We Speak Financials

The Playoff Doubles, and ESPN Pays for Every Extra Game

Published

4 days ago

November 11, 2026

The College Football Playoff national championship trophy on the sideline. Photo by Legoktm, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The College Football Playoff is about to get a lot bigger, and ESPN is paying for the growth. The network and the Playoff announced an expanded media rights agreement on Monday, November 9, that makes ESPN the exclusive worldwide rightsholder to a 24 team playoff starting with the 2027 season. The current 12 team format has only been in place since 2024, and the money is already moving again.

The new agreement runs five years and is valued at nearly $1.7 billion, according to reports by ESPN and On3. That figure sits on top of the six year, $7.8 billion contract the two sides signed in March 2024, which keeps ESPN as the Playoff’s lone media partner through the 2031-32 season. ESPN’s Heather Dinich was first to report the news, and On3’s Pete Nakos reported that ESPN will pay an additional $345 million per year for the expanded field.

The math behind the deal is simple. Doubling the field from 12 teams to 24 grows the number of playoff games ESPN holds from 11 to 23, and every one of those extra games is inventory the network can sell to advertisers and use to anchor its winter schedule. Disney Advertising will continue as the exclusive seller of the Playoff’s Official Sponsor Program, and ESPN keeps the right to sublicense select games, as it already does with TNT Sports under a deal announced in May 2024.

The expansion comes with a trade. The Power 4 conference championship games will be eliminated beginning next season, and ESPN currently holds the rights to the SEC, ACC and Big 12 title games. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported the network would get roughly $140 million back as part of that change. The CFP has not formally released its bracket structure yet. The first 24 team field is set to be announced on November 28, 2027, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. What is settled is the direction of the business: more playoff games, one exclusive partner, and a rights bill that keeps climbing.

We Speak Financials

Paramount Posts Its First Numbers After the $110 Billion Warner Bros. Deal

Published

4 days ago

November 11, 2026

We Speak Media

The Melrose Gate at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood. Photo by Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Paramount has given Wall Street its first look at life after the biggest merger in entertainment. In its third quarter earnings report on Monday, November 9, the first since closing the $110 billion combination with Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount reported a profit of $73 million on revenue of $7 billion, as growth in streaming and the studio business offset continued declines in traditional television.

The streaming numbers carry the report. Paramount+ revenue grew 21 percent to $2.13 billion, and the service added 600,000 subscribers in the quarter to reach 82.2 million. Counted together, Paramount+, HBO and HBO Max now reach 203 million subscribers worldwide. The direct to consumer business as a whole posted a profit of $225 million, with revenue up 11 percent to $2.5 billion. The studio segment was the other bright spot, with profit of $129 million and revenue up 23 percent to $1.5 billion, helped by licensing and content produced for third parties.

The merger math is where the pressure sits. Skydance shared plans to generate at least $6 billion in cost savings across areas including real estate, labor, technology, marketing and procurement. Because the Warner Bros. Discovery deal did not close until the fourth quarter, its results were not consolidated into this report, so the combined company’s real baseline arrives next quarter.

The product roadmap is already set. HBO Max and Paramount+ will launch as a bundle in early 2027 and will be merged onto the same technology backend within the first year after closing. Starting in the fourth quarter, the company will also stop disclosing subscriber numbers on a quarterly basis, a change that shifts attention from subscriber counts to revenue and profit per user.

Paramount said it remains on track for the high end of its 2026 profitability forecast of $3.9 billion. The next report, with Warner Bros. Discovery fully inside the numbers, is the one that shows whether the merger math works.