ESPN, NFL Reportedly Strike Billion-Dollar Media Deal

ESPN is set to acquire NFL RedZone and other top NFL Media holdings, according to a report from The Athletic, with an official announcement expected next week. In return, the NFL will receive as much as 10% equity in ESPN, potentially worth billions of dollars. The deal, which will require regulatory approval, will also reportedly include NFL Network, seven additional regular-season games, and the league’s fantasy football business. Disney, ESPN’s parent company, has its earnings call this coming Wednesday.

Apple TV+ is preparing to unveil a first-of-its-kind music competition series called KPOPPED, produced by Lionel Richie and Megan Thee Stallion. Top K-pop artists will team up with Western music greats like TLC, Kylie Minogue, Patti LaBelle, and Boy George from Culture Club for song battles that will be judged by a live audience in Seoul, South Korea. Megan will also serve as host alongside Korean pop superstar PSY. All eight episodes will drop on Aug. 29.

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight will pen the 26th James Bond film, Amazon MGM Studios announced Friday. Gushing that writing a Bond film has always been a bucket list item, Knight was mum on who would play the world’s most famous spy, but asserted his love for the franchise “will sort of be imbued into me and I’ll be able to produce something that’s the same but different and better and stronger and bolder.”

As Prada prepares for its largest men’s fragrance launch with Paradigme, the brand has appointed Tom Holland as its global Prada Beauty ambassador for the rollout. With base notes of mostly balms – Peru balm absolute, benzoin resin, and guaiac wood – it’s certainly meant to evoke sophistication. Paradigme is on sale now, and WWD reports it could bring in about €200 million in retail sales during its first year.

Nintendo reported an 18.6% jump in net profit for its first fiscal quarter on Friday, crediting strong demand for its new Switch 2 console. The Japanese video game maker revealed Switch 2 sales now total 5.82 million units and quarterly sales more than doubled to ¥572.36 billion ($3.8 billion) compared to ¥246.6 billion (about $1.6 billion) for the same period last year. Nintendo added it’s still forecasting to hit 15 million Switch 2 sales by the end of its 2026 financial year.

Meta is on a quest to change how we use a keyboard and mouse with the introduction of a wearable device that could replace the two. Developed by Reality Labs, the new smart bracelet can identify tiny electrical signals from the user’s wrist muscles thanks to surface electromyography (sEMG). Powered by AI, the wristband can interpret moves like tapping, swiping, or even drawing letters in the air or on a surface.

U.S. employers added just 73,000 jobs last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while the unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.2% from 4.1% in June. The Labor Department also announced downward modifications for job growth from May and June, which they called “larger than normal.” The revised report shows the economy added just 19,000 in May, not the 144,000 the government initially reported. June job gains were updated to 14,000 from the 147,000 first estimated. In total, employment over the prior two months is 258,000 lower than previously reported.

The MLB All-Star Game is returning to Wrigley Field in 2027, Major League Baseball confirmed Friday. Home of the Chicago Cubs, it marks the fourth All-Star Game played at Wrigley and the first since 1990. The 2026 competition will be in Philadelphia after a successful All-Star Weekend in Atlanta this season.

Iconic rom-com The Holiday is getting a series order, with The Hollywood Reporter saying it will air on Apple TV+. Krissie Ducker and Rob Delaney will co-write the adaptation, which will follow the same storyline as the 2006 flick but with new characters, with Ducker also serving as an executive producer. Nancy Meyers – who wrote, produced, and directed the original – is not attached to the series.

Stanford announced Thursday the hiring of John Donahoe as its new athletic director. A 1968 MBA Stanford graduate, the ex-Nike CEO has twice held a position on the business school’s advisory board. Prior to Nike, Donahoe was president and later the CEO of eBay, the board chair of PayPal, and a longtime partner at top management consulting firm Bain & Company.

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