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Afternoon Edition

November 24, 2025

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Just a week after Sinclair, which owns Tennis Channel and 178 local stations, said it had acquired a minority equity stake in Scripps in advance of a potential merger, it made a formal offer for the entire company. If completed, Sinclair says the deal would create a company with a $2.9 billion market cap.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]] and David Rumsey [[link removed]]

Sinclair Makes Bid for Rival TV Station Owner Scripps [[link removed]]

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Sinclair Inc.’s proposed acquisition of fellow local television station owner E.W. Scripps Co., publicly suggested for the first time just a week ago [[link removed]], is now officially on the table.

A mere seven days after Sinclair, the owner of Tennis Channel and 178 local stations, said it had acquired a minority equity stake in Scripps in advance of a potential merger, it has made its formal offer for the entire company. The unsolicited bid for Scripps is for $7 a share, including $2.72 in cash and $4.28 in combined company stock. Scripps is currently trading at about $4.40 per share, and that’s only after a 40% bump last week after the first wave of Sinclair news.

Sinclair said the deal, if complete, would create a company with a market capitalization of $2.9 billion and reap about $325 million annually from market and corporate savings and new revenue opportunities. An agreement would accelerate a wave of consolidation across the television station ownership business and have sizable ramifications in sports media. The cash component of the deal would amount to $233 million.

“The proposed transaction would create a stronger and more resilient platform capable of sustaining local journalism, expanding national audience reach, and driving operating efficiencies in the highly competitive local video media market,” Sinclair CEO and president Chris Ripley wrote in a letter to the Scripps board.

“As we have stated before, recent industry consolidation and intensifying competition underscore our view that achieving greater scale in the broadcast television industry is critical to overcoming secular headwinds and competing more effectively,” Ripley wrote.

Sinclair, which is seeking a response on its offer by Dec. 5, says it currently owns 9.9% of Scripps, up from 8.2% last week as it continues to accumulate shares.

Scripps, which owns 60 stations, said it is reserving substantive comment until after its board reviews the Sinclair bid, and added that no shareholder action is currently required.

“The company’s board of directors will carefully review and evaluate any proposals, including the unsolicited Sinclair proposals, to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company and all of its shareholders as well as its employees and the many communities and audiences it serves across the United States,” Scripps said in a statement.

Market Matters

Even as Main Street Sports, formerly Diamond Sports Group, is its own entity [[link removed]] and no longer under the Sinclair umbrella, sports would remain a core element of any pact with Scripps. The Ion network owned by Scripps reached a multiyear extension of its rights deal with the WNBA [[link removed]] this past June.

The Scripps sports portfolio, meanwhile, also includes rights to the NWSL [[link removed]], the Big Sky Conference, and local rights to a handful of pro teams, including the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers, the Golden Knights, the Mammoth, Lightning, and defending WNBA champion Aces. With these pacts, Scripps has been at the heart of a broader resurgence for sports in over-the-air television.

Sinclair’s bid for all of Scripps follows a separate, $6.2 billion deal between Nexstar Media Group and Tegna Inc. [[link removed]], which is still undergoing regulatory review.

SPONSORED BY IBM

Last Week in Las Vegas

On Friday, ahead of Las Vegas’s fastest weekend, more than 100 industry leaders from across sports, media, and technology gathered with IBM [[link removed]] and Front Office Sports for an exclusive afternoon of innovation, networking, and entertainment at the iconic Cosmopolitan.

Speakers from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, IBM, and Cosm sat down with Front Office Sports Today host and producer Baker Machado to explore the next frontier of AI-powered fan engagement and the evolving future of live experiences.

Learn more [[link removed]] about the event or sign up [[link removed]] for future event updates.

Fubo-NBCUniversal Is Latest Carriage Dispute to Hit Subscribers [[link removed]]

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Just a week after solving a bitter carriage dispute [[link removed]] with YouTube TV, Disney now finds itself on the other side of the table in another distribution battle.

Fubo, now under the control of the ESPN parent company, is now in the midst of a standoff with NBCUniversal. That programmer’s channels fell off the Fubo streaming service late Friday after the two entities were not able to come to terms on a new contract.

“Unfortunately, NBCU has offered terms regarding pricing and packaging that are egregiously above those offered to other distributors,” Fubo said in a statement. “There is no basis for this discrimination, and, as a result, Fubo subscribers would be denied important content or be forced to pay for what we believe to be exorbitant costs.”

NBCUniversal, conversely, said there was nothing unusual about its contract proposal to Fubo.

“Fubo has chosen to drop NBCUniversal programming despite being offered the same terms agreed to by hundreds of other distributors,” the company said. “Unfortunately, this is par for the course for Fubo—they’ve dropped numerous networks in recent years at the expense of their customers, who continue to lose content.”

The ongoing dispute does not have quite the same market impact as the prior Disney–YouTube TV battle: YouTube TV is the No. 4 U.S. pay-TV distributor, and Fubo is far smaller with 1.6 million subscribers. Fubo, however, served as an alternate choice for some YouTube TV subscribers during the depths of the prior Disney blackout there.

The current blackout of NBCU channels on Fubo, meanwhile, means the loss of content such as Sunday Night Football, the NBA, college football, and the Premier League to those subscribers. Those Fubo subscribers also with Peacock, however, will still have access to the NBCU content aired there, particularly live sports.

Fubo said it will offer subscribers a $15 direct credit if the NBCU programming remains absent “for an extended period.”

Corporate Shifts

The dispute comes less than a month after Disney closed its deal [[link removed]] to acquire Fubo. That agreement, first announced in January [[link removed]], helped resolve legal challenges that Fubo raised against the now-shuttered Venu Sports [[link removed]]. The agreement includes a $220 million payment by Disney to Fubo and a $145 million loan scheduled for next year.

In the months since then, Disney went through a long regulatory review process, which included an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice [[link removed]] regarding potential antitrust issues.

Fubo will now be combined with Disney’s Hulu + Live TV to create the No. 6 pay-TV distributor in the U.S.

Prior to the Disney deal closing, Fubo had a history of taking a hard line with programmers, and in particular has been without channels from TNT Sports parent Warner Bros. Discovery since April 2024. Like YouTube TV, Fubo has positioned itself as a lower-cost and more-flexible alternative to traditional cable and satellite TV. That distinction, however, grows more dim with every carriage battle and price increase these streaming-based carriers have.

Raiders Cut Losses by Firing Chip Kelly, Highest-Paid NFL OC [[link removed]]

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The Raiders are already undoing some of the big spending that occurred this past offseason—the franchise’s first with Tom Brady as a minority owner.

After Sunday’s 24–10 home loss to the Browns—who started fifth-round 2025 NFL Draft pick [[link removed]] Shedeur Sanders for the first time—dropped Las Vegas to a 2–9 record this season, the team fired Chip Kelly, who was hired in February and instantly made the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the league.

The Raiders had lured Kelly away from Ohio State with a $6 million annual salary [[link removed]], a figure that tops what some NFL head coaches are paid. The deal was for three years, so Las Vegas will likely owe him a large portion, if not all, of the remaining cash on his contract. Kelly spent just one season in Columbus, helping the Buckeyes win the 2024–25 national championship in the first season of the 12-team College Football Playoff.

Kelly’s hire was one of several major investments the Raiders made, including hiring new GM John Spytek and coach Pete Carroll.

Brady played a pivotal role in the moves following the approval of his roughly 5% ownership stake [[link removed]] last October. “Bringing in Tom Brady was bringing in somebody that was on the football side that I had been lacking having here in the organization,” Raiders owner Mark Davis said in January [[link removed]]. The Raiders also traded for quarterback Geno Smith and signed him to a two-year, $75 million contract extension.

Brady’s role with the Raiders has come under scrutiny [[link removed]], given his other job serving as Fox’s No. 1 NFL game analyst. During a Week 2 Monday Night Football matchup against the Chargers, ESPN showed Brady in the Las Vegas coaching booth wearing a headset. Kelly later said that he and Brady “ don’t talk about game plans [[link removed]].”

Brady recently downplayed his day-to-day involvement [[link removed]] with the various professional teams across his growing sports portfolio. “When I was on the field, it was much easier to influence the outcome of games,” Brady told Front Office Sports. “Now, I just get to play more of a mentorship role and try to provide my insight wherever necessary to help us go out there and compete.”

On the field, the Raiders have an uphill battle to turn it around this season, as five of their final six games come against teams that currently have winning records.

In January, Carroll, 74, signed a three-year contract, while Spytek, 45, signed a five-year deal. Special teams coordinator Tom McMahon was also fired earlier this month.

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS TODAY Should Lane Kiffin Leave Ole Miss?

FOS illustration

Lane Kiffin is the hottest name in college football, with potential offers from LSU, Florida, and a new deal at Ole Miss that would all likely position him as the NCAA’s highest-paid coach. FOS newsletter writer David Rumsey explains what will factor into Kiffin’s decision and how it will change the SEC and college football as a whole.

Plus, the Dallas Wings have won the WNBA draft lottery for the second consecutive year, and they could use the top pick on Paige Bueckers’s former teammate and current girlfriend Azzi Fudd. FOS reporter Colin Salao talks through the big decision and why the franchise could be more willing to accommodate Bueckers in light of the Mavericks’ Luka Dončić fiasco.

Also, Gotham FC wins its second championship in three seasons, and Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman discusses her playing future with FOS at NWSL media day.

Watch the full episode here [[link removed]].

STATUS REPORT Two Up, Two Down

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MLB hot stove season ⬆ The league’s offseason player market [[link removed]] got its first major jump-start with a large-scale trade between the Rangers and Mets that sent outfielder Brandon Nimmo and cash to Texas in return for second baseman Marcus Semien. Nimmo, the longest-tenured Met prior to the trade, has five seasons remaining on an eight-year, $162 million pact signed before the 2023 campaign. Semien has three years left on a seven-year, $175 million pact signed after the 2021 season. Nimmo waived a no-trade provision in his contract to allow the pact to happen, and as a result, will get an additional $1 million assignment bonus from the Mets. The deal is the first significant move in what is expected to be a busy offseason across the sport.

New York Giants ⬇ The team Sunday became the first in the league to be officially eliminated [[link removed]] from playoff contention following an overtime loss to the Lions. This will be the team’s third straight season, and eighth in nine years, out of the postseason. The Giants recently fired head coach Brian Daboll [[link removed]] and are currently operating under interim coach Mike Kafka.

Ivy League ⬆ Yale and Harvard will represent the conference in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, having both qualified for the 24-team field in the first season that the Ivy League is participating in the FCS postseason. Yale beat Harvard on Saturday to win the conference title, and earned the No. 5 seed; Harvard is the No. 12 seed.

Nicklaus Companies ⬇ The golf business holding entity filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy [[link removed]] on Friday, roughly a month after losing a $50 million defamation lawsuit [[link removed]] against Jack Nicklaus. Nicklaus Companies is named after the legendary golfer but owned by billionaire banker Howard Milstein.

Editors’ Picks Stafford, Rams Rise From the Pack to Super Bowl Contention [[link removed]]by Eric Fisher [[link removed]]The NFL team now has the top odds to win Super Bowl LX. Art Briles Lands First College Job Since Baylor Scandal [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]Baylor fired Briles in 2016. Raptors Reap Rewards of Roster Built by Masai Ujiri [[link removed]]by Colin Salao [[link removed]]MLSE was bought out by Rogers Communications in July. DAILY TRIVIA Factle Sports

Can you list the top 5 countries with the most active NBA players, not including the U.S. (if tied, rank alphabetically)?

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