The best in sports media are headed to New York. The 2026 Cynopsis Sports Awards take place June 4, and this year’s finalist lineup reads like a who’s who of the industry — ESPN, NBC, Fox Sports, Prime Video, NFL, Nielsen, Playfly Sports, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, Barstool Sports, CBS Sports, YES Network, and more are all in the mix. These are the teams and talent moving the needle in sports media — and on June 4, we find out who’s taking home the hardware. Find out more and register here!

Backed by early partnerships with organizations including World Rugby, UEFA and Diageo, FANZO is betting that fragmented sports rights and shifting viewing habits create a major commercial opportunity outside the home.In the edited Q&A below, Cynopsis Sports spoke with CEO/Co-Founder Leo MacLehose, who breaks down the North American launch, the scale of the out-of-home fan economy and how the platform aims to streamline discovery, engagement and revenue for live sports in social venues.

If you had to explain Fanzo in one sentence to someone in the U.S. market, what would you say?
Fanzo is a sports technology business that is there to unite fans and help them create unforgettable sporting memories, but in so doing unlocks untapped value for sports venues — pubs, bars, restaurants — the rights holders, the sports broadcasters that are selling to commercial premises, and then the brands trying to activate out of home sports fans. We’ve got a number of audiences, but effectively this untapped space that is part of the fan zones is an enormously valuable space that’s being quite disrupted at the moment.

In a sentence, part of our business is kind of ‘OpenTable for sports bars,’ helping sports fans find great venues. Then on the other side, we’re there to activate this really rich audience of social sports fans for rights holders, brands, partners and sports broadcasters.

Why is now the right moment to bring this to North America?
One, the sports landscape has always been an enormously important thing in the U.S., but particularly with the global eye on the U.S. with the FIFA World Cup, followed by the L.A. Olympics in ’28, there is this moment. Secondly, there is this really interesting moment going on in the U.S. around the fragmentation of sports, around the moving of the NFL Sunday Ticket rights. It blows my mind that there isn’t something like FANZO out there already. When we went into Australia in 2021, there were other products a bit like FANZO which have now sort of since disappeared. I’ve spoken to a lot of the Buffalo Wild Wings of this world, the Miller’s Ale Houses, the Top Golfs of this world, and every conversation I’ve had, they’re all like, “Where has this been? Why haven’t you been around?”

You said engaging the out-of-home audience has been “impossible.” What specifically wasn’t working before?
There are so many different people in this chain of value that wanted to approach this. I remember speaking to [the] chief commercial officer at UEFA, and we were doing this deal, and he was like, “Do you know the number of times in the last five years that we end up having a conversation like, ‘We really want to do something in the bar space?’.” Every time those meetings last 15 minutes, and everyone goes, “Oh, this is way too complicated. We don’t have a relationship with venues, we don’t have a means of engaging them. We can’t just go to an agency and go like, ‘Hey, Ogilvy, like run this bar program where maybe actually our sponsor, Heineken, can possibly go in there, and you can win free Heineken going to these bars.’” Heineken doesn’t even have a relationship with bars because they’re going through wholesalers — a little bit like in the U.S. UEFA doesn’t even have a database of who has a subscription to TNT, Canal+, Peacock or Paramount+. There is no data. There’s a desire

This wasn’t a given right from the off, but when FANZO was created we started to build up this scale, and so now when we’re working with a Premier League and the Premier League says, I” want to create a global bar finder,” I already have a relationship with the broadcaster in all of the main markets. That means that this becomes feasible.

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The agreement positions Victory+ as an additional distribution layer aimed at broadening reach and engagement, and also adds interactive and digital-first features, including real-time engagement tools and alternative broadcast formats. The Atlanta Dream becomes the second WNBA team to join Victory+, following the Minnesota Lynx, as the platform continues expanding its presence across women’s basketball and other women’s sports properties.

Speaking of ESPN sublicensing deals, the CW Network will continue airing ACC football and basketball through 2030-31. CW will carry 14 regular-season football games, 30 men’s hoops contests and 10 women’s basketball telecasts each season. All games will remain available to stream for ESPN Unlimited subscribers.

ESPN is planting its flag in the NIL era. The Players Era — a college basketball event built around NIL compensation — has signed a multiyear deal making ESPN its exclusive broadcast rights partner. This year’s event runs in two editions: Players Era Eight (week of Nov. 16), featuring Kansas, Houston, Florida and UNLV, and Players Era Sixteen during Thanksgiving Week, with Michigan, Gonzaga, St. John’s and Louisville among the field. Additional details are still to come.

Sports remains one of the dominant FAST genres, and more than 1/3 of programming on sports FAST channels consists of live sports events.

The opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs averaged 1.2 million viewers per game on both ESPN’s cable networks and TNT Sports — a 68% increase year-over-year and the highest first-round average on record for either rights holder.
· ESPN averaged 1.4 million for its 15 flagship-network games, up 91%.
· Game 1 of the Flyers-Penguins series led all telecasts at 2.1 million viewers, followed closely by the Wild-Stars Game 1 at 1.9 million.
· ESPN followed that with its most-viewed second round since the current rights deal began in 2021. Its 11 games—nine on ESPN and two on ABC—averaged 2.2 million viewers, up 76% YOY.
· Game 7 of the Canadiens-Sabres came in at 3 million viewers, the second most-viewed second-round game of all time on cable.
· TNT Sports posted 1.7 million viewers for the second round, a 33% improvement from 2025’s postseason.
· Game 1 of the Wild-Avalanche led the way with 2.2 million viewers.

The 2026 NBA Playoffs delivered the league’s highest viewership in 29 years after the first and second rounds.
· Through the first two rounds, postseason games have averaged 4.5 million viewers per game across ABC, ESPN, NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime Video—the highest mark since 1997, according to the league. The return of NBC Sports has been the pivotal factor, with over-the-air games providing an expansive broadcast reach.
· Prime Video contributed meaningfully as well: its Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals featuring Cleveland over Detroit averaged 6.53 million viewers, up 3% from a comparable round-two Game 7 last year.

The most-watched first-round Game 7 in NBA history belongs to NBC and Peacock. The two posted a total audience delivery of 11 million viewers, up 161% over the comparable first-round Game 7 last year. NBC accounted for 9.2 million TV-only viewers, while Peacock pitched in an average minute audience of 1.8 million viewers. Additionally, it was the most-watched first-round game since 1999, when the Utah Jazz and Sacramento Kings reeled in 11.2 million viewers on NBC.

William Blair entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Inner Circle Sports, expanding the firm’s investment banking capabilities across the sports, media and entertainment sectors. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval. Founded in 2002, Inner Circle Sports advises team owners, leagues, investors, municipalities, universities and media companies on transactions spanning M&A, capital raising, valuations and debt financing.

DAZN Group purchased the streaming and digital solutions provider ViewLift. It’s a move that signals DAZN’s interest in becoming a regional broadcast player in the U.S., with the company calling it a “complementary” transaction. DAZN offers over 140,000 live events per year in more than 200 markets globally. The merger will allow DAZN “to extend its platform into a flexible B2B2C and SaaS model, supporting leagues and clubs that wish to maintain their own direct-to-consumer products while benefiting from DAZN’s global reach, infrastructure and integrated ecosystem.”

Kelsey Plum is joining Prime Video as a player contributor. She’ll make appearances throughout the 2026 WNBA season. Plum, a former No. 1 overall pick, currently plays for the L.A. Sparks.

ESPN signed Samantha Rivera to a multiyear deal that’ll see her report across the network’s English- and Spanish-language offerings. Rivera will also contribute to “SportsCenter.”

1999: After Bayern Munich took an early 1-0 lead in the UEFA Champions League final, Manchester United scored two goals in stoppage time to win the club’s second European Cup. Both goals were scored by substitutes: Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær. It also meant United became the first English club to win the treble, claiming each of the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup.

2018: Sticking with the Champions League theme, Real Madrid took down Liverpool 3-1 for their third consecutive title. Manager and French legend Zinédine Zidane became the first manager to win three straight European Cups as well.