CBS Sports parent Paramount Global is now firmly back on track to merge with Skydance Media after media executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. withdrew his late-arriving bid to acquire the company.

Just a week after presenting his bid and then upping it to $6 billion, Bronfman is walking away. Multiple reports suggested he ran into financing issues. But the move gives resurgent life to an $8 billion Paramount-Skydance deal originally agreed to last month. Skydance’s backers include the billionaire Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners.

“We continue to believe that Paramount Global is an extraordinary company, with an unrivaled collection of marquee brands, assets, and people,” Bronfman said in a statement. “While there may have been differences, we believe that everyone involved in the sale process is united in the belief that Paramount’s best days are ahead.”

A special committee of Paramount’s board further confirmed the end of Bronfman’s bid, and the Skydance deal is now targeted to close in the first half of 2025.

“Having thoroughly explored actionable opportunities for Paramount over nearly eight months, our special committee continues to believe that the transaction we have agreed with Skydance delivers immediate value and the potential for continued participation in value creation in a rapidly evolving industry landscape,” said Charles Phillips, chair of Paramount’s special committee. 

Though Paramount continues to face a variety of challenges, like any major media company, optimism remains within the CBS Sports operation, particularly as it relates to NFL game viewership. 

More Issues for Bronfman?

Bronfman is also the chair of sports streamer FuboTV, and that company received a new broadside from Venu Sports, the high-profile entity involving Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery. After filing a notice of appeal last week against an injunction blocking the service’s debut, the trio of media giants have since argued that time is of the essence—particularly as they have claimed to have spent about $74 million toward the development of the platform.

“Each month that passes without a Venu launch has a tangible and dramatic negative financial impact on [the] appellants,” the three companies said in a new court filing. “An expedited appeal raises the possibility that [the] appellants can at least attempt to mitigate their losses with a launch in time to complete for subscribers ‘in advance of or during the college and NFL playoff games.’”

In pushing for that expedited appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, the Venu Sports backers also raised the argument that staff and fans are also suffering from being deprived of the service.

“Put simply, the injunction is causing significant harm to [the] appellants, the planned joint venture, and their employees—all to the detriment of consumers who would otherwise have been able to appreciate this new and different, but non-exclusive, product offering, sooner rather than later,” the companies said. 

FuboTV has not objected to an accelerated timetable, but called out Venu Sports’ “numerous misstatements, unsupported factual assertions, and mischaracterizations of the district court’s decision.”

A pretrial conference on the case will be held Sept. 12. If the case does reach a jury trial, Judge Margaret Garnett is targeting February 2025 for that to start—after the entirety of the 2024 college and pro football seasons. 

Editors’ note: RedBird IMI, of which RedBird Capital Partners is a joint venture partner, is an investor in Front Office Sports.

Amazon is backing out as a financing partner of Diamond Sports Group. But that move is not expected to either imperil the Bally Sports parent’s attempted reorganization from bankruptcy, or the streaming giant’s status as a potential distribution partner for the regional sports network operator. 

The decision, initially reported by Sports Business Journal and confirmed by Front Office Sports, arrives about eight months after Amazon had agreed to provide $115 million in bankruptcy exit financing, in turn receiving 15% of the company. The deal was also set to establish Amazon Prime Video as DSG’s “primary partner” for fans to access the RSNs on a direct-to-consumer basis.

But DSG’s need for the funds has perhaps lessened. In addition to restructuring $450 million in debt, the company also settled a prior legal battle with corporate parent Sinclair, Inc. that involved DSG receiving an additional $495 million. DSG in recent weeks has also made major steps toward being able to emerge from bankruptcy, finalizing a new distribution deal with Comcast, the No. 2 cable carrier in the U.S., and completing revised rights deals with both the NBA and NHL. 

After reaching those agreements, DSG conveyed a heightened confidence in being able to reorganize. But after a confirmation hearing set for July was postponed, a new date has not yet been set. 

Amazon could remain involved as the DTC partner of DSG. As a result, the post-exit financing is not—and wasn’t ever—a singularly determinative factor in DSG’s bid to recover. Meanwhile, Amazon continues to rack up additional sports rights, most recently landing a national package with the NBA that begins with the 2025–2026 season.

NASCAR will be taking its flagship product abroad for the first time in its modern history next year. 

As top American sports leagues like the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB continue to find success playing regular-season games outside the U.S., NASCAR will join the trend in 2025 by hosting a Cup Series race in Mexico City.

The Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez, a 2.7-mile track in the nation’s capital, will welcome NASCAR on the weekend of June 14–15 for an Xfinity Series race that Saturday, followed by the premier Cup Series event Sunday. The Cup Series currently has one full-time Mexican driver, Daniel Suárez (above), who drives for Trackhouse Racing, the team co-owned by rapper Pitbull.

NASCAR has been ramping up its pursuit of international expansion in the past few years, and Mexico had been seen as one of the top options alongside Canada, which is the only other country to host points-paying Cup Series races—in 1952 and 1958. Montreal is the Canadian city that NASCAR has given the most consideration.

All Eyes on the Track

NASCAR’s complete 2025 schedule has not been announced. New media-rights deals totaling $7 billion start next season with incumbents Fox Sports and NBC Sports, as well as newcomers Amazon and TNT Sports. 

The Mexico news offers a bit more clarity as to who will air which races. The international affair will be one of Prime Video’s five exclusive race streams in the middle portion of the season. NASCAR’s debut $1 million in-season tournament will play out on TNT Sports broadcasts. 

Headed Across the Pond?

Should NASCAR find success in Mexico, and eventually Canada, racing on another continent remains a goal for the series. 

NASCAR COO Steve O’Donnell previously told Front Office Sports that exhibitions like the preseason Busch Light Clash—which will move out of the Los Angeles Coliseum and to Winston-Salem, N.C., next year—could be candidates to run in Europe.

Meanwhile, at the Daytona 500 in February, there were representatives from seven countries who are interested in hosting a race or at least starting to have a relationship with NASCAR.