The Arena Group ousts CEO Ross Levinsohn amid controversy involving Sports Illustrated. Plus: ESPN expands broadcast plans for international MLB games to include Shohei Ohtani Dodgers debut; Netflix is set to air live exhibition match between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz.
The Arena Group fires CEO
The Arena Group, parent company of Sports Illustrated, announced Monday that it has terminated CEO Ross Levinsohn. The company came under fire recently after Futurist reported that publications under The Arena Group umbrella — including SI and finance website TheStreet — used artificial intelligence to write product reviews with bylines from fictitious authors.
Levinsohn will be replaced by Manoj Bhargava, the founder of Five Hour Energy who owns a controlling stake in The Arena Group. Bhargava made headlines last week during a conference call with Arena Group staffers. Per a report from Front Office Sports, Bhargava told employees that “the amount of useless stuff” they do “is staggering” and to “stop doing dumb stuff.”
The Arena Group announced other notable terminations last week including COO Andrew Kraft, media president Rob Barrett, and corporate counsel Julie Fenster. (Business Wire, 12.11)
ESPN announces plans for MLB international series games
ESPN announced Monday that it will carry four Major League Baseball International Series games next season, including the season-opening Dodgers-Padres series from Seoul, South Korea, that will mark the Dodgers debut of Shohei Ohtani. The ESPN telecasts, which will be subject to local blackout in the home markets, are set for March 20 and 21 at 6 AM ET.
In addition to the South Korea series, ESPN will air a game between the Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies from Mexico City on April 28th and a June 9th bout between the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets in London. Save for the London game, the International Series matchups are separate from ESPN’s existing MLB deal and will not count toward the network’s allotment of non-Sunday games. (ESPN, 12.11)
Netflix to air live tennis exhibition
Netflix will continue its trend of one-off live sporting events in March with The Netflix Slam, a tennis exhibition between two of the game’s star players, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, the company announced Monday. The match will take place at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.
Last month, Netflix aired its first live sporting event (dubbed The Netflix Cup), which featured professional golfers from the Full Swing docuseries paired with Formula 1 drivers from Drive to Survive — both Netflix originals.
The Netflix Slam marks the next move in the company’s dalliance with live sports. While having shown muted interest for live rights in the past, the streamer has not been seen as a serious contender for blue chip sports rights, instead choosing to focus on sports adjacent shoulder programming and now, one-off events. (Netflix, 12.11)
