Lowe, the longtime host of NBC Sports’ Premier League coverage, most recently anchored Fox Sports’ coverage of the 2026 men’s World Cup alongside Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Alexi Lalas. She joins previously announced broadcasters Elle Duncan and Andrés Cantor on Netflix’s team for next summer’s tournament in Brazil.

“I’m really excited also to announce that we have added Rebecca Lowe to the broadcast team, who is so amazing, so seasoned, so respected,” Bajaria said during Puck and MoffettNathanson’s In the Arena conference on Thursday in New York. “Really excited to be able to bring that kind of broadcast talent to our team on Netflix.”

The addition comes as Netflix prepares to stream all 64 matches of the Women’s World Cup in the U.S. and Canada, where the streamer holds exclusive rights to the tournament in 2027 and 2031. The ’27 tournament will run from June 24 through July 25 across eight cities in Brazil.

Lowe has led NBC Sports’ Premier League coverage since 2013 and has hosted seven consecutive Olympic Games for the network. She previously worked for ESPN in the U.S. and U.K., including on the network’s coverage of the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Her addition also comes as Netflix continues expanding its live sports footprint while taking a selective approach to acquiring rights. Bajaria said the streamer is focused on identifying sporting events it can turn into cultural moments rather than simply building a traditional year-round sports portfolio.

“The strategy for us is to just say, like, what’s really an event, and eventize a moment,” Bajaria said. “It can be a Christmas Day game. It can be opening week. It can be opening game of, you know, MLB.”

“It can be Women’s World Cup,” she continued. “So it’s just what is sort of a sporting event we can create a lot of conversation around to make it very sort of appointment television.”

For Netflix, Bajaria noted, an “event” doesn’t necessarily mean a one-off game. It can also encompass a tournament with a defined narrative arc — “a beginning, a middle, and there’s a defined end.”

The exec pointed to Netflix’s relationship with the NFL as another example of that approach. Bajaria said the league understood early on why Netflix wanted to center its football presence around Christmas and the entertainment opportunities surrounding the games.

She also recalled calling the NFL to tell the league Beyoncé would perform at halftime during Netflix’s Christmas Day coverage. “I was like, ‘We’re an entertainment company. Of course Beyoncé is going to do the halftime,’” Bajaria said, adding that the resulting Beyoncé Bowl was “really cool.”

The post Rebecca Lowe Joins Netflix’s Women’s World Cup Broadcast Team appeared first on TheWrap.

“CBS Sports and Tony Romo have mutually agreed to part ways,” the network said in a statement Friday. “We thank Tony for his contributions over the past nine years and wish him the best moving forward.”

In a statement provided to TheWrap by his representative, Romo said he was “proud” of his tenure at CBS and plans to take a break to focus on his health and family before pursuing his next opportunity. “I am grateful for my time with CBS Sports and for the continued support of my family and friends, as well as the NFL community and fans,” he added.

Romo had been on indefinite leave from CBS Sports since July 31, eight days after he was arrested in Milwaukee on suspicion of operating a vehicle while intoxicated. J.J. Watt replaced him on the network’s lead NFL broadcast team alongside Jim Nantz and sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson.

CBS Sports president David Berson said in August that the network had “no timetable” for Romo’s return, saying CBS had to consider the situation’s impact on its “image and brand.”

The former Dallas Cowboys quarterback pleaded no contest Sept. 1 to a first-offense OWI, which is a civil offense in Wisconsin. Romo called the incident a “personal failure” and said multiple back surgeries and an earlier dependence on pain medication had contributed to an “over-reliance on alcohol.” He said at the time that he was working with doctors to address his health and hoped to return to CBS “in time.”

Romo joined CBS Sports in 2017 immediately after retiring from the NFL, replacing Phil Simms alongside Nantz as the network’s lead NFL game analyst. He quickly drew attention for his ability to anticipate plays before the snap and became one of the most prominent voices in NFL broadcasting.

CBS signed Romo to a long-term extension in 2020 worth $17 million per year, at the time a record-setting deal for a sports analyst.

Watt will continue working alongside Nantz and Wolfson on CBS’ lead NFL broadcast team for the remainder of the season. CBS has not announced whether Watt will permanently take over Romo’s spot beyond this season.

The post Tony Romo Exits CBS After 9 Years as Lead NFL Analyst appeared first on TheWrap.

So, naturally, the actress, who is expecting her third child with husband Adam Shulman, went through a range of emotions when she was presented with a congratulatory Knicks-themed gift in the middle of her Fallon interview. 

First, the NBC host presented her with a signed jersey, which she threw on over her glamorous black dress without hesitation, modeling it for the crowd and keeping it on when she returned to her seat. 

“You are unbelievable,” Fallon said, cracking up. “You put it on immediately!”

And the host wasn’t finished; he also presented her with an entire Knicks baby basket, along with a congratulations card from New York Knicks guard and power forward OG Anunoby.

That one got the lifelong Knicks fan visibly emotional for a moment. “I’m so spoiled,” she said after she accepted her gifts, and, seemingly overwhelmed, asked, “I’m supposed to be a person now?” 

After Hathaway said her “thank yous,” the late night host tried to bring it back to business. “We have to talk about your movie. That’s really why we’re here,” Fallon said, and Hathaway seemed game to switch back to movie talk.

“The movie’s chilling, scary. Is this what you thought you were getting into when you signed up?” Fallon asked his guest, who became distracted while taking her shiny new Knicks jersey off. 

“I’m sorry, I’m so excited about my jersey, I’m messing this transition up so bad,” Hathaway said with a giddy smile, getting a big laugh out of the studio audience. “You’re talking about my scary movie, and I’m just like ‘eeeee.'”

Eventually, Fallon got things back on track and got Hathaway “locked in” to “movie mode.” The actress was on the show to promote “Verity,” her new film co-starring Josh Hartnett and Dakota Johnson. Because the film was based on a book by best-selling romance novelist Colleen Hoover, Hathaway said she first expected it to be a rom-com. 

“I got excited because I’m not the person that you think of for this type of a part,” Hathaway said of realizing it was a steamy psychological thriller instead. “I just love that [director Michael Showalter] thought of me for it, and then the cast came together.”

Hathaway stars as the title character in the adaptation, which follows Johnson’s Lowen, a struggling writer hired to ghostwrite for Hathaway’s paralyzed character — but once she moves to the author’s remote estate, Lowen uncovers twisted secrets in Verity’s notes, while sparking up an affair with her husband. 

“Verity” arrives in theaters nationwide on Friday, Oct. 2.

The post Anne Hathaway Gets Emotional, Then Giddy Over Knicks Surprise on Fallon appeared first on TheWrap.

NBC is preparing an unprecedented amount of coverage for the Games, according to Molly Solomon, executive producer and president of programming for NBC Olympics and Paralympics, dramatically expanding its output from the last Summer Olympics held in the U.S. in Atlanta in 1996.

The staggering increase illustrates the challenge facing NBC and LA28 less than two years before the Games: staging and televising an enormously complicated global event while making it feel simple, emotional and entertaining for viewers. The two sides have spent years working together on everything from when marquee events take place to how NBC can quickly turn unfamiliar athletes into characters audiences care about.

“In 1996, we produced 171 hours on NBC — 171 total,” Solomon said during Puck and MoffettNathanson’s In the Arena conference in New York. “In 2028, we are going to program more than 100 each day on NBC and our cable networks.”

That doesn’t include Peacock offerings such as Gold Zone and individual event streams, she noted.

Wasserman offered another way to illustrate the scale, saying organizers expect roughly 1 million transportation trips per day as major competitions unfold simultaneously across Southern California.

“We’re the operational equivalent of seven Super Bowls a day for 30 days,” he said. “Go produce 200 Super Bowls in a month. Like the scale and the complexity, it requires a lot of planning. It requires a lot of logistics. It requires a lot of technical expertise.”

Wasserman has continued to lead LA28 amid controversy over emails he exchanged with Ghislaine Maxwell more than two decades ago that surfaced in the Epstein files earlier this year. The fallout led to his exit from his namesake talent and sports agency, which later rebranded as The Team, while LA28’s executive committee backed him remaining in his Olympics role.

For NBC, the challenge is getting audiences invested almost instantly in athletes they may rarely see outside the Olympics.

“We’ve got to make you care in 20 seconds or less,” Solomon said, adding that athlete profiles, announcers and new production technology will help give viewers context around competitors they may not know, making the Olympics feel as much like an entertainment show as a sports competition.

“You’re watching the most meaningful day of someone’s life every 20 minutes,” she further stated.

NBC’s influence also extends to when viewers will see those moments. The network and LA28 have been working together on the competition schedule since 2020, including efforts to keep marquee events from competing against one another.

“We got to solve for NBC first, because that is the most important thing, full stop, without exceptions,” Wasserman said.

NBC also sees LA28 as an opportunity to cultivate a new generation of Olympics fans, with Solomon pointing to Gen Z, Gen Alpha and even some millennials who missed out on years of the traditional Olympics experience during the pandemic.

For Wasserman, though, the enormous infrastructure behind the Games ultimately serves a much simpler purpose. “People get so wrapped up in all the other stuff and forget in the end what people like is the competition and the stories and the environments,” he said.

The post LA28 Chief Casey Wasserman Says Olympics Will Be ‘200 Super Bowls in a Month’ appeared first on TheWrap.

“We saw other companies getting into that space, and we knew that this was a space that, based on our experience, based on the technology that we had built, that we should be able to serve the customer in the best way and win, so we decided to enter,” he told moderator and Wrap editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman.

Robins said DraftKings had actually talked about partnering with Kalshi on predictions for the 2024 election, but it didn’t pan out. Regardless, Robins sees DraftKings Predictions as “a good substitute” in places where online sports betting is illegal, like California.

Given that Donald Trump Jr. is an investor in Kalshi and Polymarket, Waxman asked if Robins feels they have an unfair advantage.

“I’m used to that in my industry,” he said. “I actually don’t think there’s really an unfair advantage here, to be honest. I think that we are given essentially the same licenses, the same things by the federal government. I think the difference, which isn’t necessarily because of that involvement, is that the states are now in litigation with Kalshi.”

Indeed, federal and state appeals courts have ruled that Kalshi sports is subject to state gambling laws. Robins said he looks forward to having legal clarity, but for now is happy with where DraftKings Predictions is at.

“We feel like we have all the opportunity we need to compete in the prediction space. We’re looking forward, obviously, to this traveling through the court system because it would be nice to get some clarity. It is hard to invest into something when you don’t know if it’s going to be around in the next year or two,” he said.

The post DraftKings CEO Explains Why They Entered the Predictions Market appeared first on TheWrap.

Just in time for California AG Rob Bonta and Paramount Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim, the two key figures on each side, to unpack the resolution at TheWrap’s annual business conference TheGrill.

Both Bonta and Delrahim appeared on stage (albeit in separate panels) with The Wrap CEO and Editor-in-Chief Sharon Waxman, who asked the questions everyone wanted to ask.

The sessions marked a fitting capper to a remarkable and unpredictable 12 months filled with a bidding war, competing corporate egos, several false starts and a dramatic final stand with between Bonta and Paramount. In a final turn, both Delrahim and Bonta talked up the benefits of the deal.

“When you talk about jobs, an increase from 5% to 40% is massive job increases for the United States, and that’s why IATSE, SAG-AFTRA, the Teamsters, the Laborers, and the Directors Guild of America all support the settlement,” Bonta said, while “vehemently, respectfully” disagreeing with the notion that he caved under political pressure.

“It’s a deal that is pro-competitive. It’s a deal that is transformational. That’s why we committed to it,” Delrahim said. “I’m just grateful for the time and the attention and the professional work that Attorney General Bonta and his 11 other colleagues did to work with us in good faith.”

Despite Delrahim’s claims of “good faith,” there were many bumps on the road to get to the settlement, from a canceled mediation meeting over leaks to a threat by Ellison to move Paramount out of California, risking thousands of jobs and billions in economic output.

But now comes the hard part: making good on the settlement’s requirements and building what Ellison has referred to as a “stronger Hollywood.”

Below is a recap of the key takeaways from Bonta and Delrahim.

What turned the tide in reaching the settlement?

When asked about what was the turning point that made both sides reach a settlement, Bonta told TheWrap it was Paramount deciding to negotiate in good faith.

“They weren’t addressing the concerns that we had in the case,” he said. “When they finally decided to sit down and make real commitments on the issues that we cared about when it came to the antitrust enforcement case, that’s when when we settled the case.”

Meanwhile, Delrahim argued that the key to getting a settlement done was that the 12 states had no antitrust case. He said that their argument that Paramount-WBD would have a combined market share of 27% in the theatrical film market didn’t take Amazon MGM Studios, Lionsgate or A24 into account.

“Once you factor those in, that market share goes below 20%, and that’s assuming you take their time frame from ’22 to ’25 for that market share, which is based on box office revenues,” he said. “That’s just not how antitrust works. So once the facts were out before a judge, it would have never ever held up.”

“Every step of the way when you have a bad case, you’re making precedent, and as a former enforcer, it makes it more difficult for the future. So now, every time the state AGs bring a case, guess what the parties are going to do? They’re going to file the motion we filed,” he continued. “The state AGs, I think, realized there’s not a case here. Why are we doing this? And they realized that delay is not going to help anyone, which is why all the unions and everybody supported that.”

He also credited Ellison himself with getting the deal over the finish line during the Yom Kippur holiday.

“David was incredibly involved in this process himself with the staff. He and I would fly up, come down. He was personally invested and he is the single best client a lawyer can have because he’s incredibly genuine, he’s credible, and as a former producer and a guy who understands his business, he can speak with authority when asked these questions and allegations come up about different parts of the business,” he said. “It is incredible. You don’t even have to prepare because the truth actually is incredibly powerful.”

Though Delrahim said Ellison’s threat to move was “not a bluff,” he dismissed the idea that it played any major role in settling the litigation.

Bonta defends settlement, touts it as “opposite” of Disney-Fox merger

Under the terms of the settlement, Paramount-WBD is required to invest a minimum of $1.5 billion over five years in domestic TV and film production.

It also must release at least 30 films a year in theaters for two years and 32 per year for the following three years. At least four films per year must be independent films and at least 20% must be blockbusters. If Congress passes a federal film tax credit, Paramount agreed that 20% of all film production must be in the U.S. for the first two years of the merger and 30% of the next three.

Bonta told TheWrap that the film requirement is the “opposite” of the Disney-Fox merger, noting that the two companies made about 28 films per year before the combination, which would later drop to 14 films per year.

“If the federal film tax credit passes and a California film tax credit passes, it could be a 700% increase in films being made in the United States. Only about 5%, according to Paramount’s own numbers, of their total film production is made in the United States. That could get to 40%,” he added. “So when you talk about jobs, a 700% increase from 5% to 40% is massive job increases for the United States.”

Additionally, the combined company must negotiate the distribution agreements for Paramount and Warner’s suite of cable networks separately and set up an independent editorial board to oversee CNN and CBS News’ operations.

When asked about the future of CNN, news and free speech, Bonta admitted that he’s concerned about there being too much misinformation and disinformation, but argued that the editorial board would help “ensure journalistic integrity and fact-based, non-biased, objective reporting.” Similarly, Delrahim said that while he understands the political concerns around Ellison’s ownership, he does not believe that CNN and CBS News will “foreclose access” to information.

Other settlement terms include continuing to operate Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio lots for five years, honoring collective bargaining agreements with Hollywood’s unions and making community investments, including a $5 million-per-year contribution to an independent film fund and $9.5 million annually for film and TV career training and development programs to benefit qualified educational institutions and community arts organizations.

Failure to comply with the various commitments in the settlement range from a $30 million penalty per film that misses the theatrical goal to forced divestitures of the company’s 49% Miramax stake within a 12-month period as well as BET, Comedy Central, VH1, Smithsonian, Destination America and Science Channel within a 120-day period.

“The proposed consent decree reflects a settlement between the parties
that is a fair, reasonable, and good faith approach to address the competitive harms alleged in the Complaint, and does not violate the law or public policy,” Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín wrote in her order on Wednesday.

Did Bonta cave?

Despite reaching the settlement, some are concerned that the agreement does not go far enough to address the potential harms posed by the merger.

“Allowing the Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery merger to move forward with no meaningful structural remedies will cost jobs, mute creativity, weaken independent journalism, and damage our First Amendment rights. The ripples of this merger will be far-reaching, long-lasting, and impossible to contain,” the Block the Merger coalition said in a statement. “We are going to continue the fight.”

Bonta has also been accused of caving due to Ellison’s threat to move and pressure from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the Democratic nominee in California’s gubernatorial race Xavier Becerra — a claim he “vehemently and respectfully disagrees” with and said had “no influence” on the states’ decision.

“My job is to focus on the antitrust concerns and getting a resolution. So what a company may or may not do, what a governor or a next governor says or doesn’t say, has no influence,” Bonta said. “I’m the attorney general of California. I need to make a decision about the case that I brought with my 11 other attorneys general, and if we get a resolution to that case, as we did when Paramount finally came to the table in good faith, then we take it and we resolve the case.”

He added that it was ultimately a “unanimous” decision for the states to settle the case, though Connecticut AG William Tong unsuccessfully pushed for Paramount-WBD to divest CNN and CBS News during negotiations.

When asked about the political opposition surrounding the deal, Delrahim accused the Block the Merger coalition’s Norm Eisen of using the campaign against the merger as a fundraising opportunity for himself. He also doubled down on previous remarks that some who opposed the merger were antisemitic.

But when asked if there would be any retaliation against creatives who opposed the merger, Delrahim said that would be “silly.”

“We’re in the business of storytelling. We’re in the business of fulfilling consumers’ demands, and you don’t do that,” he said.

What happens now?

With the settlement now approved, the next order of business is to officially close the merger. Ellison has said the deal would close within two weeks of reaching the settlement, putting the closing date in early October.

Paramount’s Class B stock listing is expected to move from the Nasdaq to the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 5 and begin trading on the NYSE on Oct. 6. Paramount would distribute warrants to purchase those shares on Oct. 13.

However, the merger is “subject to further closing conditions, and the ultimate timing for the closing of the WBD merger, if any, is not yet certain,” the company noted in a Friday SEC filing. As a result, Paramount may choose to cancel or postpone the move.

While the deal isn’t officially closed, Ellison has already started shaking up the combined company’s leadership team, tapping HBO CEO Casey Bloys to run Paramount+ and HBO Max, with Paramount Streaming head Cindy Holland exiting on Tuesday. Paramount has also recruited Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz to serve as co-CEO of the combined company.

Shares of Paramount closed at $10.33 apiece, up 3.4% at the end of Wednesday’s trading session, while WBD shares finished at $30.95 per share, up 0.32%.

The post Paramount’s Makan Delrahim, California AG Rob Bonta Get Candid on Warner Bros. Merger Settlement appeared first on TheWrap.

“The proposed consent decree reflects a settlement between the parties
that is a fair, reasonable, and good faith approach to address the competitive harms alleged in the Complaint, and does not violate the law or public policy,” Martínez-Olguín wrote in her order on Wednesday.

“In years to come, we’ll be able to point to this failure to put consumers over the monied interests of corporate consolidation as the tipping-point moment for media in this country,” the Block the Merger coalition said in a statement opposing the decision. “Allowing the Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery merger to move forward with no meaningful structural remedies will cost jobs, mute creativity, weaken independent journalism and damage our First Amendment rights. The ripples of this merger will be far-reaching, long-lasting, and impossible to contain.

“If there is one discernible benefit to the approval of this corporate takeover, it’s that people are now wide awake and paying attention – and their anger is not going to fade away. We are going to build on this movement to stand united as creatives, policy experts, and public advocates to achieve enduring media policy change that funds and diversifies our media and safeguards its independence. We are going to ensure the government protects the interests of everyday people and prevents them from continuing to be bulldozed for those of oligarch billionaires. We are going to continue the fight.”

Under the terms of the settlement, Paramount has agreed to a minimum investment of $300 million per year for five years in U.S. film and TV production, amounting to a total of $1.5 billion. The company will also release at least 30 films per year theatrically in the first two years of the deal and 32 films per year in the three years after that.

At least four films per year must be independent films and at least 20% must be blockbusters, although the consent decree defines independent films as movies “based on an original screenplay” or simply co-produced by Paramount. If Congress passes a federal film tax credit, Paramount agreed that 20% of all film production must be in the U.S. for the first two years of the merger and 30% of the next three.

Paramount will also be held to its prior commitment to have a theatrical window of 45 days and hold its films back from streaming availability for 90 days. 

On the TV side, Paramount agreed to negotiate distribution for its suite of cable networks and Warner Bros. cable portfolio separately, unless a distributor requests otherwise in writing. It also agreed to establish an independent oversight board at CNN and CBS News and will continue to operate free, ad-supported streaming platform Pluto TV.

Additionally, the companies will maintain their respective studio lots, honor collective bargaining agreements with Hollywood’s unions and make community investments. Those investments include a $5 million-per-year contribution to an independent films fund and $9.5 million annually for film and TV career training and development programs to benefit qualified educational institutions and community arts organizations.

Failure to comply with the various commitments in the settlement range from a $30 million penalty per film that misses the theatrical goal to forced divestitures of the company’s 49% Miramax stake within a 12-month period as well as BET, Comedy Central, VH1, Smithsonian, Destination America and Science Channel within a 120-day period.

The official approval comes after the Block the Merger coalition called the agreement “weak and unenforceable.” Sen. Corey Booker had also asked the court to subject the proposed consent decree to an “independent public-interest review” before entering it.

Martínez-Olguín had asked Paramount and the state AGs to address her outstanding questions and Booker’s concerns prior to signing off on the consent decree. On Monday, the parties said it was a “reasonable compromise” that was negotiated at “arm’s length” with enforcement provisions that “have teeth.”

During TheWrap’s 2026 TheGrill conference, Rob Bonta also pushed back against claims that he caved and that he was pressured to settle due to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the Democratic nominee in California’s gubernatorial race Xavier Becerra or Ellison’s threat to move Paramount out of the state.

“My job is to focus on the antitrust concerns and getting a resolution. So what a company may or may not do, what a governor or a next governor says or doesn’t say, has no influence,” Bonta continued. “I’m the attorney general of California. I need to make a decision about the case that I brought with my 11 other attorneys general, and if we get a resolution to that case, as we did when Paramount finally came to the table in good faith, then we take it and we resolve the case.”

Paramount CEO David Ellison previously said the merger would close two weeks after reaching the settlement, or in early October. Paramount’s Class B stock listing is expected to move from the Nasdaq to the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 5 and begin trading on the NYSE on Oct. 6. It would distribute warrants to purchase those shares on Oct. 13.

While the deal isn’t officially closed, Ellison has already started shaking up the combined company’s leadership team, tapping HBO CEO Casey Bloys to run Paramount+ and HBO Max, with Paramount Streaming head Cindy Holland exiting on Tuesday. The company has also recruited Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz for an undisclosed senior role in the company.

The post Judge Approves Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Settlement appeared first on TheWrap.

Vertical Leap is built to give athletes more than the ability to back films for producer credits. Members gain a working seat inside Cinetic’s slate, with access to rough cuts, creative input and the same industry guidance the company provides the filmmakers behind its most successful projects. The goal is to prepare each member not just to back a film, but to eventually build a production career of their own.

“Vertical Leap offers a pathway for elite athletes to support commercial, impactful documentaries, while learning the ins and outs of film production from the most experienced storytellers working today,” Sloss said in a statement. “It is also a way for them to build something lasting beyond their playing days, expanding their brand, deepening their creative voice and putting real equity behind the stories they believe in.”

Sloss added: “For the documentary community, Vertical Leap brings the adrenaline jolt of a new class of collaborators, athletes with real creative instincts and the reach to bring documentary storytelling to audiences who might not otherwise find it.”

Cinetic is best known for structuring and executing landmark finance and sales transactions for independent films, including some of the most significant sales in Sundance and Cannes history. Cinetic has handled the financing and/or sale of more than 600 films and series, including “Hoop Dreams,” ESPN’s landmark series “30 for 30,” “Summer of Soul,” and this year’s Oscar contender “Once Upon a Time in Harlem,” as well as several of the most iconic independent films of the past 30 years such as “Napoleon Dynamite,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” and the Academy Award-winning Best Picture “Green Book.”

The post John Sloss’ Cinetic Media Launches Sports Documentary Production Company Vertical Leap appeared first on TheWrap.

Sports technology provider Nomadar is going so far as to bet on the next-generation of growth for soccer in America by buying Fox Soccer Academy, which trains young players hoping for college and professional careers.

The theory is that the growing popularity of soccer will get more youngsters to play the game. Better young players will make the American teams stronger and make the game even more popular potentially minting future stars.

But the big story in finance was Paramount settling the antitrust lawsuit that had stalled its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, with many in Hollywood shocked that California Attorney General Rob Bonta struck an agreement that didn’t include any significant divestitures. The deal is now set to clear in the next few weeks but the drama is unlikely to end as the company deals with debt and cuts staff.

Thanks for reading and please send tips to jon.lafayette@thewrap.com

P.S. Hollywood’s latest round of consolidation is still playing out, and there are plenty of questions about what comes after it. The people who price, finance and navigate these deals take the stage at TheGrill on Sept. 30. Subscribers get 30% off with code WRAPPROVIP

THE DEEP DIVE

Investing in Soccer by Betting on Youth Sports

The World Cup raised U.S. interest in soccer, and many investors looked for ways to cash in.

Nomadar last week made a bet on more youngsters playing the game, agreeing to acquire Fox Soccer Academy, which started its training business in New York 11 years ago, and now has facilities in North Carolina, the United Kingdom and Australia.

NASDAQ-traded Nomadar is now majority owned by the Cadiz soccer team, which plays in the second division of Spain’s professional La Liga. Nomadar has been billed as the team’s sports-technology business. To give you a sense of its imporance, Cadiz Club de Futbol shareholders will vote on Sept. 30 on a reverse spinoff that will make Nomadar the majority shareholder of the team.

• Nomadar is buying Fox Soccer Academy for an upfront payment of $2 million. Fox has facilities in the U.S., the U.K. and Austria that have 2,100 boys and girls enrolled.
• The Spanish soccer team Cadiz FC controls Nomadar, but the companies have approved a reverse-spin transaction that will make Nomadar the majority owner of the team. 
• Nomadar is building a multi-use facility in Cadiz that will host the team and other businesses. 

Nomadar’s CEO of Americas & Executive Vice Chairman Joaquin Martin told The Ledger that the company’s tech-oriented sports platform is built around the team, with businesses in training young players, real estate development and digital products. “We are building a very unique model,” Martin said. “It’s a global connected ecosystem. The center of the ecosystem is the professional soccer club.”

Since going public last year, Nomadar hasn’t posted a profitable quarter. In the second quarter, the company reported a net loss of $459,941, or 3 cents per share, as revenue doubled to $669,571.

Martin said its early days have been spent readying the company to set its operating units up and running while preparing for the reverse spin. 

“It has been an intense 10 months because we have been achieving different milestones,” Martin said.

Those milestones include acquiring land in Spain for the multi-purpose event center it is developing and preparing for the reverse spinoff. The next step is building its training division by acquiring Fox Soccer Academy.

“At the end of the day, we will have all the standards of a publicly traded company, access and possibilities to grow,” he said.

Nomadar is paying $2 million upfront for Fox plus a delayed payment of $2.6 million and up to a $1.5 million earnout. Fox was founded by Raluca Gold-Fuchs, a Goldman Sachs veteran, and her husband, Christian Fuchs, who played for Leicester City when it won the Premier League in 2016 and is now the assistant coach for Charlotte FC of the MLS. Nomadar has an option to buy the remaining interest in Fox for $4.4 million.

Fox has produced players that have been called for national teams. The Fuchs’ sons graduated from the program and have played in the professional in the MLS and in the U.K. Its revenue comes from tuition paid by their young players’ families.

Gold-Fuchs said they got to know Nomadar through a friend. Fuchs said the combination of the science-based techniques Fox uses at its academy, plus the high-performance training program Cardiz employees in Europe will help young players advance to college and professional teams. Being connected to an historic professional team will also give Fox a boost, particularly in international markets.

Gold-Fuchs said Fox has expanded carefully so far and now has 2,100 players in its multiple locations. “We want to continue what we’ve been doing well so far. Nomadar is adding this international aspect that we can provide to our players that other academies cannot,” she said. “We will grow the same careful way we’ve been growing until now. We definitely want to grow, but not in an aggressive way.”

Fox has seen interest in soccer grow in the U.S. with Lionel Messi joining the MLS and the World Cup showing America’s enthusiasm for the game, that growth is bound to continue, Gold-Fuchs said.

“The popularity will pick up, and the more money that goes into the sport, and the more good players you get into the sport, the more it’s going to grow,” she said. 

Sports investors are looking at modern multi-use facilities as an opportunity for teams to generate revenues beyond ticket sales and media rights. 

The complex Nomadar is building in Cadiz will include a 35,000-seat venue for sports, cultural and music events, plus a convention center, hotel and shopping. It is expected to be completed at the end of 2030.

At the same time, Nomadar is getting set to launch several products that combine the in-person experience it offers with digital experiences, Martin said. It has a subscription product for people who want to work for professional soccer teams, and it plans to launch a program for people who want to get some of the benefits of the Cadiz training regime without attending facilities in person.

Nomadar is also looking at additional facilities it can build and, in the future, could expand by buying other professional teams.

“Connectivity  inside the ecosystem is a natural trigger for growth. Martin said.

Nomadar, which traded at $21 after it went public in a direct offering last October,  closed Thursday at $1.53.

FINANCIAL ROUNDUP

The Paramount-WBD Saga (Concluded?) 

The billionaire Ellison family got its way and CEO David Ellison expects Paramount Skydance will close the $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery in two weeks after reaching a settlement with a dozen state attorneys general, avoid a costly delays which were riddled with potential fees. The judge overseeing the case wants Paramout to address “certain outstanding questions” and concerns raised by Sen. Corey Booker by Mondoay. 

Before the close, Paramount was still looking for financing and considered asking one-time trillionaire Elon Musk to be an equity investor, according to Semafor. On Thursday, it launched a syndication to raise $7.5 billion in debt to help fund the deal.

The legal settlement came after Paramount was seemingly ready to make good on its threat to move out of California, applying tremendous pressure on Attorney General Rob Bonta. After the deal was reached, Ellison said the company’s headquarters would remain in Los Angeles.

What shocked many in Hollywood was not just the speed of the proceedings but how Paramount came out of this unscathed. The settlement did not require any significant “structural remedies,” such as the sale of cable channels, that Bonta contended were needed to address competitive concerns.

In the 32-page consent decree, Paramount agreed to produce 30 films a year for two years, and 32 films the following three years. The company agreed to spend $1.5 billion over three years on domestic production and keep its studio lots open, and treat its cable channels as different entities when negotiating with distributors.

To answer concerns that the Trump-friendly Ellisons would now control CBS News and CNN, Paramount agreed to form an independent oversight board for the news operations, although press advocate groups expressed doubt the entity would have any influence on operations. Connecticut AG William Tong had demanded that Paramount divest CNN and CBS and The Freedom of the Press Foundation already slammed the agreement as worthless. 

The settlement was also denounced by the Block the Merger coalition. It got a better review from theater owners, which had already thrown their support behind a settlement a few weeks ago. The Writers Guild of America also settled its suit against Paramount, largely because it lacked the financial footing to mount a long-term battle. 

Barclay’s analyst Kannan Venkateshwar called the terms of the settlement “relatively benign” for the company, although it limits its ability to make some near-term asset sales. The pledge not to sell studio lots “could be seen as an additional constraint limiting synergies but given the commitment to make 30 movies, the company will likely need this capacity in any case,” Venkateshwar said. “The focus will now turn to integration.”

Venkateshwar also pointed out that as part of the WBD deal, the company would issue warrants attached to Class B shares. The warrants will be separately traded.

“While the warrants don’t necessarily change the equity value today, they will result in incremental dilution when exercised but will also bring in cash when exercised of about $5.7 billion,” he said. “However, the warrants have a long duration and will trade independently which means that this part of the capital structure will be valued on factors beyond just the immediate stock price.”

Worth reading:

• Breaking Down the Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Settlement | Analysis
• Paramount-Warner Bros. Closes in Two Weeks: What Does That Mean for Creatives?
• Can Paramount’s CNN and CBS News Oversight Board Actually Work?

DEAL SHEET

• Barry Diller’s People Inc. withdrew its bid for MGM Resorts that valued the company at $18 billion. People Inc. owns 27% of MGM shares and offered to buy enough to give it a controlling interest. “We didn’t feel the mix was coming together in the way we had hoped and have decided not to pursue taking the company private at this time,” Diller said. On Thursday, reports surfaced that MGM was considering  a bid for People.
• A24 and The New York Times joined the list of companies reportedly interested in acquiring Letterboxd for more than $300 million. Sony, Netflix, Paramount and private-equity firms RedBird and TPG had previously been listed as potential bidders for the company, controlled by Tiny since 2023.
• Podium Entertainment, a publisher focused on independent authors and audiobooks, was acquired by private-equity firms Shamrock Capital and Flexpoint Ford. No price was disclosed, but sources familiar with the situation valued the deal at $400 million. Podium, which has been controlled by Presidio Investors since 2019, was advised by LionTree. Podium’s existing management will stay in place.
• Unit1 Studio, which produces avatar concerts, raised $20 million in a round of financing led by Balderton. An avatar concert is a production that features a digitally constructed replica of a music artist performing live on a stage inside a real venue. Unit1 plans to offer young fans a concert experience featuring bands from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. 
• Sister Group, the entertainment company run by Elisabeth Murdoch and Jane Featherstone, bought a minority stake in Common Interest, an advertising company founded by Anthony Freedman. The two companies are working together on projects backed by brands as part of a strategic partnership. 

WRAP 20 INDEX

Here’s how the companies in our Wrap 20 Index performed this week. 

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Under the new representation structure, the firms will spearhead the four-time World Series champion’s personal endorsements, brand partnerships and business development.

The partnership comes as the eight-time MLB All-Star and entrepreneur hopes to expand his business footprint off the field, with both 3 Arts Sports and SSE focused on his personal branding and business endeavors. It marks a shift in Betts’ career as he focuses on long-term creative ownership and global brand expansion.         

“Mookie Betts is a generational talent on the field and an incredibly forward-thinking entrepreneur off it. We are thrilled to collaborate across sports and entertainment to build a comprehensive strategy for one of baseball’s most enduring icons,” 3 Arts Entertainment co-CEO Brian Weinstein and SSE founder and president Doug Sanders said in a joint statement. “This partnership aligns with Mookie’s ambitious vision by tapping into our respective teams’ expertise and industry relationships.”

Betts joins the 3 Arts Sports roster alongside sports stars that have shaken up the pop culture scene, including Travis Kelce, the WNBA’s Sophie Cunningham and NFL star Jayden Daniels.

“I’ve always believed in surrounding myself with people who understand my vision and bring expertise in areas where I can continue to grow,” Betts said. “As the opportunities around me have continued to evolve, it felt important to build a specialized team that could help me navigate and develop those opportunities the right way. I’m excited to have 3 Arts Sports and SSE alongside me and to have the right people in place to support everything I’m building off the field.”

The post Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mookie Betts Signs With 3 Arts Sports and Sanders Sports & Entertainment appeared first on TheWrap.