I wrote about the former Grey’s Anatomy writer roasting Elisabeth Finch’s cancer hoax on stage, why women are disappearing from Hollywood’s C-suites and Peter Rice’s challenges ahead after Bela Bajaria’s ouster.
The NFL, MLB, NHL, March Madness, NASCAR, the PGA Tour, WNBA and UFC. These are just some of the at least 36 — yes, three dozen — different sports-rights deals that are now housed at Skydance after David Ellison successfully merged Paramount with Warner Bros. Discovery.
While the deal volume is staggering — the most for any U.S. company — the annual costs are even more jaw-dropping. Including UFC, which Ellison steered Paramount into late last year, the total rights tally, per industry estimates, comes in at north of $6.6 billion annually.
Ellison’s sports empire may simply be too expensive to keep intact. With $80 billion in debt and a new, potentially much pricier NFL deal looming, sources say Skydance may already be exploring ways to unload some of its less valuable sports properties. A person familiar with the company’s thinking, however, cautions that the ink on the merger deal is still drying, and it’s too early to know if anything is really on the block.
Among those being considered, sources tell me:
- Big Ten football ($350 million annually)
- NASCAR ($100 million)
- And the French Open ($65 million)
Together, these three amount to a combined $515 million in annual rights costs.
Skydance declined to comment.
Those potential savings may just be the kickoff. The NFL is seeking a richer media rights deal before its next season begins in 2027. Its current deal was signed in 2021 and valued at $110 billion through 2033, but the league is expected to exercise an opt-out clause with most partners, including CBS, after the 2029 season.
“Their portfolio is phenomenal,” a rival sports executive says of Skydance, singling out the NFL as the big variable. “Without the NFL, it’s a tougher situation; look at what happened when Turner lost the NBA.” (In summary: nothing good.)
The irony: The same sports rights that make Skydance’s television business so valuable could also become its financial sinkhole. The company needs live sports to sustain CBS, its streaming services and its sprawling cable portfolio.
I spoke with executives and agents in the sports-rights space to find out where Ellison is likely to make cuts, which properties could become competitors — and how football, basketball, hockey and a myriad of other leagues might help prop up the more than 50 cable networks that he now controls.
Plus: I’ve got a must-see chart laying out the company’s key deals, their deadlines and dollars — a cheat sheet for the future of sports at Skydance, and the possible spoils for other players as the company moves to refine its portfolio…
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Comments
If I was Ellison, I would dump the NHL, AEW and the College Football Playoff. And maybe the Tennis too, if the ad numbers don’t support it being there.
Let Disney take all the risk for the NHL and CFP.
That saves a bunch of money.
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