By: Ed Desser and John Kosner
Three years ago, while walking to dinner before the first NBA Cup, Ed posed a question: “Should we write a book?”
John loved the idea. Together, we’ve written about fifty SBJ columns, designed to be insightful, provocative, and fun. They’ve been generally well-received. Earlier in our careers, we were both influenced by “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School,” by legendary IMG founder Mark McCormack. We loved Mark’s anecdotes and strategies; he was truly “in the room where it happened,” which informed our later time in similar rooms.
Perhaps we could write that type of book … together.
Our subject was clear: there is no book that explains holistically how the sports media business works, who the key players are, or what really matters, even though annually it’s a $50+ billion behemoth. Yes, there are books about sports and personalities by famous announcers like Al Michaels. Our friend and former colleague Bob Iger wrote a bestseller about his career at Disney. And Jim Miller and Tom Shales created an ESPN “oral” history, “Those Guys Have All the Fun.” Yet, nothing for the millions of fans, sports management/business students, or young sports business employees explains how all the pieces of sports media fit together … until today.
We’re Live! Inside the BIG Business of Sports Media is now available.
Our goals are: sharing the respective learnings from our 50-year careers; explaining an industry that is widely known but, ironically, little understood; giving back to the industry; and paying homage to our extraordinary boss, mentor, and visionary NBA leader, David Stern, to whom we owe a considerable debt.
There are many things the book is not. It’s neither a traditional textbook or history, nor a “tell-all” designed to garner headlines and expose misdeeds by embarrassing people. Rather, it’s a combination of inside explanation, historical perspective, and storytelling from our actual business experiences that focuses on today’s industry and where it’s headed. We share many little-known stories and anecdotes designed to help frame the information, amuse, inform, and bring the subject vividly to life.
“We’re Live!” is built around our core business tenets/philosophies:
- Sports have almost always been undervalued and continue to grow in media preeminence worldwide. It has this singular ability to unite significant audiences in real-time, while predictably delivering compelling narratives, what “Acquired” podcasters Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal describe as its “true uncertainty.”
- There is still significant room for relative growth and incremental improvement in sports media. We’re fans of creating (and shamelessly copying) best practices.
- Scarcity to abundance. The “three-network (only)” weekend afternoon sports world of our early careers has given way to today’s mind-numbing explosion of 24/7 content and platform alternatives.
- Unlike entertainment, which is increasingly commoditized, Sports is unique and not replicable by AI. Tech giants like Amazon and Google are spending billions on NFL media rights for a reason.
- Strong centralized leadership is crucial to success… We’ve lived it! The most successful sports entities over recent decades have been those led by many of the most visionary leaders.
- Relationships really matter. Albeit a BIG business, sports is all about people and it’s a surprisingly small cottage industry. Knowledge, trust, reputation and enduring friendships, not just money, truly matter in getting things done and moving ahead!
We divided the book into seven sections:
- Industry Basics: What’s most crucial about programming? How content sellers and buyers (now including streamers) are each structured. What differentiates the most popular/valuable properties, and why sports is a must-buy for advertisers;
- Deal-Making: Behind the scenes, focusing on the details of what’s inside hundred-page+ media rights agreements, including a myriad of vital, non-financial elements. How rights are denominated and negotiated. Beyond the financial consideration, the overarching significance of media deals to sports organizations. There’s even a step-by-step explanation of how to value rights, two separate ways;
- Operations: From our experiences working daily in the sports business, focusing on storylines and production, promotion, strategic scheduling, ad sales; and, vitally, developing and nurturing relationships like the original NBA on NBC partnership;
- Technology: The overarching importance of technology propelling the value of the sports business, its presentation, and operations, including a historical arc for perspective, and sharing learnings from John’s 15-year tenure running ESPN.com;
- Leadership: Why vision is essential to advancing the business. Recognition of those that we argue made the biggest difference (our “Mount Rushmore”), and many important things we learned from David Stern;
- Future: As the industry continues to innovate in ever-faster ways, we’re studying trends, the novel influence of the next generation of fans, the importance of interfaces and integrity in sports, and possible industry danger signs; plus
- Careers: Our thoughts on preparing, getting started and succeeding in the business, with insights gleaned from our respective individual and collective stories.
To write a book in 2026, much less one partially targeted to younger readers, is practically a quaint notion. Who still reads books? Our hope is that it ultimately becomes a vital resource. For us, the goal is a living document. The feedback we receive from you and our other readers will sharpen our own understanding and hopefully contribute to future improved products and editions. Like the industry, it’s been a BIG (!) undertaking for us to get here. But we are better for it and excited to have our book out in the marketplace.
Ed Desser was the NBA’s senior media executive for 23 years. Today he’s President of Desser Sports Media Inc. John Kosner was ESPN’s senior digital media executive and is now President of Kosner Media. Their book, “We’re Live! Inside the BIG Business of Sports Media” is now available at www.werelivebook.com.
