Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders

Major sporting events used to be clustered among a handful of TV channels. Now following your favourite team might require subscriptions to a whole litany of cable and streaming services. Which is to say nothing of all the licensed content you'll find spread out across social media platforms. In such a complex media ecosystem, how do organizations even begin to think about licensing their media assets? And how do they calculate their worth?

Doug Perlman is the founder and CEO of Sports Media Advisors. SMA advises sports properties on their media strategies and rights negotiations. Doug has negotiated tens of billions of dollars in rights fees for some of the largest sports properties in the world, including the NFL, NASCAR, US Soccer, and the Ryder Cup, among others. 

Doug joins us today to discuss recent trends like the rise of streaming, the popularization of sports betting, and the emergence of AI, and all the unique challenges and opportunities they present for different leagues and organizations. 

Highlights:
  • Doug's early career (3:00)
  • Working for the NHL (4:40)
  • Founding SMA (7:53)
  • SMA's services (9:31)
  • Negotiating rights deals (13:55)
  • Cord-cutting (17:16)
  • Impact of sports betting (18:35)
  • Women's sports (19:37)
  • AI in sports (20:58)
  • Advice for young people trying to work in sports (26:12)
Links:
Doug Perlman LinkedIn
SMA LinkedIn
SMA Website
ICR LinkedIn
ICR Twitter
ICR Website

Feedback:
If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer, marion@lowerstreet.co.

What is Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders?

In the increasingly crowded and competitive corporate and financial ecosystem, it’s harder than ever for companies to break through the clutter and be heard. The media, investors, agenda-driven influencers, even customers and competitors, are defining your business story on their terms. Therefore, it is imperative that companies take control and proactively drive the conversation with stakeholders in an effort to build & maintain equity value.

In Welcome to the Arena from ICR, Co-Founder & CEO of ICR, Tom Ryan, interviews key business and financial players who influence the fate of public or aspiring public companies in the capital markets. As a former Wall Street Journal ranked sell-side equity analyst and the founder of one of the largest strategic communications firms in the world, Tom understands what it takes to navigate this complex environment.

This is a forum for CEOs, CFOs, institutional investors, sell-side analysts, financial journalists, private equity professionals and other financial community participants to share their stories and give advice in an open and candid conversation.

For more information, visit http://www.icrinc.com