Entertainment & Media

Law, business, and strategy across entertainment, media, music, film, television, streaming, and the creator economy.

Business & Deals

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AI Is Turning “Consent” Into the Most Valuable Word in Talent Contracts

Sep 19, 2026

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10 min read

AI Is Turning “Consent” Into the Most Valuable Word in Talent Contracts

Digital replicas can turn one recording session, scan, or appearance into an effectively unlimited supply of future performances. That changes the central bargain in talent agreements: the most valuable asset may no longer be the footage, recording, or likeness itself, but the continuing permission to make the person perform when the person is not there.

Business & Deals

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The RSN Didn’t Die. It Was Unbundled.

Sep 19, 2026

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11 min read

The RSN Didn’t Die. It Was Unbundled.

Local sports television is not moving from cable to streaming so much as from one integrated business model to a menu of interchangeable parts. Teams and leagues are gaining control over production, distribution, and the fan relationship—but they are also taking back the financial risk that regional sports networks once absorbed.

Business & Deals

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The Media-Rights Deal Is Becoming an Equity Deal—and That Changes Who Owns the Upside

Sep 19, 2026

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8 min read

The Media-Rights Deal Is Becoming an Equity Deal—and That Changes Who Owns the Upside

The NFL’s stake in ESPN is more than an unusual media transaction. It points toward a different model for sports distribution—one in which leagues increasingly ask why they should merely license the content that creates a platform’s value instead of owning part of the platform, participating in its economics, or controlling distribution themselves.

Business & Deals

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The Next Sports Empire Won’t Just Own the Team. It Will Own the Fan Relationship.

Sep 19, 2026

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9 min read

The Next Sports Empire Won’t Just Own the Team. It Will Own the Fan Relationship.

The franchise is becoming the anchor of a much larger operating system spanning media, venues, real estate, data, betting, commerce, content and hospitality. The real prize is not another revenue stream. It is control over what happens before, during and after the game.

Business & Deals

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Private Equity Isn’t Just Buying Sports Teams. It’s Building the Sports Economy Around Them.

Sep 19, 2026

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10 min read

Private Equity Isn’t Just Buying Sports Teams. It’s Building the Sports Economy Around Them.

The biggest private-capital story in sports is no longer who owns the team. Investors are moving into the infrastructure surrounding the game—media, data, venues, college athletics, youth sports, agencies and technology—and turning a fragmented industry into an interconnected investment platform.

Business & Deals

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Lucki’s Former Manager Says He Bankrolled the Career. The Hard Part May Be Proving the Deal.

Sep 18, 2026

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11 min read

Lucki’s Former Manager Says He Bankrolled the Career. The Hard Part May Be Proving the Deal.

Mark Buol says an oral management deal entitled him to 15% of Lucki’s entertainment income—and that he ultimately became the rapper’s lender, tour financier and unpaid creditor. The lawsuit shows why the most dangerous entertainment contract can be the one everyone thinks they understand without writing down.

Business & Deals

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Threaten an Athlete, Lose Your Right to Bet: Major Leagues Push for Lifetime Sportsbook Bans

Sep 15, 2026

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5 min read

Threaten an Athlete, Lose Your Right to Bet: Major Leagues Push for Lifetime Sportsbook Bans

The NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS—and their players unions—want betting-related harassment to carry a new consequence: permanent exclusion from regulated sportsbooks.

Business & Deals

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Why Is My Team Blacked Out? How Local and National Sports Rights Actually Work

Sep 14, 2026

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10 min read

Why Is My Team Blacked Out? How Local and National Sports Rights Actually Work

A blackout is usually not a technical glitch or a government rule. It is the visible edge of a contract giving someone else the exclusive right to show that game where you are. Once you understand who owns the local, national, and out-of-market rights, the seemingly irrational world of sports streaming starts to make sense.

Business & Deals

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The Regional Sports Network Is Dead. The Replacement Is a Stack, Not a Channel.

Sep 14, 2026

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10 min read

The Regional Sports Network Is Dead. The Replacement Is a Stack, Not a Channel.

For decades, one intermediary produced the game, distributed it, sold the advertising, paid the team and absorbed the audience risk. That model is breaking apart. The future of local sports media will combine free television, direct subscriptions, league infrastructure and giant streaming platforms—and the most valuable right may eventually be the relationship with the fan.

Business & Deals

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What Are “Backend Points” in an Entertainment Deal?

Sep 12, 2026

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8 min read

What Are “Backend Points” in an Entertainment Deal?

A percentage is the easy part. The real deal is what the percentage is applied to.

Entertainment & Media

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What Is a Digital Replica? The New Rules for AI-Generated Voices, Faces and Performances

Sep 12, 2026

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10 min read

What Is a Digital Replica? The New Rules for AI-Generated Voices, Faces and Performances

AI can now make someone appear to say, sing or do something they never said, sang or did. The increasingly important legal question is not whether the technology can create that performance. It is who authorized it, for what purpose, and on what terms.

Business & Deals

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How Music Catalog Deals Actually Work

Sep 12, 2026

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8 min read

How Music Catalog Deals Actually Work

A catalog sale is not simply “selling your songs.” It is a transaction involving copyrights, royalty streams, contract rights, and decades of projected cash flow—and the first question is always what, exactly, is being sold.

Business & Deals

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The Fanatics Ecosystem: When Does Vertical Integration Become Market Power?

Sep 12, 2026

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11 min read

The Fanatics Ecosystem: When Does Vertical Integration Become Market Power?

Fanatics has built something bigger than a trading-card company: an increasingly connected system spanning sports rights, Topps, memorabilia, live breaking, marketplaces, vaulting, retail, events, and direct-to-consumer commerce. That integration can make collecting dramatically easier. Antitrust law starts asking harder questions when control of one layer becomes leverage over who gets to compete in another.

Business & Deals

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HYROX’s New Deal Puts a $700 Million Price Tag on a Sport That Barely Existed a Decade Ago

Sep 12, 2026

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5 min read

HYROX’s New Deal Puts a $700 Million Price Tag on a Sport That Barely Existed a Decade Ago

The founders of HYROX have reclaimed control with backing from L Catterton and other investors. The bigger story is what investors are actually buying: not a team, but a standardized sport, a global participation network, and the right to keep building the category around both.

Business & Deals

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Fanatics Controls the Product. TikTok Controls the Storefront. A New Antitrust Suit Says That Combination Shut Rivals Out.

Sep 12, 2026

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10 min read

Fanatics Controls the Product. TikTok Controls the Storefront. A New Antitrust Suit Says That Combination Shut Rivals Out.

Independent sports-card breakers accuse Fanatics and TikTok of using control over licensed collectibles and livestream distribution to squeeze rivals. The lawsuit has not proved that theory—but it presents a modern version of a very old antitrust question: when does vertical integration become exclusion?

The Game Behind The Game

Sports & Entertainment Law + Business Analysis

© 2026 The Game Behind The Game

The Game Behind The Game provides commentary and analysis for informational purposes only. Nothing published here constitutes legal advice, creates an attorney-client relationship, or should be relied upon as a substitute for advice from qualified counsel regarding a particular matter. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author’s law firm, its attorneys, or its clients.

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