It doesn’t have a name yet, but there’s a new media company in the works that will be bigger than Netflix.

TNT, TBS, and Bleacher Report are among the many major media assets transferring to a new parent company as AT&T spins off WarnerMedia and merges it with Discovery. The combined company is expected to have a market value around $130 billion.

WarnerMedia and Discovery combined for $41 billion in sales and over $10 billion in operating profit last year — more than Netflix ($25 billion in 2020 revenue) and NBCUniversal ($28 billion). 

With TNT and TBS, the new media monolith will inherit NBA and NHL media rights including playoff games through 2024-2025 and 2027-2028, respectively. MLB coverage runs through 2028 at $535 million per year. The NBA’s deal with Turner Sports is believed to be for around $2.6 billion annually.

• WarnerMedia also includes CNN, HBO, streaming service HBO MAX, comic giant DC, and Warner Bros.
• Discovery owns its namesake channel and streaming service Discovery+, along with HGTV, the Food Network, Animal Planet, and Oprah Winfrey’s OWN.

The move is an abrupt about-face for AT&T, which spent $85 billion on Time Warner less than three years ago.

AT&T will receive $43 billion in the deal, which splits the new entity 71% to 29% between AT&T and Discovery’s shareholders.

Just a month after closing a $1.5 billion SPAC deal to go public, Genius Sports continues to develop its global data ecosystem.

Ahead of its earnings call this Thursday, the London-based company announced that it will begin providing real-time statistics for the NBA’s Basketball Africa League. The sports technology company has a $3.2 billion market capitalization and reported $47 million in revenue in its fiscal Q4 — a 27.6% increase from the same time last year.

All eyes were on the BAL during its inaugural tip-off over the weekend. Rapper J. Cole was trending after making his professional basketball debut with Rwanda Patriots just two days after releasing his sixth studio album, “The Off-Season.”

The NBA’s flagship effort in Africa joins a growing list of organizations Genius has recently partnered with or purchased:

• May 7: Acquired Second Spectrum for $200 million
• May 3: Announced it would buy F2P game provider FanHub
• April 20: Completed a $1.5 billion merger with dMY Technology Group
• April 2: Announced exclusive NFL rights for $120 million per year in a six-year deal

BAL games will air in 215 countries and territories across ESPN, beIN SPORTS, and NBA TV, among others. Nike and Jordan Brand each produced six uniforms for the league’s 12 teams.

A docuseries on the league’s first season is also under way, directed by South African director Tebogo Malope.

Rally, a pioneer in fractionalized sports collectible investments, raised $30 million in Series B funding led by VC firm Accel, one of the early backers of Facebook.  

Due to the growing popularity of collectibles — estimates put the industry’s value at around $6 billion — Rally saw more participation across its platform in Q1 2021 than in all of 2020 combined, a 575% increase compared to the same period a year before. 

How the app works: 

• Rally acquires one-of-a-kind items — like the game-worn sneakers gifted to LeBron James by Kobe Bryant that it bought for $156,000 in February.
• From there, the collectible is split into shares.
• The shares are offered to Rally users as equity investments.

Another plus? It’s safe. After a fight broke out in a Target parking lot over collectibles, the retailer halted all sales of MLB, NFL, NBA, and Pokémon trading cards. 

Rally has now raised more than $50 million from investors that include Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Grammy-winning rapper Nas. 

Ohanian is an established investor in collectibles, helping NFT marketplace Sorare raise $50 million through his VC firm, Seven Seven Six. Nas recently invested in Underdog Fantasy through his VC firm, QueensBridge Venture Partners.