Tag: ESPN

"ESPN has spent years building around star power, and no two stars shine brighter than McAfee and Smith. With New York celebrating its first NBA title in more than five decades, the timing couldn't be better."

"The network holds eight additional games outside Monday Night Football. Seven on the newly acquired NFL Network, including five international contests this fall."

"The Game 4 audience is the largest since Pittsburgh-Nashville in 2017 on NBC. It also rose 104% over Game 4 of the 2025 Final on TNT Sports."

"The story is that ESPN has completely changed its philosophy. For decades, ESPN sold the network. It sold SportsCenter. It sold highlights. Now it sells personalities."

"For years, ESPN has been criticized for what it wasn't doing. Not enough promotion. Not enough storytelling. Not enough attention paid to certain properties. Fair or unfair, those critiques have followed the network through multiple eras. But right now, those conversations feel very distant."

"Game 3 averaged 23.8 million viewers on ABC and ESPN, a 159% jump from last year's Game 3. The audience peaked at 26.3 million viewers at 11:15 p.m. ET."

"That is not an indictment of Pat [McAfee]. It's not an indictment of Disney. It's the reality of the relationship that exists between the people who pay and the people who get paid."

"It's been a fantastic run for the MTS podcast. Partnering with a respected colleague and friend on 1K+ episodes has been a career milestone."

"PTI led all studio shows with 703K viewers, its best May since 2019."

"His existing arrangement includes a licensing agreement for The Pat McAfee Show that pays over $17 million per year — plus separate contracts for College GameDay and other ESPN contributions."