Sports & Entertainment Spotlight

Welcome back to the Spotlight! With our entering the 12th frame of 2025, so begins a cavalcade of holiday parties, overindulgences, Spotify Wrapped statistics, Mariah Carey, timeless film classics, travel and year in review retrospectives. Despite recent momentum and tens of millions of dollars poured into lobbying efforts by NCAA commissioners, it does not look like 2025 will be the year that is remembered for Congress’ passing legislation to comprehensively regulate college sports, as lawmakers failed to advance the SCORE Act because (get this:…) Congress could not reach consensus. Go figure! I mean, Congress usually sings “Kumbaya,” respects one another and agrees on everything, right? So, we will have to wait (at least) until 2026 for an overarching federal framework for name, image and likeness rights, medical and mental health benefits for athletes, regulation of agents and NIL contracts.

But, not to worry, my fellow sports and entertainment business junkies, a late entrant to the year in review will be Netflix’s monumental acquisition of Warner Bros. in a deal valued at $82.7 billion, which is, according to my calculations, a lot of money. The deal will bring valuable intellectual property to Netflix for the development of new projects, while providing a direct pipeline of content to the Netflix platform. What it will ultimately mean for theatrical distribution of films—already challenged by the dominant streaming industry is unclear, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start fine tuning your popcorn recipe in case things go sideways.

• • Nationwide Insurance renews its close ties to the NFL with an extension of its sponsorship deal that keeps them as a presenting sponsor of the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. With their also having an endorsement deal with NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, it’s clear they’re willing to pay-tons for the exposure.
  • Veteran actor Tom Selleck decides to switch agencies from CAA to UTA. His mustache is still mulling over its options.
  • The US Supreme Court heard arguments from the record industry and internet service provider Cox Communications in connection with a billion dollar lawsuit alleging that Cox is liable for copyright infringement by failing to boot serial copyright infringers off its services. In other words, Cox is facing the music because it didn’t make others face the music for taking the music.
  • Two members of Australian children’s music group, “The Wiggles” found themselves in hot water for appearing in a music video alluding to drug use for musician Keli Holiday’s new song, “Ecstasy.” The video was eventually withdrawn, which seems appropriate since a symptom of withdrawal is the wiggles.

For inquiries and/or unabashed compliments, please feel free to contact me at josh.bloomgarden@foster.com or add me on LinkedIn.