Ben Fischer

3 days ago | sportsbusinessjournal.com | Ben Fischer

Hans Schroeder oversees seven rights packages worth more than $11 billion a year for the NFL. But he also leads the league’s strategy to navigate the shift to streaming now and in the future, a precise balancing act of recruiting and pleasing streamers while maintaining strong ties to traditional networks. He handles scheduling, which means finding the right games to best drive the business of new rights holders such as Netflix and Amazon.

3 days ago | sportsbusinessjournal.com | Ben Fischer

As the economy slides toward a possible recession, the Washington, D.C., region is the leading edge of the troubles due to the Trump administration’s attempts to rapidly downsize the federal workforce. For pro sports teams, the most immediate threat is a drop-off in consumer spending, both as the result of actual job cuts and the broad potential threat faced by virtually any federal worker and many contractors — one team has already seen some evidence of that in its season-ticket base.

6 days ago | sportsbusinessjournal.com | Ben Fischer

The United Football Players Association says they’ve struck a deal with the UFL on the league’s first CBA, with the players securing immediate raises and year-round health insurance. The players membership ratified a two-season pact Thursday, but the league’s BOD has not taken final action. A league spokesman declined comment.

6 days ago | sportsbusinessjournal.com | Ben Fischer |Austin Karp

Along with the NFL Draft, the NFL has another media rights deal in the market and bidding is strong, sources tell me and my colleague Austin Karp. It could be for up to two games, and one certainly is the Week 1 Brazil game to be played Friday, Sept. 5, in São Paulo, pitting the Chargers against an undetermined team -- but it looks like it will be the popular three-time defending AFC champion Chiefs, substantially increasing the value of the game. YouTube TV, Warner Bros.

6 days ago | sportsbusinessjournal.com | Ben Fischer |Austin Karp

The UFL’s TV viewership and attendance are behind last year’s results three weeks into the 2025 season. On TV, the UFL audience has averaged 604,000 through 12 games, down 33% compared to the same period last season, according to Karp. The best audience this season came Week 3 on ABC, when D.C. Defenders-St. Louis Battlehawks drew 967,000 viewers. Games this season have aired across Fox, FS1, ABC and ESPN. Overall, Week 3 showed some signs of life.