![]() The incredible rise in salaries for top sports reporters and personalities is due in large part to the combination of the gambling money influx, social media and the new streaming services. (Wojnarowski, Passan and Thamel all came from Yahoo Sports, which Pitaro once ran.) It also added Pete Thamel on college sports. Besides Schefter and Wojnarowski, it retained MLB insider Jeff Passan for four years and a total of $4 million. With ESPN walking into the future, having spent billions upon billions on the games, it also wants to own the top insiders. ![]() These live sports deals also give ESPN the flexibility to go direct-to-consumer with its top games, while also remaining in the cable bundle. Most of the deals go into the next decade, creating a moat that the new players, like Amazon and possibly Apple, with their endless money, can’t fully penetrate. In the process, they added more top NFL games, two Super Bowls, yearly MLB first-round playoffs, four Stanley Cup Finals and the most successful college football conference to go along with all the prestige events they already own, like the NBA Finals and the College Football Championship. Over the past two-plus years, Pitaro and his top negotiating rights lieutenant, Burke Magnus, spent more than $40 billion in new rights fees to retain, among others, the NFL and MLB, while adding properties such as the SEC in 2024 and the NHL this year.Īdam Schefter Diamond Images/Getty Images There is an argument to be made against the excessiveness of the money spent – it is deliciously ridiculous – but if you have the dough, why not shop at the top of the market? You know, be “The Worldwide Leader in Sports.”ĮSPN has utilized a two-pronged attack. A quarter billion! So what is ESPN doing?ĮSPN is trying to ward off the emerging platforms, the other major networks and the digital entities in an increasingly crowded space. This Schefter-Wojnarowski outlay comes on the heels of Pitaro and ESPN sending shockwaves not just in media, but in sports in general, when it lured Joe Buck and Troy Aikman from Fox Sports for five years for a total of $165 million to call “Monday Night Football.” That was $90 million for Aikman and a mere $75 million for Buck.ĮSPN has just spent around $250,000,000 on four sports media personalities. The discrepancy between the two is by virtue of Schefter’s longer run at ESPN, a higher salary going into negotiations and the power of the NFL.ĮSPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro, a diehard Yankees fan, continues to spend like George Steinbrenner for his star personalities and the free agents he wants. Schefter will make around $9 million per year, while Wojnarowski will earn in the $7 million range per year from ESPN, according to sources. The deals for NFL insider Adam Schefter and NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski are the latest example, as each of the newsbreakers’ contracts will span five years and the ESPN outlay is for a total of more than $80 million with a chance for each of them to make more, The Post has learned. While it does not go by the moniker “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” anymore, it continues to use its financial might to be at the top of the pack, be it the best games or the top information. In a media world that is increasingly splintered with new challenges, ESPN still reigns in the middle of it all. Tom Brady and I agree: Aggregated Fox story is fake newsĮSPN replacing Steve Levy with Chris Fowler in No. ![]() 'It Ain't Over' doc is granddaughter's reminder about 'forgotten' Yogi BerraĮSPN is leading candidate as Pat McAfee moves closer to leaving $120 million FanDuel deal Roger Goodell's 'Thursday Night' flex plan is straight-up greed ![]()
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