Are You Not Entertained?

Jon Miller - President of NBC Sports Programming joins The Captain this week. One of the most influential and powerful executives in North American sport - Jon Miller is the man responsible for NBC”s and Peacock’s extraordinary sports broadcasting - including the Olympic Games, The English Premier League, the NBA and NHL. We learn about Jon’s own passion for sport - golf, tennis and American football - and his own talent - for sand up comedy. The sow is brought to you by Fortnum & Mason and The Sponsorship Doctor.

Roger Mitchell and Mark Oliver welcome Mike Darcey, former strategic brain behind Sky and ex‑CEO of News UK, for a deep dive into the messy frontier where sport rights, streaming and regulation collide. Using Rupert Murdoch’s quiet war on the NFL as a starting point, they unpack 60 years of antitrust logic, why “no single buyer” rules gave fans more packages but not always better value, and whether in an era of apps, clips and ubiquitous coverage it’s time to let one player own the whole shop again or accept that regulating modern media might simply be impossible to do well.

This week’s Goal Own Goal is a special World Cup edition that starts with Trump somehow picking a public fight with Giorgia Meloni and ends with England suddenly playing like a 1990s Premier League side under Tuchel instead of suffering through another Southgate straitjacket.  Grant and Roger chew over England–Croatia, the weird thrill of not knowing which England will turn up, the fine art of not antagonising Italian women, and why “results merchants” on the touchline eventually get found out when the football stops being any fun.  Brough to you by Lockeroom

In this episode of The Confessional, Roger Mitchell sits down with Ray Ranson for a frank conversation about the move from football to business, and the harder lessons that came with it.  Ray reflects on the ruthless side of life in deals, the pressure of keeping a game face, the painful lesson of backing a pioneering sports tech deal that had the vision but not the pricing power to match.  It’s a conversation about ambition, regret, and the cost of getting things wrong before you finally learn how to get them right. Brought to you by Lockeroom.

This week’s Goal Own Goal swings from Roland Garros heat exhaustion and prize-money grumbling to the usual grand tour of football’s modern absurdities: Celtic’s managerial politics, Arsenal’s latest lesson in defending like their lives depend on it, PSG’s triumph, women’s football still waiting for the promised mass audience, and FIFA’s relentless mission to turn the World Cup into a luxury product for people who don’t actually enjoy football. Grant and Roger do what they do best here — tear into the financial hype, skewer the ego-driven suits, and remind everyone that the game still works best when it stays messy, tribal, and gloriously uninterested in being a “platform." Brought to you by Lockeroom