Last week, I enjoyed joining 100+ C-suite Media, Sports, and Entertainment leaders at a Media and Entertainment Summit hosted by Proskauer Rose LLP and Drake Star for an evening in NYC.
We discussed VC and PE investments and M&A in media and entertainment.
Couple walk aways:
- Investors are still concerned about sports property values, whether it’s a bubble, and when reality will kick in. (Spoiler alert - I don’t think they will pop any time soon.)
- Still laughing at one of the panelists equating sports ownership to owning a restaurant and how challenging it can be.
- Hot on everyone’s mind is the NFL opening up to allow Private Equity stakes in teams. Every time this got brought up, Arctos was referenced - it makes me even more proud to be working with them.
- We spoke about Local rights and how media rights continue to escalate - no shocker there with NBA closing $75B in media rights.
- Still Fresh on the minds was how certain companies and sectors are adjusting post-covid and seemed to be in every lesson learned answer from every panelist
- When networking, there was a notable change in how investors leaned toward sports technology - I noticed some were incredibly well-versed.
- However, some investors from more well-known investment firms were still early in formulating their thoughts across the space, indicating a lot of new players leaning in.
- Another room of people laughing at what the hell is happening with cookies and advertising
- CTV is top of mind for everyone, and we’re all watching the bundling and unbundling to see what works
- The one thing no one denied was that measurement was ripe for disruption.
- Last but not least, Ryan Moore might be the favorite investor panelist of all time.
Special thanks to Rob Freeman, Gregory Bedrosian, Mohit Pareek, CFA, & Jan Deahl, and the fantastic panelists for your time and hospitality and for bringing our community together.
Excited to see our industry continue to thrive and more investors lean into the power of passion-based marketing and attention economy.