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The Old Sports Media Model Is Dead. Here Is What's Replacing It.
The Old Sports Media Model Is Dead. Here Is What's Replacing It.
Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored
For thirty years the sports media business ran on the same playbook. You got a cable deal. You sold advertising against live rights. You built an audience on linear television. And it worked — until it didn't.
The companies that dominated sports media for a generation are now fighting to stay relevant in a world that is moving faster than their business models can handle. ESPN is dropping properties to pay more for the NFL. Cable is surviving on borrowed time. Publishers built on Google traffic are laying people off. Award shows that used to compete with the Super Bowl for ad dollars are moving to YouTube.
And while all of that is happening, a completely different sports media world is being built from scratch.
Trey sat down with Adam White — founder and CEO of Front Office Sports, one of the fastest growing sports media companies in the world — to break down exactly what is happening, why it is happening, and who is winning.
Adam built Front Office Sports as a college class project at the University of Miami, conducting over 110 informational interviews with sports industry figures while working a bar job to pay the bills. Today FOS is backed by RedBird IMI — the joint venture led by former CNN president Jeff Zucker — with 200 million monthly social impressions, 35 million newsletter opens, and partnerships with the NFL, PGA Tour, WWE, and NWSL. The scrappy origin and the institutional money behind it now tells you everything about where sports media is actually headed.
In this conversation Trey and Adam break down the full landscape. Why Amazon taking Thursday Night Football was not just a rights deal — it was a signal. Why Netflix and YouTube entering live sports changes the calculus for every traditional broadcaster. Why the NFL had 90 of the top 100 rated shows on television last year but is simultaneously diluting the scarcity model that made it so valuable. Why the Oscars moving to YouTube is not a footnote — it is the headline. And why sports has replaced entertainment as America's primary cultural conversation in a way that is not a trend but a permanent structural shift.
Adam also addresses the question every legacy media executive is quietly asking right now — if you were building ESPN from scratch today, what would it actually look like? The answer is not what you think.
This is a conversation about who controls sports media now, who is getting left behind, and why the gap between the old guard and the new entrants is only going to get wider from here. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
for information about our collection and use of personal data for
advertising.
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By Trey WingoThe Old Sports Media Model Is Dead. Here Is What's Replacing It.
Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored
For thirty years the sports media business ran on the same playbook. You got a cable deal. You sold advertising against live rights. You built an audience on linear television. And it worked — until it didn't.
The companies that dominated sports media for a generation are now fighting to stay relevant in a world that is moving faster than their business models can handle. ESPN is dropping properties to pay more for the NFL. Cable is surviving on borrowed time. Publishers built on Google traffic are laying people off. Award shows that used to compete with the Super Bowl for ad dollars are moving to YouTube.
And while all of that is happening, a completely different sports media world is being built from scratch.
Trey sat down with Adam White — founder and CEO of Front Office Sports, one of the fastest growing sports media companies in the world — to break down exactly what is happening, why it is happening, and who is winning.
Adam built Front Office Sports as a college class project at the University of Miami, conducting over 110 informational interviews with sports industry figures while working a bar job to pay the bills. Today FOS is backed by RedBird IMI — the joint venture led by former CNN president Jeff Zucker — with 200 million monthly social impressions, 35 million newsletter opens, and partnerships with the NFL, PGA Tour, WWE, and NWSL. The scrappy origin and the institutional money behind it now tells you everything about where sports media is actually headed.
In this conversation Trey and Adam break down the full landscape. Why Amazon taking Thursday Night Football was not just a rights deal — it was a signal. Why Netflix and YouTube entering live sports changes the calculus for every traditional broadcaster. Why the NFL had 90 of the top 100 rated shows on television last year but is simultaneously diluting the scarcity model that made it so valuable. Why the Oscars moving to YouTube is not a footnote — it is the headline. And why sports has replaced entertainment as America's primary cultural conversation in a way that is not a trend but a permanent structural shift.
Adam also addresses the question every legacy media executive is quietly asking right now — if you were building ESPN from scratch today, what would it actually look like? The answer is not what you think.
This is a conversation about who controls sports media now, who is getting left behind, and why the gap between the old guard and the new entrants is only going to get wider from here. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
for information about our collection and use of personal data for
advertising.