact as ABC carried fourth-ranked Alabama’s win over LSU and ESPN broadcast Wake Forest’s upset of erstwhile CFP contender Virginia. And yet, there’s been no indication that they’re any closer to a deal. On Sunday, Morgan Stanley research analyst Ben Swinburne wrote that Disney is losing $30 million in revenue a week.

As I’ve been reporting for the past month, the sticking point between the two parties isn’t ingestion or some other newfangled beef of the late-stage streaming wars—it’s simply old-fashioned pricing. I’m told that ESPN has agreed to give YouTube TV the same rate as the three biggest distributors in the business—Comcast, Charter, and DirecTV—which have negotiated the lowest rates: a figure believed to be a little more than $10 per subscriber per month.

The trouble is that YouTube TV is pacing to crack their ranks. Thanks to its extraordinary growth trajectory, which is all but assured by its $3.5 trillion parentco, YouTube TV wants a better rate than other distributors. And that, of course, would be a bridge too far to ESPN. Since its origins, the cable video business has been beholden to most favored nation clauses, which assure bigger distributors like Comcast that they’re getting the best rate. If ESPN were to give in to YouTube TV’s demand, the M.F.N. clauses would likely kick in, and chairman Jimmy Pitaro would presumably have to offer the same rate to Comcast, DirecTV, and Charter. (And if they don’t have M.F.N. clauses, they’ll likely have new affiliate sales executives.) I’m told that Disney views this sort of capitulation as a major concession.

On some levels, this dispute has become a real inflection point in the industry. In the old days, networks like ESPN held all the cards—distributors never wanted to let a sports network go dark, particularly during football season, which would cause fans to cancel their subscriptions en masse. But YouTube has weathered one Monday Night Football game with the Cowboys. Tonight’s Eagles–Packers game presents a second marquee matchup. (Disney C.E.O. Bob Iger had a chance to make his argument when he joined Peyton and Eli on ESPN2’s ManningCast, but he didn’t address YouTube TV at all.) Then the Cowboys are back on Monday Night Football next week.

These are the types of games that would historically force distributors to buckle. But the endurance of this negotiation merely proves the enormity of YouTube’s leverage. In fact, the question isn’t really how long YouTube TV can hold out, but the precise opposite: how long Disney can afford to sit on its hands. “You have the best-in-class tech platform with a young and growing audience,” LightShed’s Rich Greenfield told me today. “This is by far the biggest industry success story in the v.M.V.P.D. world. How long can Disney be dark on this?”

Meanwhile, another key date looms for ESPN’s parentco before next week’s Cowboys–Raiders Monday night game: Disney’s fourth-quarter call with analysts. “I can’t imagine Disney going into earnings on Thursday without a deal,” Greenfield told me. “This is such a big part of ESPN’s revenues and profits. I just can’t fathom getting on the earnings call and being dark still.”

From the Cheap Seats

On Disney vs. YouTube: “I finally caved and signed up for DirecTV’s free trial to see UNC play Kansas in hoops. As an NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV subscriber, I don’t have the option of switching until after the NFL regular season. I wonder how many of your readers followed a similar path.” —A media executive

More on Disney vs. YouTube: “What is YouTube TV’s long-term strategy here? Without all the Tier 1 sports properties in their v.M.V.P.D., they have no chance of making meaningful profits for Google.” —A producer

On Philly’s favorite son: “Gov. Shapiro told Peter Hamby that he supports the tush push? I have never liked Shapiro more!” —A finance exec

See you tomorrow,
John

This issue was assembled with the help of Curtis Rowser.

Ace media reporter Dylan Byers brings readers into the C-suite as he chronicles the biggest stories in the industry: the future of cable news in the streaming era, the transformation of legacy publishers, the tech giants remaking the market, and all the egos involved.

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