Latest in John Skipper

Former ESPN President John Skipper, who led the effort to secure the current NBA rights deal, says incumbents Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have no choice but to re-up with the league. “These are existential rights for ESPN,” he said during an episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, a podcast…

Former ESPN colleagues John Skipper and Dan Le Batard (Highly Questionable, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz) are getting into business with Apple TV+. Skipper and Le Batard have signed a multi-year first-look deal with the Apple streaming service via their recently launched Meadowlark Media. Under the pact…

Adnan Virk, a Canadian sports broadcaster whose nine-year run at ESPN ended abruptly in 2019, is reuniting with ex-colleagues Dan Le Batard and John Skipper at Meadowlark Media. The emerging content company, which launched in January, will add Virk as a regular contributor starting in July. Le Batard was a popular…

Emerging content supplier Meadowlark Media has raised $12.6 million in Series A funding, CEO and co-founder John Skipper has announced. Investors include DAZN (where Skipper was executive chairman), DraftKings, Wasserman and Michael Lynton, former Sony entertainment chief and now chairman of Snap.  The Series A…

Writer, podcaster and former ESPN personality Jemele Hill and Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-creator and prolific producer Mike Schur have joined Meadowlark Media as creative advisers. Meadowlark is a content venture created in January and led by former ESPN president John Skipper and former TV host and columnist Dan Le…

Hank Azaria will reprise his role from the IFC comedy Brockmire in a 10-episode podcast produced by Dan Le Batard and John Skipper’s Meadowlark Media. Brockmire ran for four seasons, ending in 2020. Azaria played the title character, a plain-spoken, plaid-jacketed, hard-drinking sportscaster. The Jim Brockmire Podcast…

Kevin Mayer, whose long tenure at Disney culminated in the successful launch of Disney+, is joining sports streaming outfit DAZN as chairman. He replaces former colleague John Skipper, the longtime former ESPN executive who steered DAZN through launches in the U.S. and other global territories. Backed by billionaire…

UPDATED with name and details of new venture: John Skipper and Dan Le Batard, who were ESPN colleagues as network president and on-air talent, respectively, have formed Meadowlark Media. The content venture, supported by billionaire Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries, “will emphasize a creator-centric point of view,&#8221…

EXCLUSIVE: Sports streaming service DAZN is expanding to 200 countries and territories on December 1, with initial monthly pricing of £1.99 or less. Launched in 2016 and backed by billionaire Len Blavatnik, DAZN has thus far reached the U.S., Brazil, Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, Italy and Japan with a…

Rising global sports outlet DAZN reported a 98% rise in total streaming hours in 2019, to 507 million from 256 million. The rematch in December between heavyweight fighters Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jr. was the most-viewed event of the year, though DAZN did not break out viewership stats for any individual events…

DAZN, the Europe-based sports streaming outfit led by former ESPN president John Skipper, has set a distribution deal with Comcast, its first such agreement with a major U.S. operator. The service will be available to Comcast customers on Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex. Comcast this week said it was making Flex available…

DAZN, the rising sports streaming operation headed by former ESPN chief John Skipper, has added a key exec from Skipper’s former regime, bringing in Jamie Horowitz as EVP of content for North America. Horowitz had been a consultant at DAZN since 2018. He was fired by Fox Sports in 2017 amid an investigation by the…