Paramount wants to carve out a bigger piece of the sports media business, and is creating a new division within the company to help it do so: Paramount Sports Entertainment.
Jesse Sisgold, the former president and COO of Skydance Media and chairman of Skydance Sports, will lead the new division.
The media company, led by CEO David Ellison, says that Paramount Sports Entertainment will produce scripted and unscripted programming for its own platforms as well as third-party media companies and streaming services, while also developing sports-focused interactive games and experiences.
The division will work with athletes, creators, leagues and brands in the pursuit of that programming and entertainment. The new division will also house Skydance Sports, the joint venture (along with the NFL) that produced films and programming like Prime Video’s Air and Netflix’s America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys.
Paramount Sports Entertainment is meant to complement CBS Sports, which led by David Berson and is focused on the company’s live sports programming and studio shows. That said, the two divisions are expected to collaborate on various projects.
“We are incredibly excited to expand Paramount’s best-in-class sports portfolio with the launch of our new Sports Entertainment division with Jesse at the helm,” Ellison said in a statement. “Blending cutting-edge technology, innovative entertainment, and the power of our media platforms, our goal is to deliver the very best in storytelling while reimagining how fans engage with the sports they love. This division embodies our fan-first philosophy and our dedication to delivering a full spectrum of sports entertainment that engages and inspires fans at every level.”
Sports has solidified itself as a critical building block of modern media. While live sports and shoulder programming are still at the heart of that (just look at the NFL’s $111 billion dollar rights deals, or the NBA’s $77 billion haul), sports-adjacent programming has emerged as a powerful genre in its own right.
That includes docuseries that take fans behind the scenes of their favorite teams, leagues or athletes, but also scripted programming with sports at the center. Many athletes have also launched their own production companies, seeking to do more in the entertainment space while leveraging their Rolodexes and knowledge. And of course leagues are fully embracing that content, too, well aware of its ability to drive fandom and engagement.
And sport-adjacent games remain an undertapped resource. While franchises like Madden and NBA2K still hold cultural resonance, there is clearly room to explore more in that space. Paramount is betting that it can leverage Skydance Games to help it more fully take advantage of that opportunity.
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