Sports Media Roundtable with The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn and Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal. Plus, CNBC media reporter Alex Sherman on the WWE/Endeavor merger

Episode 291 of the Sports Media Podcast features a roundtable discussion with The Boston Globe sports media writer Chad Finn and Sports Business Journal assistant managing editor/digital Austin Karp. They are followed by Alex Sherman, a media reporter for CNBC. In this podcast, Karp and Finn discuss LSU’s win over Iowa in the NCAA women’s basketball championship– the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever; what the viewership numbers mean in context; the future of women’s basketball as a media play; Jim Nantz signing off from the Final Four; the men’s tournament viewership number; the shortening of MLB games thanks to the rule changes; news-breakers on Sports Twitter; and more. Sherman discusses the WWE merging with UFC to form a new publicly traded company controlled by Endeavor Group; why Endeavor wanted this deal; why WWE wanted it; whether there are legit synergies between the two; the valuation of the deal; the upcoming media rights for ‘Raw’ and ‘SmackDown,’ and UFC; the WWE’s intellectual property; Vince McMahon’s future in the new company; where things stand with the NBA's upcoming media rights negotiations, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more.