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Welcome back to The Varsity, my twice-weekly private email on all the deals, partnerships, and egos that make the sports media business great. If you’re reading this email because it was forwarded to you by a friend, please do the right thing and subscribe. Otherwise, Marchand will be attempting the Biles I and Biles II on the vault in your driveway.
I am coming to you today from Puck’s airy Lower Manhattan HQ. I was in town to catch AC Milan’s victory over Manchester City at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, where I bumped into a cavalry of sports executives attending the match as guests of Gerry Cardinale, whose RedBird Capital bought the Italian soccer club in 2022 for $1.2 billion. My Sunday was spent noshing on lobster rolls and sushi at Citi Field’s Delta Club while watching the Mets get steamrolled by the Braves.
Every conversation this weekend began and ended with David Zaslav’s lawsuit against the NBA. Tonight’s private email will again focus on the ongoing collateral damage. Also, make sure you check out the Inside the NBA-style roundtable that I conducted with my partners Matt Belloni, Dylan Byers, Eriq Gardner, and Bill Cohan in What I’m Hearing, Matt’s newsletter, later tonight. (Sign up here if you don’t already subscribe.) And make sure you enjoy the Reddit AMA I did around the NBA deals on Friday afternoon.
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Okay, let’s get to it…
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| The Starting Five: NBA Edition |
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- Drink! Drink! Drink!: As you know, dear reader, one of The Varsity’s most addictive subplots has been Comcast’s negotiations with Diamond Sports—a saga which, at long last, came...
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| Disputes between cable companies and TV networks have followed the same blueprint for decades: The two sides negotiate privately, then argue about their divergent demands publicly—then, as contractual deadlines approach, reach an agreement that leads to larger bills for cable subscribers. At the end of next year, however, sources say that Comcast’s contract with TNT comes up for renewal, which is sure to be one of the more spectacularly bitter carriage battles in recent memory, and for all the obvious reasons—Comcast just swooped in to snatch the NBA rights away from TNT, while the latter’s parentco is suing the league and waging a... |
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| FOUR STORIES WE’RE TALKING ABOUT |
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