“Experts have noted that the deal ‘surely raises competition concerns’ because it could potentially give Disney—ESPN’s parent company —greater control over televised sports carriage and reduce competition,’” the letter read. “In addition, the NFL’s stake in ESPN raises concerns that ESPN may prefer its part-owner over other sports leagues, offering the NFL more advantageous terms, pricing, or time slots for games, to the detriment of other leagues competing for viewers’ time and dollars.”

The letter also took aim at ESPN’s reported deal with MLB to absorb MLB.TV into the newly released DTC product. It warned that fans could be forced into ESPN’s ecosystem and pay higher prices for content previously available on its own.

“Together, ESPN’s deals with the NFL and the MLB would give the sports media giant new degrees of control over the distribution of sports via pay TV and streaming services for two of the most profitable sports leagues in the country. We have serious concerns that fans and competitors will suffer as a result,” the letter said.

If the two can’t agree to a deal, networks like NBC, USA, CNBC, Golf Channel and Telemundo will go dark on YouTube TV, a platform with a reported subscriber base of around 10 million. The Google-owned vMVPD claims NBCU wants higher rates “than what they charge consumers for the same content on Peacock,” but it’s “committed to working with NBCUniversal to reach a fair deal for both sides ahead of our current agreement expiring on September 30.”

NBCU, meanwhile, is taking a page from Fox’s book and pinning the blame on YouTube TV’s owner. There’s no denying the growing impact of big technology companies in the sports media ecosystem, particularly with Google and Apple continuing to expand their portfolios.

“Google, with its $3 trillion market cap, already controls what Americans see online through search and ads—now it wants to control what we watch,” an NBCU spokesperson said in a statement. “YouTube TV has refused the best rates and terms in the market, demanding preferential treatment and seeking an unfair advantage over competitors to dominate the video marketplace— all under the false pretense of fighting for the consumer. The result: YouTube TV customers will lose access to NBCUniversal’s premium programming, including Sunday Night Football, NBA, Big Ten Football, WWE, Premier League, Saturday Night Live, The Voice, The Real Housewives, and much more.”

NBCU has rolled out advertising campaigns and banners encouraging customers to voice their support of keeping its networks on YouTube TV.

On a more local level, YouTube TV is set to battle D.C.-area Monumental Sports Network alongside Hulu + Live TV. The RSN issued a warning that its distribution agreements with the two vMVPDs were slated to expire ahead of the Capitals’ and Wizards’ regular seasons (which begin Oct. 8 and 22, respectively).

“Monumental is making every effort on behalf of our fans to keep our live games and other programming as accessible as possible, and we have made repeated attempts to negotiate in good faith, including offering numerous economic concessions to reach a fair agreement that keeps Capitals, Wizards, and Mystics games and other local sports available on both platforms in the DMV,” network GM Friday Abernethy said.

Monumental claims “we’ve encountered a lack of meaningful engagement, despite our ongoing efforts to find a fair solution.” YouTube TV, however, contends the viewership for Monumental doesn’t support the rates it’s asking for. The RSN responded by saying ratings for Caps games improved by 37% YOY, while outperforming ESPN’s programming in the local market 69% of the time.

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Athlos, a first-of-its-kind, women’s-only track and field event, named ION its domestic linear broadcast partner for Athlos NYC. This year’s event will take place from Icahn Stadium on Oct. 10, preceded by a pre-event show “Icons on ION” starting at 7pm. What’s more is ION signed a multi-year deal to air the ATHLOS League.

The Ohio Valley Conference is sticking around with ESPN. The two confirmed a six-year media rights pact that’ll have a minimum of 725 events per year available on ESPN+. Regular-season basketball telecasts will be featured on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU, while the semifinals of the OVC Men’s Basketball Tournament will be on either ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPNEWS. The championship will be on ESPN or ESPN2. The agreement also lets OVC telecast up to 50 linear events per year locally within the conference’s footprint.

Versant, the company soon spinning away from Comcast NBCUniversal with primarily hold linear TV networks in its portfolio, nabbed the media rights for League One Volleyball. The competition will begin airing on USA Network in January. LOVB’s Match of the Week will air Wednesday nights at 8pm.

NBC Sports got the NFL underway with a weather-impacted Cowboys-Eagles game. The game, which was paused due to a lightning delay in the third quarter, had a total audience delivery of 31.9 million viewers from 8:23-10:15pm. That was on pace to become the most-watched NFL Kickoff game ever, but it wasn’t meant to be. When including the final portion of the game, the Eagles’ 24-20 win averaged 28.3 million viewers, making it the second-most-watched NFL Kickoff game. It only trails last year’s Ravens-Chiefs matchup that recorded 29.2 million viewers. Additionally, Peacock had an average minute audience of 4.9 million viewers, the second-most-simulstreamed NBC NFL game ever (and even topping three Super Bowls).

Fox’s “America’s Game of the Week” is averaging 29.5 million viewers so far this season. That’s before Week 4’s Eagles-Buccaneers numbers come in, but the figure puts it up 15% compared to the average last year on the same date (25.66 million). Week 3’s Bears win over the Cowboys averaged 25.47 million viewers.

On the college side, Fox had 16.6 million viewers tune into the Week 1 showdown between Texas and Ohio State. It was the most-watched Week 1 college football game on any network in history and the third most-watched regular-season contest on Fox ever. Texas-OSU peaked at 18.6 million viewers in the 3-3:15pm window. “Big Noon Saturday” for that day nabbed 16.62 million viewers.

ESPN’s Monday Night Football slate started with 22.1 million viewers for the Vikings-Bears. That’s the second most-watched MNF Week 1 game on ESPN (since 2006) and is up 8% from the 2024 MNF opener. “Monday Night Countdown” had 1.76 million viewers for the two-hour program. Recently, the Week 3 matchup between the Lions and Ravens grabbed 22.8 million viewers, good for a top-four audience in MNF history while peaking at 25.4 million viewers during the first half.

Taking a big step in the NFL world this year was YouTube, which streamed for free the Chiefs-Chargers game that took place in Brazil. The contest had an average minute audience of 19.7 million viewers, including 18.5 million in the U.S. The bigger win, however, was that no known major outages were reported in YouTube’s debut.

“This is an important step forward for EverPass and the commercial marketplace,” said Alex Kaplan, CEO of EverPass. “Working with ESPN, one of the most iconic brands in global sports, brings year-round streaming content to bars, restaurants, hotels, and other venues. With access to premium content from the NFL, NHL, NCAA, PGA TOUR, soccer and more, ESPN+ adds tremendous value to our platform and to the businesses we serve.”

Walmart is stepping into global soccer, becoming the first presenting partner of El Clásico in the U.S. The multi-year collab with La Liga gives Walmart a high-visibility spot surrounding the Barcelona-Real Madrid matchups, including large-scale U.S. viewing parties, concerts, retail activations, co-branded merchandise and content tied to El Clásico. A new visual identity featuring Walmart branding will appear across match-related properties in the U.S. and Canada. The move adds to Walmart’s partnership in July with MLS and CONCACAF Leagues Cup, with Walmart and La Liga’s deal beginning with a weekend of events from Oct. 24-26 in Houston—when the two Spanish giants meet for the first time this year.

The Kansas City Chiefs are going with Playfly Sports to help with sponsorship sales in the U.K. and Ireland, making it the first NFL team to use Playfly for international commercial efforts. The multi-year deal comes as the Chiefs—and the NFL at large—embark on an international push, with Playfly’s U.K.-based unit identifying and structuring sponsorship deals designed for brands with a large presence in the U.K. and Ireland.

Horizon Sports & Experiences has been tapped to exclusively manage sponsorship and media rights for the new World Sevens Football (W7F) global women’s 7v7 series. HS&E will develop sponsorship packages, craft media strategies and target early-stage brand partners as the tournament builds momentum. Aly Wagner, W7F Chief of Strategy, will oversee sponsorship initiatives, with Tracey Lesetar-Smith leading media rights strategy. DAZN remains the broadcast home and sublicensing agent.

Playfly is boosting its proprietary ad tech platform, Home Team Advantage. The expanded platform assists networks and teams with capturing the full value of their streaming audiences across the loyal sports ecosystem, in addition to enhancements made to Playfly’s infrastructure to match the growing consumption of live local sports via streaming services. Playfly says Home Team Advantage is the first platform to provide a centralized, end-to-end digital advertising solution for 100% of U.S. local live games across all three leagues. Additionally, Playfly’s local sports portfolio across MLB, NBA, and NHL has seen 36% year-over-year growth.

Major League Table Tennis is jumping into the streaming game with Table Tennis TV, a streaming platform it claims is the first dedicated home for professional table tennis in North America. TTTV offers both free and paid options, with the subscriptions running at $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year (along with a two-week free trial). One “Match of the Week” will stream live for free every Friday at 7:30pm. Also on the app will include highlights, recaps and shortened replays, as well as news posts, alerts, and select clips from “Table Tennis Tonight.” Paid subscribers will get access to every MLTT match live and on demand, in addition to full episodes of Table Tennis Tonight and bonus content. Select MLTT matchups will air across the U.S. on CBS Sports Network.

Malika Andrews signed a multi-year extension with ESPN, where she’ll remain in her role and grow her presence across the network’s platforms and coverage areas. Meanwhile, “First Take” host Molly Qerim announced her departure from ESPN at the end of the year. No word on where she’ll land, or who’ll fill her seat next to Stephen A. Smith.

Speaking of “First Take,” former Saints quarterback and Super Bowl champion Drew Brees is joining “First Take” on Tuesdays this football season.

Yahoo Sports debuted a new weekly show dedicated to women’s basketball. “Hoops 360” focuses on the stories and trends emerging from the WNBA, women’s college basketball and Unrivaled. New episodes drop every week across multiple platforms, including the Yahoo Sports Network FAST channel, YouTube and yahoosports.tv.

Monumental Sports Network struck a broadcast and production partnership with the Bryan 11 Foundation to air the Legends Senior Bowl, an all-star high school football game honoring the late Bryan Strittmatter. The second annual event, set for Dec. 20 at Georgetown Prep (airing Dec. 21 at 4pm on MNMT), gives senior athletes exposure to college recruiters while spotlighting the Foundation’s mission of supporting student-athletes in the D.C. area.

It adds to a season of momentum for F1, despite the fact it’s rumored to be taking its media rights elsewhere (looking at Apple, per reports). Across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, F1 has averaged 1.4 million viewers so far this season, ahead of the current all-time U.S. record of 1.21 million set in 2022.

ESPN had its most-watched WNBA regular season ever, and it’s adding more milestones as the playoffs continue. The 2025 WNBA season averaged 1.3 million viewers across 25 games on ESPN networks, a 6% improvement from last year. The most-watched WNBA game in ESPN history came May 17 when 2.7 million watched the Sky-Fever game. ESPN nets accounted for eight of the top-10 most-watched WNBA games this year. “WNBA Countdown” finished with an average of 549,000 viewers, up 7% YOY.

The First Round of the WNBA Playoffs were the second most-watched on ESPN ever, posting an average of 943,000 viewers across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2. That only trails last year’s first round. WNBA Countdown’s average for the games was 382,000 (up 4%).

Coverage of the 2025 U.S. Open saw ESPN record 3 million viewers for the men’s championship on ABC, up 82% over the 2024 final. The women’s title averaged 2.4 million on ESPN—up 50% YOY—while the network had its most-viewed quarterfinal round in 10 years, posting 1.4 million viewers on ESPN. Other highlights include 1.8 million viewers tuning in for both the men’s and women’s semifinals on ESPN, and the Round of 16 had 1.5 million across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2.

Monumental Sports & Entertainment named Steve Miller its EVP/CFO. Miller will help drive growth and oversee MSE’s financial strategy, reporting directly to Founder/Chairman/Managing Partner and CEO Ted Leonsis. Miller arrives from Warby Parker, where he was CFO and Treasurer since 2011.

1947: In another broadcast milestone, the World Series was televised for the first time, doing so through WNBT (also now WNBC), CBS affiliates and stations owned by now-defunct DuMont TV Network. The Yankees ultimately won the series 4-3, clinching their 11th title at the time.