Michael Hill

Mike Hill focuses his practice on transactional and advisory work in the media and sports industries.  His practice encompasses content licensing and distribution agreements, media rights agreements, joint ventures, technology licensing and services agreements, the media and intellectual property-related aspects of corporate transactions, various types of intellectual property licenses, and other media-related strategic and advisory work.

Mike has particular expertise in sports media transactions, and has worked on many of the largest and most groundbreaking sports media transactions in recent years, including:

• Represented the NFL in its 11-year, $110 billion media rights agreements with CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN and Amazon.
• Represented the NBA in its 11-year, $76 billion national media rights agreements with ABC/ESPN, NBCUniversal and Amazon.
• Represented the NFL in its NFL Sunday Ticket license agreement with YouTube.
• Represented Major League Soccer in its media rights agreement with Apple, providing access to all MLS games through the Apple TV streaming service.
• Represented the NCAA in its 8-year, $920 million agreement with ESPN for global media rights to 40 NCAA championships.
• Represented the USTA in its 12-year, $2 billion agreement with ESPN for domestic and international media rights to the US Open Tennis Championships.
• Represented the PGA of America in its 11-year agreements with CBS and ESPN for media rights to the PGA Championship.
• Represented various professional sports teams (such as the Chicago Cubs, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Phoenix Suns, the Utah Jazz and the Portland Trail Blazers) in their local television rights and direct-to-consumer streaming agreements.

Mike also has significant experience in complex television and video streaming distribution agreements, including retransmission consent agreements, cable and satellite affiliation agreements, direct-to-consumer streaming agreements and app distribution agreements.  His practice extends across all platforms (including broadcast, cable, satellite and streaming) and business models (including pay television, SVOD, AVOD, FAST channels and other forms of streaming distribution).