Welcome to the Sports Media Podcast. I'm your host, Richard Dodge. My producer is Patrick Antonetti. I'm going to call this a mini podcast. We're not going to go that long, but I did want to get something out with one of the regulars, one of the best people when it comes to analyzing sports media, in my opinion, John, founder and editor of Sports Media Watch. Good afternoon, John.

Good afternoon to you. All right. We'll get into, I know you want to talk about some of the NBC, NBA related stories that we have seen last week.

But just before that, the upfronts are coming in the media business.

And for people who don't know what the up fronts are, that's when networks, streaming services put out, like, whatever their program is going to be for the next

year in an attempt to get ad buyers to fall in love with their programming and purchase it.

This is why a lot of these places obviously have a lot of celebrities who do these up front,

you know, people who are starring in shows.

Sports is playing a massive, massive role now.

So, you know, I don't know this for a fact, but like, you know,

it would seem like a Tom Brady will be at the Fox up front and talking about football with,

you know, Michael Strayhan and whoever.

So it's a bit of a dog and pony show, but a dog and pony show that allows a lot of people to get drunk and eat some good food in New York City.

All that said, John, let's focus on ESPN.

I don't think either of us will be at the upfronts this year, although I shouldn't presume, but I know you're not based in New York, so I'll make that presumption.

The ESPN, the big one for ESPN in terms of the upfronts and the Disney upfronts,

is they are going to unveil the name and the pricing of their direct-to-consumer platform,

which is currently called flagship.

We don't expect it to stay as flagship.

And so that's a very, very significant move, obviously, for ESPN.

Finally, you will be able to get ESPN without having a cable subscription, although if you

still have ESPN through a cable subscription, nothing will change for you.

So very broadly, John, for you, is this a big deal?

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