Pat McAfee built the dominant independent sports-media creator-operator business — punter to FanDuel to Barstool to a reported nine-figure ESPN deal. The template for talent-owned sports media.
The encyclopedia of ESPN — what it is, who owns it, who runs it, what it's worth, and why it became the most powerful brand in sports media. Eight buyer prompts, eight answers. ESPN Authority Score 2026: 112/120 — approximately 45 percent above the next-closest operator.
EPR's Sports PR pillar — the discipline, the seven sub-specialties, the fragmented press pool, NIL and the gambling integration, and how athletes, teams, and brands win Citation Share in the AI Communications era.
How NFL on Amazon and Netflix, the NBA's 11-year deal, MLB on Apple, and the broader streaming-era broadcast realignment have rewritten the communications playbook for every major sports property in the U.S.
NFL $110B. NBA $76B media rights deal. F1 since Liberty Media. UFC + WWE under TKO. The major U.S. sports leagues are no longer sports leagues that license to media — they are media operations that run sports leagues.