Despite limited fans in stadiums and a global pandemic, the NFL managed to raise national revenues by $422.4 million in 2020 to almost $10 billion.

The numbers come from The Athletic’s story on the Green Bay Packers’ annual earnings report on Friday. The Packers are the only publicly-owned NFL team and are required to post earnings.

Because the NFL shares national revenues equally across its 32 teams, Green Bay’s figures provide some insight into what’s going on with the rest of the league.

• Despite their first operating loss in over 20 years, the Packers reported national revenues of $309.2 million, placing the league’s combined national revenues at $9.89 billion.
• National revenues mostly consist of TV and sponsorships deals.
• Local revenues — primarily ticket, merchandise, and concession sales — aren’t shared across the league. The Packers’ dropped to $61 million in 2020 from $210 million the year prior.

Green Bay’s investment fund posted a $98 million gain, benefiting from strong markets throughout the year and leading the team to a net profit of $60.7 million.

In March, the NFL signed a new $113 billion media rights deal, which goes into effect for the 2023-2033 seasons.

Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy is confident in the team’s future, citing “the long-term broadcast agreements” as a major factor.

Linear TV isn’t dead yet, and Dish Network is betting on network upgrades to draw viewers to its sports content and other packages.

The company will pay AT&T at least $5 billion to be its primary network services provider for a decade.

Dish has leveraged its sports programming, including ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS Sports, and the BeIn Network, as it tries to fend off streaming challengers.

“We continue to experience increased competition, including competition from other subscription video on-demand and live-linear OTT service providers,” Dish wrote in its first-quarter earnings filing.

• The company took in $4.5 billion in Q1, compared to $3.2 billion in the same period last year, a drop the company attributed in part to delayed and canceled sports.
• Dish lost 230,000 subscribers across its DishTV and Sling TV networks in Q1, compared to 412,000 in Q1 2020.

The nonexclusive deal displaces T-Mobile as Dish Network’s main network provider. The pact is expected to boost Dish Network’s rollout of 5G technology and expansion into rural networks.

The deal continues AT&T’s major pivot from a content provider to a content facilitator. The telecom company is spinning off WarnerMedia in a $43 billion merger with Discovery. DirecTV is selling off $3.1 billion in junk bonds to facilitate its split from AT&T.

Tencent continues to expand as a global force in video games, acquiring British company Sumo Group for $1.27 billion.

Tencent already owned 8.75% of Sumo Group, and the sale price represents a 43% markup on the company’s market value last Friday. Its stock price rocketed up by that same percentage after the deal was announced. 

Sumo Digital, the company’s core studio, worked with Sony on its Playstation 5 launch title “Sackboy: A Big Adventure” and with Microsoft on “Crackdown 3.”

With a market cap of $680 billion, Tencent is aggressively extending its reach across industries.

• In June, Tencent took a majority stake in Berlin-based gamemaker Yager. 
• The company invested in 62 gaming companies in the first half of this year.
• Last week, it received the blessing of Chinese regulators to fully acquire the search engine Sogou, a competitor to China’s top search company Baidu. 

However, Tencent’s expansion hit a roadblock when its planned $5.3 billion merger of China’s top two video game streaming sites, Huya and DouYu, was blocked by Chinese regulators. It owns around one-third of each company.

Just days after confirmation of a $760 million funding round, McLaren announced plans to raise another $620 million in a bond issue.

The transactions are subject to conditions, with the bond issue expected to be classified as one of the lowest-rated types of debt.

It’s not immediately clear how the new fundraising will affect equity distribution.

Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund held 56% of McLaren’s ordinary shares and 68% of its preference shares as recently as April.

• As part of the new $760 million round, the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund and Ares Management invested $550 million in preference shares and equity warrants. Existing shareholders and a “limited number” of new private investors agreed to invest the rest of the amount.
• At the end of last year, MSP Sports Capital said it would acquire a 15% stake in McLaren’s racing division over two years for $247 million at a $746 million valuation.

McLaren is aiming for all new cars to be hybrids by 2026. Its racing division will compete in Extreme E as the 10th team of the five-race series.

In Q1 2021, McLaren completed a $261 million strategic investment in McLaren Racing to fully fund its teams through 2023. The same quarter, it reported $260 million in revenue.