Andrew Marchand, senior sports media columnist for the New York Post and John Ourand, a writer at Sports Business Journal have teamed up for a new weekly podcast about sports media.
They’ll cover the business beyond the buzzer – the hottest headlines, network deals, ratings, trends – it’s everything you need to know with the best sources in the business.
Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite listening platform, or listen right on nypost.com. Available every Wednesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Stitcher.
Episode 113: The Big Get Eli Manning, ESPN’s DTC bet, Netflix’s NBA plan and Al Michaels’ future
Nov. 15, 2023
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Episode 112: The NBA’s local solution, MLB’s offseason to-do list and The Big Get Mike McCarley on his and Tiger Woods new venture
Nov. 8, 2023
The NBA agreed to a deal with the bankrupt company Diamond Sports Group, which runs the Bally Sports-branded regional sports networks. Hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand discuss how that deal affects the 15 NBA teams that have Diamond deals; how the deal could impact the league’s national TV negotiations; and what the deal means for Diamond Sports. Marchand and Ourand also discuss how MLB will approach its off-season from a sports media standpoint and look into the takeaways from its ultra successful Chiefs-Dolphins game in Germany last weekend.
Mike McCarley, the founder and CEO of TMRW Sports and TGL, joins the pod as The Big Get this week and tells the story about how Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and he decided to launch this venture. McCarley details what viewers should expect when it launches in January on ESPN. A long-time veteran of the sports media business, McCarley details the current market for sports media rights and offers his two cents on the LIV Golf controversy that took over the sport this summer.
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Episode 111: NFL problems, World Series problems, Ballys problems and streaming problems
Nov. 1, 2023
YouTubeTV experienced a lot of streaming problems on Sunday, and Bally Sports’ app was not working on Monday night. Co-hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand dive into what those two problems say about where and how streaming fits into the current state of sports media.
In other topics, Marchand and Ourand offer their predictions on the NBA’s next rights deal, talk about MLB’s success this season regardless of World Series ratings and dive into MLS post-season run on AppleTV+. Marchand discusses the sports media listening tour he took last week in Minnesota, where local fans had a lot of opinions about how much they would pay to stream their teams’ games.
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Episode 110: DirecTV’s Rob Thun on the future of sports media, and Fox’s Joe Davis is The Big Get
Oct. 25, 2023
DirecTV’s top content executive Rob Thun joins the pod as co-host this week to discuss the problems regional sports networks are having today and talk about how the satellite operator plans to handle local sports rights in the future. Thun tells co-host John Ourand how some of the local broadcast deals some teams have made aren’t as good as they seem, and he calls on network groups to work more closely with DirecTV as they push out direct-to-consumer services. This is the first time in nearly 30 years that DirecTV is not carrying the NFL Sunday Ticket package, and Thun talks about why he made the decision to pass on it.
The voice of baseball for Fox, Joe Davis, joins the pod as The Big Get and talks about how his preparation for the upcoming World Series differs from how he prepared for his first one last year. Davis gets into how the pitch clock affected how he called games this season; what it’s like to call games in Philadelphia; why so many young play-by-players are calling games nowadays; how he got started in the business; and the difference between a Texas chop and a Baltimore chop.
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Episode 109: ESPN’s streaming plans, Pat McAfee and sports rights predictions
Oct. 18, 2023
As rumors about ESPN’s streaming plans continue to swirl around, hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand separate fact from fiction. They look at the types of companies that would be interested in taking an ownership stake in ESPN and discuss the timing for when ESPN takes its main network – the mothership – direct-to-consumer.
Other topics have the hosts handicapping expected winners in the rights negotiations happening with the NBA, NASCAR and College Football Play. They discuss Marchand’s report of Pat McAfee paying guests and offer a review of the MLB playoffs so far. Marchand and Ourand offer a tribute to the retiring NHL analyst Barry Melrose. And they talk about Chris LaPlaca, ESPN’s long-time communications executive who announced his retirement this week.
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Episode 108: The CFP auction, MLB post-season and more Taylor Swift talk
Oct. 11, 2023
Negotiations for the College Football Playoff’s media rights negotiations have started, and pod hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand break down the media companies that will be involved and the likely winners once the CFP expands to add at least four more games. The hosts discuss the NFL’s request to have TV networks run ads for Taylor Swift’s upcoming movie and preview what to expect this week when Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs play on Thursday. As the NBA preps for a media rights negotiation, Marchand and Ourand look into what leagues can do to make their regular season games more valuable.
This week’s episode sees the return of Karp’s Korner, as SBJ’s ratings guru Austin Karp breaks down MLB’s regular season ratings, provides an update on MLB’s post-season ratings and previews what to expect with MLB’s World Series ratings. Karp provides the reasons why national numbers are lagging local viewership trends in the sport.
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Episode 107: The Big Get Sean McManus, Deion, Woj, MLB & Swifties
Oct. 4, 2023
Last week, Sean McManus announced that he was stepping down as CBS Sports chairman next spring after a 27-year run. This week, McManus joins the podcast to talk about his career and the state of sports media. In a wide-ranging interview, McManus talks about his start in the business, working for legendary executives like Don Ohlmeyer, Geoff Mason and Mark McCormack. McManus takes listeners behind the curtain for the NFL deal he struck in 1998 that changed the fortunes of his network. McManus also discusses the current state of sports media, including the rise of digital streaming and Paramount+, CBS’ appetite for new sports rights deals and Tony Romo’s performance as the network’s top NFL game analyst.
Pod hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand discuss ESPN’s alternate “Toy Story” telecast that ran on ESPN+ alongside its exclusive Falcons-Jaguars game from London. They banter about the effect Taylor Swift and Deion Sanders have on NFL and college football TV ratings. Marchand talks about Mark Jackson’s broadcasting future, and Ourand offers an update on Diamond Sports Group’s bankruptcy saga.
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Episode 106: Rob Manfred is the Big Get and Sean McManus’s big goodbye
Sept. 27, 2023
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred joins Andrew Marchand and John Ourand on this week’s show for a half-hour interview. During the sit-down, Manfred goes deep into the future of local media, blackouts, Apple, Peacock, ESPN, fragmentation, Yankees TV, what the future of sports gambling will look like, how a different pitch clock was considered for October, the future of the Orioles in Baltimore and the A’s in Oakland.
Prior to the interview, Marchand and Ourand give their “Who’s up and Who’s down for the week” and delve deep into the legendary career of retiring CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus. Plus, there is Taylor Swift talk.
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Episode 105: Bob Iger’s big move, Deion’s rise & the NFL TV review
Sept. 20, 2023
A bunch of breaking news this week dominates this week’s topics, from Bob Iger’s decision to simulcast most of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” games on ESPN and ESPN New York’s decision to relinquish its 98.7 FM signal next year to Warner Bros. Discovery plan to launch a live sports add-on tier via its Max streaming service and the XFL and USFL’s plan to merge spring football leagues. Hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand have reported on all these stories and dissect why they are happening and explain how these moves will alter the sports media landscape.
Now that we’re through two weeks of the 2023 NFL season, Marchand and Ourand dive into the biggest sports media storylines that have emerged, including YouTubeTV’s debut with “NFL Sunday Ticket,” the potential for “NFL RedZone” to cut into YouTubeTV’s subscriber numbers and the massive audience Amazon Prime brought to its first “Thursday Night Football” game of the season. Marchand and Ourand also tackle the impact Colorado coach Deion Sanders already has had on the college football landscape. Other topics include rights negotiation updates for the NBA, NASCAR, UFC and WWE. And Ourand pays homage to a week’s worth of great Orioles calls by MASN’s Kevin Brown.
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Episode 104: The inside view on ESPN-Charter and The Big Get Marcus Spears
Sept. 13, 2023
Just hours before the first “Monday Night Football” game of the season, Disney and Charter reached a deal to restore ABC and ESPN on Spectrum cable systems. Disney’s Justin Connolly was one of the key executives on that deal, and he joins the pod’s first “Inside the News” segment. Connolly discusses what last weekend was like as the two sides had round-the-clock discussions to close the deal. Other topics include why the deal works for ESPN, whether this deal provides a blueprint for other distributors, what implications this deal has on ESPN’s planned direct-to-consumer service and how this deal will affect ESPN’s aggressiveness in acquiring sports rights. Following the interview, hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand offer their opinions on the deal and discuss the NFL’s first week of the 2023 regular season.
ESPN analyst Marcus Spears joins as The Big Get and entertainingly outlines his progression from the NFL to ESPN. Spears talks about his new deal to stay at ESPN and the other opportunities that cropped up as he went through the negotiating process. Other topics include the media challenges involved with playing for bigger market teams; his influences in sports media; and an animated discussion of Paul Finebaum’s hairstyle.
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Episode 103: Handicapping the ESPN-Charter Battle Royale and The Big Get Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen
Sept. 6, 2023
All Disney networks, including ESPN, went dark on Charter’s Spectrum cable systems on Aug. 31, affecting close to 15 million subscribers. Pod hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand discuss how ESPN and Charter got to this point and predict what should happen next. The outcome of this deal has tentacles well beyond just ESPN and Charter. It has big ramifications for the entire sports business. Just a couple of days before the start of the NFL’s regular season, Marchand and Ourand identify the NFL media storylines they will be following most closely this season. And they discuss Chris Fowler’s Instagram video explaining why he made several mistakes announcing a recent college football game.
Fox Sports’ top NFL broadcast booth of Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen join the pod as The Big Get this week. The duo tells stories from last season when they replaced Joe Buck and Troy Aikman as the top crew. And they talk about the specter of another season calling games with Tom Brady waiting in the wings to take over as Fox’s top NFL analyst for the 2024-25 season. Marchand brings out his Brady Meter for this conversation. Burkhardt and Olsen also discuss some of the biggest sports media stories, including the current state of college athletics.
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Episode 102: Football’s Back: NBC, Tony Romo and The Big Get Mark Ingram II
Aug. 30, 2023
Changes to the college football television landscape is the top topic on this week’s show, the hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand discussing the new Big Ten deals that take effect this season on CBS, Fox and NBC. The co-hosts discuss everything from the analysts that will be used on these games to Peacock’s role in streaming games. The hosts then turn their attention to the free-agency frenzy that had Stephen A. Smith’s “First Take” show compete with Skip Bayless’ “Undisputed.”
The TV networks’ ratings dispute with the NFL, Nielsen and Amazon is one of the biggest topics in sports media today, and Marchand and Ourand talk about why the TV networks are so publicly at odds over Nielsen’s plan to incorporate first-party data from Amazon into its “Thursday Night Football” ratings report. The hosts then turn their attention to Warner Bros. Discovery Sports’ plan to get out of the regional sports network business.
As always, Marchand and Ourand offer their picks on Who’s Up and Who’s Down for the week. This week, those picks include Patrick Crumb, Kevin Connors, Rob Manfred and Tony Romo. The hosts debut a new segment this week: the MandO Mailbag.
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Episode 101: ESPN and Fox talent battle, plus The Big Get Matthew Berry
Aug. 23, 2023
Fantasy guru Matthew Berry joins the pod this week just a week after news broke that he raised $2 million for his Fantasy Life with an all-star roster of investors including everyone from Casey Wasserman and Tony Khan to Josh Allen and Joe Burrow. Berry discusses his move from ESPN to NBC and how he rode the rise of fantasy sports to create a career. A student of the sports media business, Berry opined on his thoughts of where the business is headed and how today’s sports media stars can amass audiences.
Hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand discuss the biggest sports media news of the day: ESPN’s decision to part ways with Lee Fitting, the executive behind the massive success of College GameDay. Fitting oversaw the production behind all college and pro football at the network. Marchand and Ourand discuss daytime studio changes at ESPN and Fox shows “First Take” and “Undisputed.” The two hosts also highlight reader feedback from their regular disagreement over Amazon’s and Apple’s interest in sports media.
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Episode 100: Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark on college realignment and the 5 biggest stories of the first 100 shows
Aug. 16, 2023
Less than two weeks after Arizona, Arizona State and Utah bolted the Pac-12 for the Big 12, Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark joins the show to explain how it all went down. Yormark details the Big 12’s media rights deals for ESPN and Fox Sports and the rationale behind his decision to renew those deals early. Yormark outlines his vision when he started at the conference a year ago and how closely the events of the past few months aligned with his plans. He spoke about his relationships in the business, including a recent phone call with his Pac 12 counterpart George Kliavkoff. And he makes his case for college basketball to be valued more by networks.
As this marks the 100th episode of the Marchand & Ourand Sports Media Podcast, hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand discuss the top five sports media stories over the past 100 weeks, including changes at ESPN, the emergence of Amazon and Apple in the sports media business, the wild media success of the NFL, the pending media success of the NBA and the implosion of regional sports networks. Marchand and Ourand give their Who’s Up and Who’s Down over the past 100 episodes in sports media.
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Episode 99: The Pac-12 implosion, sports rights bubble and where in the world is Kevin Brown?
Aug. 9, 2023
Media implications from the Pac-12’s demise make up the biggest topic in this week’s Marchand & Ourand Sports Media podcast, with hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand talking about Pac-12 missteps over the past 12 months, why some university presidents did not like the Apple deal and the changing media marketplace when it comes to sports rights. Marchand and Ourand identify the three main culprits responsible for the Pac-12’s demise.
Conversation turned to the College Football Playoff, which currently is negotiating a new rights deal, and NBA, which will start negotiating in earnest early next year. This leads to a discussion of the overall market and why television companies and streamers are driving harder bargains on sports rights than they have in the past. Marchand and Ourand also discuss the plight of Orioles announcer Kevin Brown, who has not called the team’s games in two weeks. The hosts outline reasons why the team decided to keep their top announcer on the bench for two weeks and offer their opinions on the escalating situation.
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Episode 98: The future of ESPN and the Pac-12 amid the cord cutting craze
Aug. 2, 2023
Host Andrew Marchand broke all the news about ESPN’s new NBA booth next season and on this week’s podcast he explains why ESPN let go of Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy. Host John Ourand broke news this week of NASCAR signing a rights deal with The CW and on this week’s podcast he breaks down what the deal means for both The CW and NASCAR.
Other topics on this week’s pod include the frightening subscriber numbers sports channels are posting this year; the state of negotiations around the Pac-12’s media deal; an update on the MLS-Apple deal; and the status of ESPN Radio now that the company has outsourced the group’s operations and sales to Craig Karmazin’s Good Karma.
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Episode 97: ESPN’s future, MLS & Messi and The Big Get Mike Tirico
July 26, 2023
In this week’s Marchand & Ourand Sports Media Podcast, Mike Tirico joins the show one year before the start of the Summer Olympics in Paris. Tirico talks about his preparation for hosting those games with NBC and his role in covering geopolitical stories during the games. Tirico describes how he broke into the business, how he landed a job at ESPN and what made him move to NBC. Tirico also discusses the situation early in his NBC tenure when he wasn’t calling NFL games and how he kept from being frustrated.
Marchand and Ourand open the podcast with a discussion around the company Disney is most likely to pick as a strategic partner on ESPN, from Comcast to sports leagues to venture capital to Big Tech to gambling. The two hosts then talk about the story Ourand broke about the number of MLS Season Pass subscribers approaching 1 million. Conversation turns to parsing Apple’s sports ambitions further and a review of the Pac-12’s Media Day. As always, Marchand and Ourand give their picks for Who’s Up and Who’s Down in sports media for the week.
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Episode 96: BofA Analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich on the future of ESPN
July 19, 2023
In this week’s Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast, BoA Securities Analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich joins hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand to discuss ESPN’s future. Reif Ehrlich dissects Bob Iger’s CNBC interview from last week, when he spoke about looking for a strategic partner for ESPN. She talked about who the likely partners on ESPN would be, when ESPN would take its main channel direct-to-consumer and whether Disney is a stronger company without ESPN right now. Reif Ehrlich also analyzed where the multichannel universe is headed, the companies that are best situated for the changes in media and the decision facing the NBA, as that league takes its rights to market.
Marchand and Ourand discuss broadcaster moves at ESPN (“MNF Countdown” and NBA games) and FS1 (“Undisputed”). They preview the FIFA Women’s World Cup, give MLS a report card as the league meets for its annual All-Star Game and review ESPN’s coverage from Wimbledon. As with every pod, Marchand and Ourand offer their picks of who in sports media had a good week, and who did not.
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Episode 95: ESPN layoffs, NYT sports shutdown and the future of RSNs
July 12, 2023
Andrew Marchand returns from vacation to offer his perspective on ESPN’s layoffs, from which high-profile on-air departure is the most surprising to educated guesses on who will call NBA games given Jeff Van Gundy’s layoff. Marchand and John Ourand go on to discuss the New York Times’ decision to scrap its sports desk and move its existing sports reporters to the business section.
As MLB enters the mid-way point of its season, Marchand and Ourand take a deep dive into the regional sports network crisis that teams, leagues and media companies are facing. The co-hosts discuss MLB’s local media strategy and Charter’s plan to deal with the high-cost channels on its Spectrum cable systems. The two also talk about personnel changes on Fox Sports’ Big Noon Kickoff and opine on the newest Twitter threat: Threads.
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Episode 94: Guest host Paul Finebaum on ESPN and college sports media
July 5, 2023
ESPN’s Paul Finebaum, host of a daily four-hour show on SEC Network, joins this week’s pod as a co-host and discusses what it was like inside ESPN as last week’s on-air layoffs were announced, including well-known names like Jeff Van Gundy, Suzy Kolber and Jalen Rose. Finebaum discusses what his day was like the Friday the layoffs were made and what morale is like among the ESPNers that remain.
Ourand and Finebaum, one of the smartest minds in college sports, dive into how the Power Five conferences stand from a media standpoint. Topics include what to expect from the Pac-12’s next media deal, changes to the Big Ten’s media rights package due to take effect this fall, and how the Big 12 appears to be in a better situation than the ACC and Pac-12. Ourand and Finebaum dive into some of the struggles the ACC faces and consider the schools most likely to leave one conference for another. Ourand and Finebaum share their picks for Who’s Up and Who’s Down for the week and offer a Call of the Week.
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Episode 93: More ESPN layoffs, another ESPN reorg and a new Karp’s Korner
June 28, 2023
The fourth and, presumably, last round of Disney’s layoffs is about to hit ESPN’s on-screen stars. Hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand discuss what to expect and how cuts already have affected ESPN Radio. Marchand and Ourand move into a discussion of last week’s corporate reorg, which saw longtime executive Burke Magnus cement his position as second in command to Jimmy Pitaro. During their wide-ranging discussion, the hosts identify the executives who gained the most power inside ESPN.
Other topics on this week’s podcast include a review of Derek Jeter’s debut on Fox Sports’ MLB pregame show; a review of ESPN’s NBA Draft coverage; and the NBA Draft night controversy involving The Athletic’s Shams Charania. SBJ’s media titan Austin Karp returns for a Karp’s Korner segment on MLB ratings. The pod has its regular Who’s Up/Who’s Down segment this week, as well as a Call of the Week honoring ESPN’s Neil Everett, who anchored his final “SportsCenter” last week after a 23-year run.
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Episode 92: Will Derek Jeter be any good on TV? And The Big Get Malika Andrews
June 21, 2023
With Derek Jeter making his debut on Fox’s MLB coverage this weekend, hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand discuss how the Hall of Famer shortstop will fit in with the network’s other studio analysts David Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez. Marchand and Ourand also address Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s comments about this pod and the XFL. Other topics include: J.J. Watts’ television prospects, Craig Carton’s move from radio to television and Adrian Wojnarowski’s decision not to tip picks on Twitter during this week’s NBA Draft. As always, Marchand and Ourand give offer picks for sports media types who are on the way up and ones on the way down.
ESPN host Malika Andrews joins as The Big Get this week, talking about how her journey from editing the school newspaper at the University of Portland to ESPN. Andrews, who will host this week’s NBA Draft on ESPN, discussed her preparation for the night and touched on her career goals. Andrews also talks about her decision to talk about mental health struggles publicly and the feedback she’s received.
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Episode 91: What’s Next for the NBA, RSNs and Messi
June 14, 2023
With the end of the NBA Finals, hosts Andrew Marchand and John Ourand look into what’s next for the league, from the media free agents we’ll see on TV next year to the all-important rights deal that has generated huge interest. Marchand and Ourand also detail why viewers should expect the NBA Finals’ earlier start times to remain next season and review the NBA Finals from a media perspective.
The hosts discuss why the next four weeks are so important to the bankrupt Diamond Sports Group and the RSNs they run. They look into Messi’s potential impact on MLS and AppleTV+, WWE’s media rights negotiations, changes at the top of NBC Sports, changes on the set of Big Noon Kickoff and an update on Pac-12 rights. As always, they pick the people who had good weeks and bad weeks in sports media. And this week’s episode includes the return of their popular Call of the Week feature.
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For a full list of episodes please click below:
